great badminton with great company
I broke my promise. To study. :(Straight after church today, james, nicol and myself whizzed down in three separate cars to the central market in clementi to have lunch. theresa joined us soon after. Nope, we're not double-dating, heh heh; we were all ready to play a game of badminton doubles! I've been looking forward to it all morning. Just the thought of enjoying a competitive sport and working up a sweat at the same time is simply alluring. Haven't done so in ages...
So after having our fill, we headed down to the sports complex and paired up - theresa with nicol, and james with myself. We had a few strokes to warm-up before becoming serious, with points, service-over and all. The arrangement between me and james was that I was to jaga the front while james was to take care of all the long shots. But soon after the game began, I realised that his presence was all over the court! Whenever I could not take a shot, he's always alert enough to cover me. It's really good to have someone who always watches your back, literally, haha. The other pair's gameplay was not too bad either, with nicol covering the front and theresa behind. nicol likes to try sneaky shots, where the shuttlecock just skims lightly over the net. It works, but only for a while. We soon caught up with his sneaky ways. :P theresa plays a supportive role towards nicol, catching all the long shots which fly pass nicol's head and covering empty spaces.
The first game was pretty exciting. At first, james and I were leading with 7-1. Then, for some strange reason, the other team made a miraculous recovery and shot back up to 8-8. This went on to game point 14-14, which meant we were in deuce, and had to play till 17 points. The last 3 points were in our grasp, and we won it all. :)
Took a rest before resuming with our second game. We switched sides of the courts, still with the same pairing. This time it was our turn to come off to a bad start. At some point we were 0-7, and then 3-11. Hopes of winning were vanishing into the air. Then by a miracle, we started to play better again, and even shot back up to 11-12! Unfortunately at this point, disaster struck. My right calf suddenly had a cramp and I just collapsed to the floor. All of them stopped playing and crowded round. The guys helped to push my foot backwards so as to stretch my calf muscles, which instantly made the pain go away. But I couldn't carry on after that, so the two guys just amused themselves with a whole new game, while theresa sat with me at the bench. Oh well. Wish I could have continued. Wanted to see if we could have won the second game despite having started out so badly. :) This shows that in any match, winning or losing in the beginning does not matter. It's the final outcome that counts. :)
We ended our session with desserts at the market. Had a thoroughly enjoyable time just chit-chatting and laughing. Conversation flows easily with nicol around, who brings up topics that we can often relate to. Soon after, we each left for home. :)
Yep, this was taken courtesy of my cousin when we were returning to our individual cars. From left: james, myself, nicol. Don't our backs just look absolutely stunning. :P
posted by solitude @ 6:23 PM
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