Is It June Already?

Well, it looks like no one bothers coming to this blog anymore (myself included) but I thought it was about time for me to throw up something new.  Heading into June, some of the most surprising things I have noticed are the following:  1) tournament participation may be down at 4.0 and 3.5 levels, but it does look like all the bump-ups to 4.5 have been willing to give it a go as draw sizes seem to be running a bit larger at the major zones this year, 2) true to recent history, no one plays 5.0 and it did not help that no one was bumped up to 5.0, 3) Some new blood from Houston has been doing pretty decent on the tourney front this year - namely Guy and McCool.  Neither had much of a 4.5 history available on line but Guy has been active and successful in various leagues over the years.  Good to see some Houston guys stepping up to replace those that seem to have fallen off the face of the earth.

Here's to a successful Tyler, San Antonio, and Fort Worth over the next couple of months.

Corpus this weekend, how about that.

Good luck to Houston players in the draw.  May your balls not be blown off the courts...unless you are into that sort of thing.  I am talking about the ungodly wind in case your mind was in the gutter.

Coke...I mean Gallery...sorry, I mean HTA Major Zone 3 days away.

Since I can't even stand viewing my own blog because of all the crap spam messages, I am sure you can understand why I haven't been very active.  However, in light of the Houston Major Zone this weekend, it would seem very wrong of me not to post something new.  Unfortunately, since this will be the second straight year that I won't be involved at all with the tournament, I really don't have any predictions or comments to make other than from what I can tell entries were down by a decent amount compared to last year.  Is it the impact of the surprise USTA rating fiasco?  The $33 entry fee?  Houston's facilities compared to other Texas cities?  We may never know.

Deadlines are here for Abilene & Mabry

Late reminder. Deadline for Mabry is tonight (200 pointer in San Antonio, starts Feb. 5). Deadline for Abilene Major Zone is tomorrow night (400 pointer, also starts Feb. 5). Abilene probably a worthwhile trip for any of the freshly-bumped-up players who want the best shot at getting some hefty next level points. All the major zone gets a lot tougher competition-wise after this one.