100 Games of Padel

6-0 6-1 6-0 Rating: Seal Clubbing (given) Venue: Playtomic Barn Father's Day but I tried to fit in a Padel game. First attempt didn't work, we got up to 3 players. One left for another game, got up to 3 again but the clock ran out. Second attempt there were two lower level players so I joined on the opposite side. Then the guy I played with the last time at Playtomic joined and I kinda felt a bit anxious for our opponents. Not many games, ratings quite low, the signs were that they would be raw. And they were. I played smart, controlled Padel and my partner had a great close range smash that closed out the points. First set was over very quickly, second was a bit trickier, we were 0-1 down and on star point before running away with it from there. 3rd Set also quite quick. There were a few games where it got to deuce but we managed to close out from there. Really hot though! Because of experience, We/I didn't have to run that much but our opposition were ran ragged and flagg...

6 -2 4-6 0-1 Rating: Curate's Egg Venue: Centre Court So near yet so far. 3 players at a similar level and 1 a little bit below meant that we switched teams at each set but the result was never really in doubt each time. Still it was good to play with the OG of work padel and also to help the less experienced player get 4 games on our set together. You can tell that the rallies went on for quite a while but it was usually an unforced error that finished it.  We had one deuce in the last set that must have went on for 12 Deuces. Given the heat, everyone was tired at that point.  So it was good but it's a shame when one player is lower than the rest, they end up feeling a bit dispirited when it's not all on them. There was one at 4-4 in the second set when I tried to send a serve return parallel but the serve had spin, it just hit the fence and I just knew that game was over. My partner was good for 2 unforced errors a game so if I added to the tally then it was usually curta...

  6-2 6-1 6-3 Rating: Lovely if a bit mushy Venue: The Beach Playing with people from work, we rotated the teams after each set and I managed to win all three sets. Yaaaaaasss. After forgetting my racquet last week and being forced to use a random one, I took my old racquet today (with fresh overgrip) to try out. It's a pretty basic Kuikma Comfort compared to my usual Kuikma Carbon Hybrid. Still shouldn't make a difference right? It was mushy and underpowered. Like seriously. I lost the first two games while I adjusted to it and my partner held serve in the third game singlehandedly pretty much. Still once I got used to it, it was fine. I just tried to keep the point alive, avoid unforced errors and be a platform for my partners. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, some cracking shots from everyone involved on a nice day and where we managed to fit in 3 sets into the hour. I don't think I had any stunning shots but my consistency was my strong point. The focus in this game was to ...

6-1 4-6 6-3 Rating: Absolute Cinema Venue: Playtomic Barn I really like a Sunday night game of Padel as a way of squeezing all the juice out of the weekend. I had nothing planned but saw an hour long game with two guys I'd played with before a long time ago. Usual Partner couldn't make it so it was left up to chance and the partner of the guy with the broken glasses scooped up the spot. This was excellent as I thought his rating was much lower than it should have been and he had some excellent smashes when we played against them. Down to business and my partner arrives literally straight from another game, maybe thinking that he was going to have a nice wee hour long knockabout but instead he walked into a 90 minute epic. We started off very very strong and soon raced to a 5-0 lead, our opponents got a game back (on Silver Point) but we managed to serve out the set. I was playing left side and playing very well, lots of passing shots, accurate lobs and lots of overhead winners....

6-2 3-6 6-0 Rating: Kinda Fast Fours Venue: Centre Court Following that frustration I was eager to play.  So eager that I left my racquet at home and was using one of the "club" ones. I picked the least destroyed and set about it. On analysing the video of my Set Horriblis I thought that my ground strokes were powder puff and so that was the thing I was concentrating on. land it on or behind the service line. 60% of the time it worked 100% of the time. Especially initially, I was able to take the net with ease on the back of deep ground strokes. My partner initially was one of the guys in El Classico and he played well after some initial overhitting. Was surprised we wrapped up the set so quickly against my usual partner and the cricket player Padel Player. Second set, we swapped teams and I was with the cricket playing Padel Player. He has a habit of keeping the racquet by his side and then heaving a lob to silly mid wicket. but he tends to back further and further up agains...

3-6 6-0 4-2 Rating: Frustration Venue: Playtomic Barn Played at Playtomic and the first set was without a doubt the worst I have played in a long long time. Powder puff, unforced errors, broken in 3 service games. Me and my partner played absolute trash. Start of the second set, we are 2-0 up and disaster, our opponet's glasses fall off and snap clean in half. He comes back 12 mins later with some tape on them but by that time the game is gone, we only had 60 mins. We spanked them in that set (at some points the guy played without his patched up glasses) 3rd set we had very little time to play, should have done a tiebreak but I thought that it was harsh on the guy with the broken glasses. Was happy to enter no result. We play out the set and SHOCK run out of time. Scores get entered, it's marked as a draw and I lose points because we should have beaten them.  I'm just glad it's over, 60 mins isn't long enough there. the 12 minute delay was ridiculous, I played absol...

6-0 6-6 (7-5) 4-1 Rating: A game of two halves Venue: Centre Court El Cassico and we started on a flyer. first set was done in 11 minutes. Then I switched to the Left and started showboating/experimenting. Got punished and we were 0-3 down I think after serving first.  we went on a bit of a run and but got broken to hand them a tiebreak which we managed to put away. first set - Aggressive from both of us, taking the net and the game by the scruff of the neck second - I showboat, it goes against us, partner starts to spiral a bit Grip was also needing changed but I thought I could get one more match out of it. wrong. If it feels like it needs changed then it does.