I’m starting to feel really old, I’m think I might actually be having a quarter or third-life crisis if either thing exists. The source of my melancholy is the demise of one of my childhood haunts. I’ve spent the evening reflecting on the days when my mates and I would sit in at home watching Wimbledon before rushing to the local public courts to recreate the rallies and incidents we’d been guided through by Des Lynam and Sue Barker just hours before. I remember occasions when you’d be queuing for what seemed like an eternity to get onto the courts at the back of St. Anne’s Park, the Corpo guy who stank of cigarettes and had a complexion a bit too rosey to signify good health doing his utmost to try and convince the gathering to fuck off down the road where the pitch and putt course they’d groomed to within an inch of perfection sat empty.
Those very courts where we tried in vain to impress mots with aces and what we thought were sublime tennis skills are closing down. Turns out that the place is empty year round with the exception of the two weeks each summer when the KitKat Tennis Leagues descend onto the Northside. I was never really that much into tennis, I was pretty shit to be honest, so much so that I’d get paired with someone else and combined still couldn’t beat my mate Al who seemed to have an unnatural skill at being able to connect with a tennis ball when the rest of us wouldn’t even see it pass. He also is the only person I know to ever have killed a squirrel on a pitch and putt course.
Those very courts where we tried in vain to impress mots with aces and what we thought were sublime tennis skills are closing down. Turns out that the place is empty year round with the exception of the two weeks each summer when the KitKat Tennis Leagues descend onto the Northside. I was never really that much into tennis, I was pretty shit to be honest, so much so that I’d get paired with someone else and combined still couldn’t beat my mate Al who seemed to have an unnatural skill at being able to connect with a tennis ball when the rest of us wouldn’t even see it pass. He also is the only person I know to ever have killed a squirrel on a pitch and putt course.
I don’t know why’s it even bothering me that they’re digging it up. I’m sure they’ll extend the playing pitches or the rose gardens or something that people might be able to appreciate and enjoy rather than have an acre of cement going to waste. I suppose it’s just another example of how times have changed and PS3s and the like have replaced fresh air and getting out and bating your mates on the football field. Why do that now when you can try and get a CGI Pierluigi Collina to lose the head on PES6 for the PSP? I’ve decided to try and turn the negative into a positive. Was reading today the arse is falling out of sumo wrestling cos kids aren’t as big in Japan as they used to be. What better a use to put our increasingly obese sportsaphobic youngsters too? London 2012 here we come….
We are getting old Tiberius. The computer games manufacturers solution to kids not getting enough fresh air these days? Invent a game that the kid has to physically cycle to play. Saw it in the paper the other day.
ReplyDeleteLike the idea of the Irish sumo team (complete with shamrock logoed nappies) for London though. Should be another pointless minority sport for us to get behind because we've gotten crap at football (I'm looking at you, cricket!)