Cindysphinx
G.O.A.T.
We reached a new low in USTA league tennis last night.
We were playing a team that is trying (again) to get to Nationals. Captain is crazy competitive. Nice on the outside, will cut-your-throat-and-eat-your-tonsils to win a match on the inside. She has an official role with the league and has captained for years. One should be able to expect exemplary behavior from someone like that, right?
We play timed matches in our league, and we were supposed to start at 7 pm. Rules say line-ups are exchanged no later than 5 minutes before match time. Mandatory penalty for a late exchange is loss of toss and one game on all courts. Failure to exchange by match time is a 5-court default. Captains are supposed to meet each other in the lobby.
At 10 minutes before match time, all of my players were there. Opposing captain and most of her players were in the lobby, so I asked if she was ready to exchange. She said she was missing two players, so not yet. I waited.
At 6 minutes before match time, I looked up and she had disappeared. Hmmmm. Maybe she was out front trying to get a good cell phone signal. Nope. I go back in the lobby and it is 5 minutes before match time. Still no sign of her.
I ask one of my players where she was. My player said, "Oh, they're all in the bathroom." I go in the bathroom and sure enough, all of them are sitting in the dressing room. Why? To avoid exchanging line-ups because they were still short a player, obviously.
I barge in and say, "It's time to exchange. Are you ready?" She looks me dead in the eye and says, "I still have two more minutes."
OK, this was a complete falsehood. It was by then 6:57. Apparently the problem was that she had two players on the way and didn't know which one would make it. I get it. Had she guessed the wrong one and the player was more than 10 minutes late, she would forfeit that court.
So I stood there, with two choices: (1) Have a big hissy fit and argument about *what time it was* and demand the loss of toss and a game on all courts; or (2) Do nothing.
I chose to do nothing. I am pushing 50. I try to live a quiet life. I do this for fun. I am not in the mood to raise my blood pressure because someone in an official capacity with the league has chosen to *cheat* and to *lie.* Besides, the chances that the hissy fit would achieve anything were zilch. I demand a penalty, she refuses to give it. Then what? You can't play a match when one team says the score is 0-0 and the other says it is 1-0. The remedy would have been to document things as best as I could and refuse to play unless the penalty was given, pushing the issue to a grievance.
I turned around and left and stood with my cell phone in the lobby. She came out of the bathroom about a minute later and exchanged. We played the matches, and we were badly defeated on four courts (winning the one court where the lady came late).
Still. I am of half a mind to write to her today and give her a First Rate Scolding, just to let her know that I know precisely what she was doing and such behavior is inappropriate for someone in her position. Then again, I see little upside for myself personally in making trouble. The last thing I need is an enemy with the power to make life difficult.
The frustrating thing is that she didn't need to go hide in the bathroom to achieve her objective of avoiding penalties that were entirely appropriate. All she had to do was say, "Hey, Cindy. I've got a problem. I don't know which of two people is going to show up for No. 2 singles. Can we work something out?" Being a Grey instead of a Black And White, I would have waived the penalty or let her substitute whichever player showed up first or whatever, as we came there to play tennis not collect defaults.
She wasn't decent enough to play it straight. That is indeed quite sad.
Cindy -- unsure how she is going to get the bad taste out of her mouth
We were playing a team that is trying (again) to get to Nationals. Captain is crazy competitive. Nice on the outside, will cut-your-throat-and-eat-your-tonsils to win a match on the inside. She has an official role with the league and has captained for years. One should be able to expect exemplary behavior from someone like that, right?
We play timed matches in our league, and we were supposed to start at 7 pm. Rules say line-ups are exchanged no later than 5 minutes before match time. Mandatory penalty for a late exchange is loss of toss and one game on all courts. Failure to exchange by match time is a 5-court default. Captains are supposed to meet each other in the lobby.
At 10 minutes before match time, all of my players were there. Opposing captain and most of her players were in the lobby, so I asked if she was ready to exchange. She said she was missing two players, so not yet. I waited.
At 6 minutes before match time, I looked up and she had disappeared. Hmmmm. Maybe she was out front trying to get a good cell phone signal. Nope. I go back in the lobby and it is 5 minutes before match time. Still no sign of her.
I ask one of my players where she was. My player said, "Oh, they're all in the bathroom." I go in the bathroom and sure enough, all of them are sitting in the dressing room. Why? To avoid exchanging line-ups because they were still short a player, obviously.
I barge in and say, "It's time to exchange. Are you ready?" She looks me dead in the eye and says, "I still have two more minutes."
OK, this was a complete falsehood. It was by then 6:57. Apparently the problem was that she had two players on the way and didn't know which one would make it. I get it. Had she guessed the wrong one and the player was more than 10 minutes late, she would forfeit that court.
So I stood there, with two choices: (1) Have a big hissy fit and argument about *what time it was* and demand the loss of toss and a game on all courts; or (2) Do nothing.
I chose to do nothing. I am pushing 50. I try to live a quiet life. I do this for fun. I am not in the mood to raise my blood pressure because someone in an official capacity with the league has chosen to *cheat* and to *lie.* Besides, the chances that the hissy fit would achieve anything were zilch. I demand a penalty, she refuses to give it. Then what? You can't play a match when one team says the score is 0-0 and the other says it is 1-0. The remedy would have been to document things as best as I could and refuse to play unless the penalty was given, pushing the issue to a grievance.
I turned around and left and stood with my cell phone in the lobby. She came out of the bathroom about a minute later and exchanged. We played the matches, and we were badly defeated on four courts (winning the one court where the lady came late).
Still. I am of half a mind to write to her today and give her a First Rate Scolding, just to let her know that I know precisely what she was doing and such behavior is inappropriate for someone in her position. Then again, I see little upside for myself personally in making trouble. The last thing I need is an enemy with the power to make life difficult.
The frustrating thing is that she didn't need to go hide in the bathroom to achieve her objective of avoiding penalties that were entirely appropriate. All she had to do was say, "Hey, Cindy. I've got a problem. I don't know which of two people is going to show up for No. 2 singles. Can we work something out?" Being a Grey instead of a Black And White, I would have waived the penalty or let her substitute whichever player showed up first or whatever, as we came there to play tennis not collect defaults.
She wasn't decent enough to play it straight. That is indeed quite sad.
Cindy -- unsure how she is going to get the bad taste out of her mouth
