Things couldn’t have gone much better at the 2011 National Senior Games in Houston.  Les & May was the official comic strip of the Games’ daily newspaper, appearing in all 14 issues.  The strips, all related to Houston or the Games, were the same as ran on the L&M website, with the addition of  four others that covered the weekend editions. The strips also currently appear on the www.NSGA.com website.  Click on 2011 National Games, in the left column, then click on the blog from Houston.  Then you can click on Senior Games Daily Comic.

Competitively, I won a  Silver Medal in singles tennis and, (with Stu Bender) won the Bronze Medal in doubles tennis.  May Mature won a (fictional) Silver Medal in singles tennis.

The universal complaint among tennis competitors was with the playing surface.  The courts were made up of 12-inch plastic squares about a half inch in height.  These were somehow linked together “Lego-like” and placed over the concrete floor of the huge convention hall—16 courts in all, I believe.  The normal bounce was low and fast, but numerous dead spots resulted in little or no bounce.  In fact, attempting to bounce the ball in a pre-service routine often resulted in no rebound.  Tape, added to line the courts, presented yet another bounce.  Despite the shortcomings, the conditions were the same for everyone.  I’ll take the imperfect, yet air conditioned, courts anytime over playing outside in Houston’s 100-degree-plus heat index.

Larry Lewis