Men's 3.0 Cupertino, Sunnyvale 6.0 Mixed -- 2011

With the men's 3.0 I had two great captains. Kiran at Cupertino was totally relaxed about a group of mostly developmental players finding it heavy going in a very tough flight, and helped players view this as a way of "playing up" and developing their game. This did happen and if we can get the bulk of the players back next year I am confident Cupertino can put out a competitive team. Many of the Courtside, LGSR, and Decathlon players should get bumped up if USTA is still in control of its algorythms. I think there's medication they can take for that these days.

Terry G, captain at Gilroy, has the knack, which I think I had with the Sunnyvale Bees mixed team, as does Thom over at Los Gatos SR, of putting together pairings that win more often than lose. Ours was not a team with star players, heavy hitters, or big servers. But somehow the chemistry on the court seemed to work so well.

Our captain helmed a steady ship and made astute pairings with a relatively small roster of available players. This was one of the best and most enjoyable teams I have played for, even though I came in late to try to save them from a default. That didn't happen in the end, but I knew immediately that this was going to be a team to identify with. Plus a team that assigns not just one, but two players, to bring the beer and wine, is already a winner in my book!

For those of us that stay the same rating next year it would be excellent to do a Gilroy M3.0 2012. Unless the club attracts new players, though, it may be that Morgan Hill will effectively absorb the Gilroy players and take on the sole mantle for M3.0 in the south county. If so, I will miss GTC 3.0.

One of two Gilroy home courts resurfaced in early summer 2011

I'm sure everyone who had some time to watch (not me unfortunately) enjoyed Wimbledon.

Besides missing most of Wimbers but catching a lot of the Women's World Cup, I've been playing my own tennis matches, along with practices and lessons, and that's been very much center stage.

At the end of the day [to use David Beckham's favorite phrase] I'm certainly not complaining about the generous menu of activities. But it's never been more essential to plan a month to get the best out of each day. And then of course there's actual life, what happens in spite of all the careful planning.

Webcam captures an SV B's practice 10pm and still going strong

Sunnyvale Bees 6.0 mixed makes the playoffs: wins & loses one

The mixed 6.0 regular season started January 10, 2011 and ran and ran -- and with the rain -- ran even more. Somewhere in America the nationals are still being battled out apparently -- I think the team with the last player who hasn't actually died of old age by the time it's done is declared the winner, but he/she has suffered so much memory loss by then, so has no clue what they're banging on about!

The now famous Sunnyvale Bees (MX6.0) mixed doubles team made it to the playoffs, but the big achievement was that we won our first playoff in a shock result that raised eyebrows in the local tennis world, before succumbing to the entity every other team seemed to dislike to varying degrees, the Sunnyvale A.

We started with a home loss to them, a team cherry picked to try to go through to nationals, using fair means and foul unfortunately. So no big surprise there.

Against "real" 6.0 mixed opponents we bounced back with positive showings against Central Park, Cuesta, and Mountain View. Support for both teams was great at the Cuesta match, and Mtn View was a good day out for us, even the spectators got to play as well as watch. Can't say this team doesn't give value for money!

Thanks everyone on both sides for making those events memorable and worthwhile. A solid start to the season.

Our home match with San Carlos was the first of our season to be rained off, rescheduled for late March.

We then went to Mango Park on Feb 26th and met with our second defeat, but this time against a team who were realistically rated and playing fair, with a good bunch of players well paired.

On another day it could have gone our way as most of the pairings tilted in favor of either side periodically, but it was to be the day of the Mangoloids (B movie coming soon).

We then went 3:3 with the first reverse fixture as we "traveled" to what is also our home courts for Sunnyvale A. I'll leave it to you to guess what the "A" stands for. Hey, you guessed right!

Again they lived up to their dodgy reputation. This time we took a match-up off them and when you consider how seriously they want to roll over everyone, their frailties showed through and they all of a sudden did not look like a team that was psychologically equiped to go all the way [they made the sectionals and then got dumped, sandbaggers 'n all, by Benicia --Ed. upate]. Our players were great that day.

