What the...? They look good enought to eat, never mind be played on.
Rick says, '...but I need those front courts for the clinic. ON TUESDAY.'
Ikebana come to the CTC. Thanks, Dave.
Pippa's Song
from Pippa Passes
"The year's at the spring,
And day's at the morn;
Morning's at seven;
The hill-side's dew-pearl'd;
The lark's on the wing;
The snail's on the thorn;
God's in His heaven--
All's right with the world!"
-Robert Browning
"....If it be now,
'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be
now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the
readiness is all...
Hamlet
Act 5, Scene 2
We had a slow week here at the club. Yes, a slow first week. The back three courts are open and just beautiful and the flowering trees are blossoming and the birds are chirping, and dusty little clouds are flitting across the bluest sky, and the lark's on the wing and Bambi was sighted in Longfellow Park. WHAT'S THE STORY WITH THE FRONT COURTS? WHY, OH WHY AREN'T THEY OPEN? I could not hit a ball, I just couldn't concentrate because all I can think is why aren't the front courts open? It just galls me.
The rational explanation is that we had rain on Sunday and Monday and the courts were too wet to be worked on Tuesday. On Wed. we added a last, loving, grading coat to the front courts. (The crew is trying here for perfection. The front courts, ahhh.) A lot of clay was added and the clay takes a while to set up. We hope to open the front courts early next week, weather permitting.
The not-so-rational explanation: we've talked, in these pages, about the courts' breathing, about their having distinct personalities. (It's true: they are alive.) Come with us for a minute. Each court gets different sunlight every day. Court 3 gets every ray of early morning sun, court 5 gets none. And so on. Each court gets a slightly different amount of water. Rain affects each court differently. The grading on each court is slightly different. We all know that court 5 is not court 1, don't we? Well, courts 1 and 2 are not courts 3, 4, or 5.
Courts 1 and 2 just weren't ready for lines, or for play. They just weren't. When they are, they will be very, very good courts. And we'll all be glad we waited.
The courts will ALL be open some wondrous morning, at seven.
The club book is also close to completion. Copies should be in your hands directly, weather permitting. Meanwhile, much of the book's information is now available on the website. (Thanks to Sheila and Ann for getting the info to us in a timely fashion, never mind the weather.) Events, Rules, Governors and Committees are all updated, as is the New Members List. When is the first Round Robin?,
The website has a long overdue new feature: a Champions Page. Check it out.
We still have the tournament draws (from 2001 to 2004) available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid. We are re-locating the links, however.
"On the court, tennis players exchange not only ground strokes but lots of information. It's a richly interactive sport, both verbally and non-verbally. If players communicate clearly, simply, and consistently, the game will proceed more quickly, and with less fuss and misunderstanding. Here are a few guidelines that can make the game more fun, friendly, and fair for all...."
We've had some requests to run Craig Lambert's piece, sampled above, on Tennis Communication. (We'd better leave this link up on the newspage permanently.)
Some useful links:
And here's a link to the espn site, with pro ranking.
And a club member (let's call him Sol) suggested a link to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The site is rich.
Website note:
The new club directory is in the works. The website still has last year's info. We hope to have this year's info available soon. We are waiting on the club's committees to finish their work.
'Members', and' Reservation Requests' are not active parts of the site nowadays. 'Timelines' is for adepts.
Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2005. From there you can see the whole of the Persistent Archive of last year's news.
Website Note: The time and temperature icon below is a link to a Boston weather site.
Joe DeBassio, Webmaster
Website Note II: The honey-comb icon is also a link. It takes the clicker to an archive of all the past news pages so that you can read the news pages for the whole year (2004). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take you to the last issue of the newspage.
This version is archived at: https://www.cambridgetennisclub.com/News/News2006.10.en.html
