Life in a box

I spent a large part of yesterday (when I was not being Mollie's personal chauffeur) working on the boxes. No it's not some new fangled exercise technique or the diabolical new gameshow on TV3 but an internal tennis tournament that I volunteered to run. After 3 1/2 hours working on them and still not finished I have to remind myself that I volunteered for this thankless task.

The internal box league is open to any member of my club, Sandycove Tennis and Squash Club, and entrants can choose to play singles, doubles or mixed. Yesterday was spent allocating entrants to their boxes based on their standard. After matches are played participants are moved up or down a box or remain where they are depending on how many points they score. Easy enough you say, I agree but unfortunately not everyone does. Why are they not in a higher box because they beat so-and-so? (only once in a blue moon); why are they not in a lower box? (because we think they're better than that); why were they removed from a box? (because they didn't play any matches in the last round)!

So many thanks to Clare, the ladies captain, who gave up a morning off work to help me with allocating the players their places. We did our best, if we put you in a box too high look apon it as a challenge to play better people, if we put you in a box to low lucky you, you get to accumulate more points and points mean prizes. I passed the buck on allocating the men as I don't know their standard, but I'm sure the mens captain will do a fantastic job.

The most important thing is ENJOY!