Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — image data
The Rematch!
photo by Anthony

Today we stopped by to play ping pong again with Vernon Weingart, now 91 years 1 day old, to make good on my promised rematch from his beating me the other day.

今日も91歳の卓球チャンピオンと遊びませてもらいました。今回はやっと勝った！最初のマッチは完全に負けましたけれども、二回目はぎりぎり勝ちました。勝たれましたかな〜？:-)

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 800 — image data
Hand in Pocket
waiting for a challenge that never came

After knocking the ball around for a while with Anthony and me, Vernon and I played our first best-of-three match, and he easily beat me in two games. He was much stronger than the last time.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/100 sec, f/2.8, ISO 900 — image data
Just Nipping the Edge
he was a master at hitting the edge of the table, making a return shot impossible

We all knocked the ball around again for a while, and we then played another match. This time I won the first game after having gone to deuce a dozen times.... he was toying with me, but I finally got lucky (or he finally got tired of toying with me), and I won the game. Woo-hoo!

The second game was much the same, and I won after a long time at deuce. I think he let me, but it still felt nice. 🙂

As a championship-level player for more than 40 years, he's been challenged much more before.... he's had multiple world champions in his basement at the same time (“I didn't fare very well that day”). And of course with age (he's 91 years old), the ultra-fast younger generation crush him. He recently played against a girl 1/10th is age who trounced him. “I couldn't do anything against her.” I'm looking forward to see how she plays in the year 2097 when she's his current age.

Nikon D4 + Nikkor 24-70mm f/2.8 @ 24mm — ¹/50 sec, f/10, ISO 6400 — image data

Anthony also played a lot, and was much better than yesterday. Just the little bit of play with Vernon last time really made his game progress, and he was suddenly spinning and smashing with much better accuracy. Another few days of this and he'll be beating me!

We're planning to play again tomorrow.

UPDATE: We did play again, and Vernon crushed me 4-1. In a typical game he'd get ahead 10-4 (in games to 11) then let me get close before putting in the final nail.