Of partners and hands

They say in Bridge, as in sex, if you don't have a good partner, you better have a good hand. In badminton, however, you better have TWO good hands - A backhand and a forehand.

My partner last week, says he is used to playing badminton "mind-your-own-court" style, and not "net-and-baseline". Fine, I say. Now, whenever my right-handed partner is in the left side of the court, he gets me points with his strong forehand. He stands at the very outer edge of the left court, and rallies all his shots to the center, while I take care of the right side of the court.

Sadly, whenever he is in the right side of the court, he cannot cover the center court, and loses me many points as I try in vain to cover the left court, front, back and center. And then he attempts a few false shots but ends up dropping the shuttle in our court and losing us the game.

After the game, I sit for a break, and the poor guy walks across to me and says sorry for losing me the game. He explains that he has a poor backhand, and so he cannot play "net-and-baseline". I shrug it off, say it's just a game and make some small talk. Later he goes and plays with other guys while I rest for some more time.

It is raining hard so there is not much crowd to play with. Sometimes, lack of crowd becomes a problem in itself. Like, a court is vacant, and we are three guys resting now, and none pro enough to play singles. I wait for some time before another game ends, and partners switch, and then I play until N says she is hungry and wants to go home despite the rain.