The master (centre) of the tricky net shot

I have now been playing badminton for about 5 years with the club I play at, I love it, if I could I would play til 10.30pm but unfortunately not everyone is as young as I am. Take for instance Alec, pictured in the centre here. He is only now, less than twice my age, he has fewer excuses I tell him.

In that time I have only seen 5 complete Grannies, 15-0 if you didn't know, two of which I won while playing with Alec, but by far the most impressive of all was when he won the game on his first service. If you are not familiar with the rules of badminton, this is really quite impressive as it means he managed to vary service sufficiently to fool his opponents. It is all the more impressive as he did so when he was 82 years old, or young as I prefer to say.

Alec is suffering from very sore knees, but steadfastly refuses to have the operation which would 'repair' his knees but would probably end his career and continues to play through the pain barrier for the enjoyment of it. I recall telling one of my colleagues, younger than me, to be careful when playing against him. He smashed the shuttlecock at him but at the end of the game, there was only one person who was sweating profusely having lost the game and having bene given a lesson from a true master.

The man is so utterly inpsirational.

9°