Sixty players participated in two nights of paddle this week at KLM. Partners and opponents changed after each set in this round robin tournament.The players were drawn from Hinsdale's 4 women's traveling teams and 14 men's teams -- almost 200 people in all were invited to play.
Mixing the group gave new players a chance to pair up with nationally ranked competitors. A few commented that they were experiencing what sometimes feels like a completely different game than the one your buddies typically think of as platform tennis.
On Friday night, several of the top women in Hinsdale paddle turned out to play and raised the issue of which gender is really the weaker sex. None of the men present were silly enough to emulate Bobby Riggs by challenging the national champ to a battle of the sexes.
There were plenty of chances to catch up during the evening in between rounds and for some of us that socializing was just as much fun as the competition.
My thanks to Holly Tritt for running the Friday night round robin. Special thanks to Paul Garvin and Donn York for bringing refreshments for everyone.The HPTA will definitely need to keep this tradition alive and growing in Hinsdale even as the programs keep expanding! It's too much fun to give up.
