Houston, Texas

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The weather changed from torrid to delightful overnight and today it was breezy, sunny, warm and the humidity dropped (in other words Houston weather changed to San Diego weather). I even had to get out my warm up pants and jacket! The tennis wasn’t bad either!

Lunch today was excellent; salad with all the fixings (cheese, olives, mushrooms, peas, corn, pecans and more); chicken, beef and pork which could be put into a tortilla cup with the fixings (beans, salsa, avocado etc.), tomato soup with grilled cheese sandwiches, and three kinds of cookies.

And there was tennis too. I played at 9am…Jenny K and I warmed up early, then I played Andrea Barnes. I won 60 62 but the second set in particular was quite good; Andrea and I both had to make some strategy changes as the match advanced. Jenny beat Jacqueline McWilliams from Texas 60 61 but they had some great points and used the entire court.

In the 65s, the seeds advanced; I play Bunny Jackson (a 6′ lefty) who beat Kathy Foulk 60 63; Tina Karwasky fended off a challenge from Lisa Culp Musgrave, 76 (5) 62; Lisa had a set point and missed a drop shot in the first set. Sherri Bronson ousted and outlasted Ginny Beneke (described as an energizer bunny) 75 57 61, using her experience and competitiveness to win the match. However, the doubles matches both resulted in upsets; Jackson/Betsy Savitt beat Karwasky/Jan Cochran (#1) 60 46 61 and Barnes/Leslie Murveit took out #2 seeds Musgrave/Kandy Chain in three long sets 75 36 64…the final should be another great match.

In the 55s, Renee (Tharpe) Saheim (5) played a great match to beat Vicki Buholz (#2); Renee is a lefty with a great two-handed backhand, nice volleys and excellent mobility…she won 64 61. Renee plays Gayle Prejean (5) who upset Shelly Works (4) 63 62 in a match that had VERY long rallies…the match lasted several hours. Laurie Capra (unseeded) beat #3 Kathy Vick in a match that was about three hours long 64 67 64. Towards the end of the third both competitors had game points in the 4-4 and 5-4 games but Capra finally got over the finish line with an aggressive groundstroke. The 55 doubles are still going on…

In the 75s, Brenda Carter beat Sue Kimball 62 64; Kimball said it was the best she’d played to date against Carter; Carolann Castell took out Cathie Anderson (winner of the marathon with Brenda Winstead yesterday) 62 63. Speaking of Winstead; after finishing play yesterday (she also played doubles with Anderson after their three-set singles), she had to visit the emergency room for full body cramping. Castell/Kimball were supposed to play Anderson/Winstead today but agreed to postpone the match till tomorrow to allow Winstead some recovery time (unless it rained in which case Castell/Kimball would take the default according to Kimball). The weather forecast though is for dry weather tomorrow.

In the 85s, Carol Wood and Dori DeVries won their respective round robin groups and will play the final on Friday. In doubles Burnett Herrick/Sheila Palmer and DeVries/Wood both won easily and will play their final round robin match, this one for a gold ball, tomorrow.

The 45 singles and doubles began today; there were no upsets but Dianne Lee (3) had to dig out a tough match against Emma Nguyen 36 60 76 (4).

And then for the 90s…I had the ages wrong yesterday: Rita Price is 95; Sally Fuller is not 97 but 91 or 92; Janet Hubbard is 92 and Joyce Vanderpol is 97 (see photo below). Also Joyce Jones is 91. Trudy Kuckhahn and Jones won the gold in the 90s over Vanderpol/Fuller 60 62. Jones beat Fuller in the round robin singles 62 60 and Price beat Hubbard by default; Price and Jones play tomorrow.