Dog Day Afternoon (morning)

Your TennisTitan closed out the year with some fun sets over at Kinsley this morning. TT and 8 other stalwarts benefited from the crisp, dry, windless conditions that saw temperatures hovering about 40 in grey wintry skies. A perfect day for outdoor tennis in the northeast! TT paired with George "Chemist" Hauss on court two against 'Big Al' Diodati and Frank 'Slats' Slattery. Titan/'Chemist' rallied from a 1-3 deficit to take the tightly contested set (7-5) and earn the right to meet Carl 'Spindly Legs' Gessman and My Liege, 'King' Gene Slattery. 'King' had stepped in for 'Happy Jack' Carey so that he could have his way with TT as was the case on Wednesday at the YTC. 'SL'/'HJ' had eked out a (6-4) triumph over the venerable (but departing) Sab 'Koide Kid' and Amackassin's finest, Rich 'RC Cola' Condon. As 'Big Al'/'Slats' dropped another heart(and tie) breaker (6-7 [5] to 'RC Cola'/'HJ' your Titan did not let down his most enthusiastic fan, O'Reilly, the Bischon Friese who somehow makes more noise than his 'masidon master.' With the barking reaching a near crescendo Spindly Legs served to get to the tie breaker. TT/'Chem' had withstood the late charge of 'SL'/'King' coming back from three-love deficit to level it at 4. Then "O" dog came through big for the 'bloated behemoth' inducing 'SL' to pull a calf muscle, double fault twice, and possibly lose track of the score in the final game (7-5). An embittered 'King' threatened "to bring my own dog" next week and to have his wife come to keep score! Titan's crisp winning volley- "King, you'd be better served if you'd bring a son to help you out!"