ligament damage/court 3

Managed to tear a ligament in my right arm whilst playing badminton at Wimbledon last Friday. I had gone for a smash against an average player and my shot wasn't clean. A visit to the GP followed; he found the cause immediately and said whilst it would be painful for another couple of weeks, there was no reason I couldn't continue to play.

Over the weekend I was feeling the various joints in my arm whilst in the shower and 'clicked' the joint of my forearm/upper forearm back into place. Suddenly the pain level went down, but didn't go away altogether. I tried an experiment of playing some more badminton on Thursday (ironically at my high school that I hadn't set foot in for 10 years! - our usual venue had been booked) and, even more ironically, played one of the best round robins in months, winning promotion to court 3.

For those not in the know, Thursday sessions are run by Looi who is strongly linked with Penguin BC. They have a lot of Asian and Chinese players who are exceptionally quick, skilful players. There are 4 courts with a max. of 6 players per court in a round robin format, with court 1 being insane and court 4 being (supposedly) the weakest. The only snag with this setup is that pretty much every player on these nights is about two divisions (some more) above me in the local League. So, it is extremely hard to make any inroads or quantify progress.
My main reference points are Neil & Helen - they play in Division 1 in the winter season, and are normally on court 2. You can imagine how pleased I was to gain promotion whilst still not being fully fit!

Game 1: Phil & Horace 21 bt Gary & Louisa 20
Game 2: Phil & Louisa 21 bt Gary & me 19
Game 3: Phil & Jamie 21 bt Horace & Louisa 17
Game 4: Jamie & Louisa 21 bt Gary & Horace 16
Game 5: Phil & Gary 21 bt Horace & Jamie 18

1st Phil 84
2nd Jamie 79
3rd Louisa 79
4th Gary 78
5th Horace 72

Louisa had never played on the ladder before so my starting position was higher up. She did very well considering it was her first time at this session and as she was the only lady. I'm sure she'll join me and Phil next time!

Tamsin...

So the date-that-never-was got finally rearranged for last night. The setting was good, the wine decent, and the conversation ambivalent enough. It was fairly long for a first date (a fraction over two hours) but unfortunately there wasn't really any chemistry, any sign of the elusive 'spark'.

As she was the first date in months, I can only wonder how many more it will take...