Who is the Girly Man now? Spencer Creek Park.
Thanksgiving eve seemed like a fine time to search for a forgotten court. The forecast was to be in the mid 60″s which is fabulous for St. Louis in November. After consulting with our friends, Chris Hahn and Elissa Ford, we decided to head West – across the Missouri River for our first match in St. Charles County.
As far as our matches go, Scott was looking for a rare threepeat having won the last two matches. However he made a critical mistake prior to this match by commenting on Facebook that Stan played like a girl. He knew he had ignited a fire when Stan showed up to the court wearing a very feminine tennis outfit!
As we began the match the court was covered in a creepy fog that had enveloped the entire St. Louis area. Scott definitely bought into the creepiness as he watched Stan reel off 16 of the first 17 points for a quick 4-0 lead. The synthetic grass surface has a slow bounce and Scott was mistiming a lot of shots while Stan was rock solid with almost zero unforced errors.
Finally Scott settled down and played two close games but still went down with a 6-0 bagel. Second set started with an easy break for Stan and Scott was starting to worry about the possibility of the double bagel… but just in a nick of time he broke Stan for a 1-1 score. The next game was a test of willpower Scott’s serve went to 8 deuces with both players having opportunities. Again Stan stayed solid and prevailed for a 2-1 lead.
Scott broke and held to go up 3-2. Back and forth the games went with some really high quality points starting to be played. Scott was slugging the ball as hard as he could yanking Stan corner to corner with Stan digging everything out and getting them back. Finally after fighting to 5-5 Scott was able to break and hold for the set 7-5. With total humiliation out of the picture Scott started thinking he was only 24 points from the three-peat!
Elissa Ford, fresh off her 2nd place finish at World Team Tennis Nationals, had arrived during the second set and began recording some of the points. We quickly noticed our performance suffered when we knew we were on camera. Nevertheless we began the third set with Stan racing out to a 3-1 lead. Scott won three in a row to go up 4-3 and served for a 5-3 lead.
This game was monumental Stan got two break points and Scott fought back to earn a couple game points. After one particularly long rally on game point Scott got the mid court sitter he wanted and prepared to crush it into the forehand corner…. again the slow bounce came into play as his excitement caused him to swing early and shank the forehand wide. Stan took advantage and got the next two points to get to 4-4. Stan won the next two games easily to pocket the match. 6-0.5-7,6-4.
We loved this surface. Many municipalities are using this as a less expensive way to resurface hard courts. It is filled with sand and slows the ball down and allows for some great points. The surface was very consistent. We rate both the location and surface a 10. Very nice place to play a match.
Nearby food options include Cecil Whittakers Pizza where Scott’s niece works and Stumpy’s BBQ run by cousin of local tennis legend Bob Faust.