B's player/fans brave a cold snap at Mango Pk

Two days later we welcomed Central Park to our Las Palmas courts on a Monday night and we won 3:0 against a mostly developmental side. I presented Bob with a bottle of official organic B's wine as thanks for taking us out to dinner when we went up to San Mateo, and a good time was had by all.

We managed to beat the rain to face Cuesta away on Wed 3/16 so we have only had one match rained off so far this season, meaning we have played several more matches than many of our rivals, but our 3:0 win at Cuesta took us to second in the league table.

As usual our players did well. In addition, Cuesta are a terrific group of developing tennis talents who really made us feel welcome, provided nice food including an excellent home-made salad from their captain, and it's just a real pleasure to interact with them. They seem very much like us, a group of tennis friends who formed a team and like to treat everyone within the proper spirit of the competition.

Late March and early April saw the B's take on San Carlos both home and away in succession and each time we prevailed 2:1. However they are a better team than their record of no wins (at that time, they did win one later) suggested, in fact away from home, even when we were given a default, the result was in question when the deciding match-up went down to the wire. In the super tiebreaker we led 9-5 only to concede five consecutive points, leaving us at the mercy of their male player's big serve. He double faulted and we went on to eke out the very narrow victory.

However one day after that match we sent shock waves throughout the flight as we beat one of the "big two", Mango Park, by 2:1. We seem to like that score. The champagne flowed freely to celebrate the B's making the playoffs and earning this major upset.

We played our final regular season match on April 25 at home to Mountain View and went down to a 1:2 loss, however we had already made the playoffs.

Poise, style, & great legs: must be captain Rob!

Indeed, in playoff #1 we bounced right back with another shock win at Mango Park early in the morning on Mother's Day. They were a team designed to do well, yet we played like lions that day (they did too) so it was hard fought but with Joe, Luba, Sergey, Vivian, Vinayak, and Jean all playing well, we prevailed in a very exciting encounter. We had now gone further than I could have believed. I always felt the playoffs were a goal for the Bees, but to win a playoff showed a captain, team, and players all punching above their weight. I atribute it mainly to fantastic team spirit and that we all enjoyed hitting together.

So into the second and final playoff of our flight we went, against one of the most stacked teams ever assembled, so we had no illusions going in, that this would be our toughest fight ever, and so it proved. Two of the match-ups could have gone either way, and we missed some of the best players on our roster that day, so they had all advanced players for this level against our hybrid mix of upper level talent along with developmental players.

They had at least one self-rated male 3.0 that was a 4.0 [one of their worst offenders had his wins subsequently disqualified in the men's league, but did not affect his falsely gained results in our mixed league], and this is where it can spoil the league for everyone else. I will be far more outspoken when I encounter this, and other forms of bending or breaking the rules, again, in the future, in the interest of keeping the league ethical with proper, contestable match-ups.

In a player's first outing as Captain, he or she is really learning the ropes for the future and getting familiar with which battles need to be fought, and what can be let to slide.

It's unfortunate but there is a small but disruptive minority of league players who do not think about the ramifications of their actions, and one or two team leaders and co-captains quite willing to behave unethically. To balance that and to be fair -- the great majority of people in the club world are of high quality. But you have to challenge the former types to maintain the league as a worthwhile component of recreational tennis, and I am glad to see USTA Norcal is making some efforts to keep blatant cheating in check.

As far as playing goes, it's all about getting experience and improving, and we came out of it stronger and better.

More important than winning and losing is the fact that many of us have met new high quality tennis friends of both genders, in addition to continuing to play with tennis pals we have now known for several years. I know I will be hitting both USTA and even more socially with people from this Bees team for many years to come.

Time constraints meant that I did not captain a men's 3.0 team, although I am playing for Cupertino, whose courts are a seven minute walk from my current principal residence. In addition, I play for Gilroy 3.0 and have met some more great people and getting lots of playing time, having such a small roster.

I do hope to captain another mixed team next year, as the MX season moves from winter to summer.

Meanwhile, the men's and women's season is long underway and is proving, as always, interesting and competitive.

Please revisit this column for more edits and occasional additions, because there's enough material in my captain emails to create a novel that all club league players could relate to.