It's Tennis, Just Not As We Know It

For the first time since our membership at The Royal Cliff Sports & Fitness Club ran out, three months ago, The Husband and I dusted off our tennis racquets, popped open the vacuum-pumped ball-saver, and hit the tennis courts. It wasn’t quite the experience we were used to at The Royal Cliff. Instead of walking up bougainvillea-lined steps to an immaculate club house set amongst tall, shady trees, we entered a security-barred cement box via a dimly lit path. Instead of a beaming woman opening the door to the reception for us, looking like our arrival had just made her day, we were presented with an indifferent youth behind a screen who liked like she would rather be anywhere else but there. Instead of seven well-maintained hard courts, there were four synthetic courts that had definitely seen better days. And of course there was no uniformed man bringing us a pitcher of iced water, glasses and towels on a tray.

What both experiences had though, was warm, dry weather and you can’t hope for better than that – it’s certainly more than you get for most of the year in England. I remember turning up for evening matches or training and finding it difficult to hold the racquet as my hands were numb with cold, and sitting under cover of clubhouse after clubhouse, waiting for the rain to cease. It may have been difficult to see the lines on the court at times last night, so covered with sand were they, but at least we were warm and dry. And, despite the rather more basic facilities, we had great fun - it was exhilarating to be pounding a ball back and forth again. Best of all perhaps, was that we played with someone else, meaning no arguments, no tantrums, no swearing. With someone else on court, we had to reign in our emotions and move on from any bad shots hit or balls missed. Which also meant that we were able to concentrate on simply enjoying the game! A Buckley tennis game without heated words exchanged at least once was previously unheard of. Perhaps now we can enjoy a civilised game – or would that be boring?