| Mother Nature surely has not been a pitcher’s friend this year. Arriving
at the courts Saturday morning, I found nothing but water. Water, water,
water! Nearly 2 inches of rain had fallen in the past 24 hours, and that
morning another thunderstorm rolled through around 7:00. The pits in courts
1 - 6 were literally underwater on the north end, and there was standing
water between the rest of the courts. We were flooded.
I got on the phone to roust the club members earlier than planned –
if we were going to pitch at all, we had to get started mopping up right
away. Well over an hour later, with sponges, mops and buckets, the courts
almost seemed to be dry. The clay had been packed tight early in
the week and looked good, provided the water stopped draining into the
pits. It did not. Everytime we’d sponge out a pit, it would start filling
back up with water seeping off of the hill, and out of the grass between
the courts. The weather forecast had more rain coming in the early
afternoon
The courts were not pitchable. The call that every TD dreads had to
be made. A meeting was called with the pitchers. 22 people had come out,
trying to get a little bit of practice in before our State Doubles. Some
of them had driven hours only to be disappointed. A back up plan was announced.
“You all came to pitch, but the courts and the clay just will not hold
a sanctioned event. If you’re willing to try something new, we can throw
on the covers or carpeting and do a double elimination doubles.”
The pitchers were pleased with that, and we got going.
A little bit of confusion getting it started as I was a little rusty
setting up a draw partner event, I was quickly corrected by Glenn Ritchie,
Jackie Whetzel and Jeremi Skillman. This was ‘draw partners’, and I had
thrown twice the amount needed of numbers in the bucket. Once that was
settled, the teams were drawn and off to the courts we went.
Amy Hall decided not to pitch on the slippery surface, but “pitched
in” to keep the win/loss table updated. She did a terrific job keeping
us all going.
The first round, people were uncertain about which they’d like to pitch
on, the carpets or the hard rubber cover. It was about half and half.
The second round most picked the rugs. As long as no mud got on them, the
rugs did a ‘self clean’ on the shoes, making them amazingly easy to handle.
Pitching a wet clay slick shoe is hard, but pitching a wet shoe with no
clay was not bad at all. The biggest problem was waiting for the other
end to pitch into the puddles. Splish splash we were all taking a
bath. It made for some very interesting banter. The temperature of the
day really helped out, as it did get rather humid and at one point, hot
and sticky. All of us were wet, but not at all cold.
With a double elimination, it doesn’t take many rounds before some teams
are bumped out of the competition. So it also didn’t take long for
the bunch from Chesapeake to start teaching the game of Capture to those
who had been bumped. Those that were new to the game came away with a very
different attitude about it. It was a lot harder than it looks and a whole
lot of fun.
The final rounds pitted partners Ricky Hall and Amanda Tolbert (undefeated)
against Jackie Whetzel and Granville Weakley (pitching from the loser bracket).
Jackie & Granville had to beat Ricky & Sand-Amanda twice if they
wanted to win the day. What a battle it was! But Jackie and Granville held
out, narrowly squeaking by to win both games. They had done it!!
We all lingered around for a while, just enjoying the camaraderie and
reliving the day. The Draft Doubles might have been cancelled, but The
Carpet Classic looks like it is gaining in popularity. It truly was
a fun day of pitching!
Our club is still trying to figure out a day when we can have the Draft
Doubles. We’ll let you all know.
Kevin
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