The Port Washington meet: Wayne and Hal lose only five games; the balletic winner; the bus home

texture · ~9-10 Nov YDAU

• When: the E.T.A.–Port Washington meet, ~9-10 Nov YDAU (the day of scene 065's match; the return in scene 067)
• What: At Port Washington, Wayne dismantles P.W.T.A.'s best boy — the signature lob-get where he sprints with his back turned and half-pirouettes to whip a down-the-line winner, "the way you come up around the side of somebody you're going to hurt." "John Wayne and Hal Incandenza lost only five total games between them in singles"; the gallery stops applauding, "like Romans applauding lions." On the bus home Charles Tavis "sat way in the back with John Wayne and beamed and spoke nonstop in hushed tones to Wayne as the Canadian stared out the window" (the Tavis-monologue habit Wayne will later savage in the meltdown, event 18). Troeltsch's radio recap (scene 070): "John Wayne at A-1 18's beat Port Washington's Bob Francis of Great Neck, New New York, 6–0, 6–2."