Tennis Club News
Monday, September 14, 2015
"I would my arms could match thee in contention,
As they contend with thee in courtesy."
-Nestor
Troilus and Cressida
Act 4, Scene 5
Stars
Csaba
Modestino
We had some amazing tournament matches, but we should really shower some praise and gratitude on Csaba and Modestino.
Csaba is head of the club's Tennis Committee and he basically ran the tournaments, all nine of them, all nine of them with consolation rounds. Csaba really, really worked it: a million phone calls, texts, emails, complaints, fusses, delays excuses, problemmoes a plenty. He did a great job. Thanks, Csaba. (Oh ya, he played in 3 tournaments.)
Modestino, well, he prepped and cooked, and cooked and cooked. He made aesthetically pleasing presentations; he made great volumes of food. He made sandwiches to order. He was indefatigable. Players and fans feasted. Way to go, Modestino.
Busy little week we had, lots of tournaments, lots of action. September is usually our second busiest month - June is usually the busiest - and we expect a lot of play.
Darkness is a problem here. Sunrise was at 6:23 this morning which means that the sun is late in hitting the courts. Sunset is at 6:56 this evening which means that play on the back courts is darkened out by, say, 7:30.
We recommend that you don't reserve a back court after 6:00. Alas.
Some tournament photos:
Liz and Peter won the Mixed Doubles Tournament by defeating...
David and Shana
Kevin lost to Peter in the Men's Singles.
Csaba, Pierce, Michael, and Peter
(Csaba and Pierce won the Men's Doubles.)
Craig, Andrew, Csaba, and Pierce
A Rhapsody
We are declaring the Men's Doubles match featuring the above players to be a Club Classic. These guys played some of the greatest points ever witnessed at the club. Balls and bodies were just flying; unbelievable gets, one after another; jokes, good sportsmanship: a great match.
Csaba and Pierce won in three.
Our own David Hemenway was brilliant on NPR a few Mondays ago.
David Hemenway
David, as most of us know, teaches at Harvard's School of Public Health and has written extensively on gun control issues. He was quoted last week in the Times in an op-ed by Nicholas Kristoff.)
Here's the link to the podcast:
Dave Hemenway On Point
And the last round robin is coming:
The last round robin is scheduled for Wednesday, September 16th at 5:00. (Not the usual start time of 6:00.)
$25 per player - cost includes organized play with Pro Steve Counihan, dinner and drinks!
Sign-up available online under the events tab or by speaking with the staff.
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The Tournaments, the tournaments. Yes. The draws are posted on the club bulletin board and available for your delectation here:
Oh ya, we should note that due to a pesky technical glitch (is there another kind, other than pesky?) some of the drawsheets say 2014 instead of 2015, but they, the drawsheets, are for this year.
Many thanks to Csaba for making up the draw in spite of many obstacles.
And please play your matches instead of going to the Vineyard. While some players bathe and sun, others practice and play and get stronger and stronger. Think about that.
And also...
The website has a tradition of blurbing books written by members. Let's try a new feature: club artists with current or upcoming shows.
We invite all club artists to send us info or blurbs on their shows.
Sign-up for the Tennis Ladder is also posted on the you-guessed-it porch bulletin board.
The bulletin boards are so packed with treats that you can just spend the day studying them, saying over and over, oh my.
The new club court booking system is live. Using it is wicked fun. Give it a try. And note that you can sign up for events and reserve the table tennis table. Like, wow?
Pierce has kindly posted lots and lots of great photos of the tournaments and other club events of last year. You can see, and even download his photos at: Pierce Photos.
A call for contributors: We need some on-the-spot correspondents. Please send us opinions or comments or jokes or observations or pleas. Or stories.
Some links of interest:
Rogers Cup
ATP World Tour
WTA Tennis
Craig Lambert wrote a must-read article for Harvard Magazine about Bruce Wright's take on the 'high set' stance and movement in tennis. Take a look: High Set The article is accompanied by a separate video demonstrating the technique. High Set Video Thanks, Craig, for sending this nifty technical riff along to us.
The book? Membership for the coming year hasn't been settled, so the book will be a while in the making. In the meantime, the website will be updated as data dribbles in.
We are going to try out a new feature on the newspage. Let's call it The Book Blurb. The Blurb will note books not necessarily about tennis, but authored by CTC members. So, if you members have recently, or maybe not so recently, written a book that you'd like blurbed, please let us know.
Let's start with:
"The fundamental question of information philosophy is cosmological and ultimately metaphysical. What is the process that creates information structures in the universe?" Heady stuff, no?Well, the club's own Bob Doyle who works much magic here behind the scenes tackled this little issue in his book, Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy. And the club's own Craig Lambert wrote a nifty, readable article for Harvard Magazine on Bob and his place in the free will issue. Take a look at Craig's article,
Two Steps to Free Will.
In the midst of renovating garages and ruling vast sectors of cyberspace, Bob Doyle wrote a bit of a magnum opus:
Free Will: The Scandal in Philosophy by Bob Doyle. "The fundamental question of information philosophy is cosmological and ultimately metaphysical. What is the process that creates information structures in the universe?"
We have a new book by a club member, Game, Set, Match: Billie Jean King and the Revolution in Women's Sports, by club member, Susan Ware. The book is:
A Publishers Weekly Top 10 Sports Book.
We have some new books from club member, Julie Baer:
Love Me Later
Julie Baer presents us with a unique book. Her fantastic artwork depicts nature and people in a special way. -- Bookreviewcafe.com
I Only Like What I Like
"CHILDREN BEWARE –will have you trying the untried, 'cause it's FUN! The collages fill you up to the eyeballs."
Take a look at: William P. Homans, Jr., A Life in Court, by Mark S. Brodin. Bill Homans was a long time member of the club with "a storied legal career." A lot of folks at the club knew and liked Bill. He could tell a story or two, couldn't he?
We want to mention New Classic American Houses, a book by Dan Cooper about the architecture of Albert, Righter, and our own John Tittmann. "New Classic American Houses is an architectural page-turner brimming with creative interpretations of traditional forms."
Hot off the presses, a new book by Faith Moore, Celebrating a Life, Planning Memorial Services and Other Creative Remembrances. "Celebrating a Life" provides the ideas, inspiration, and how-to advice needed for creating a meaningful memorial service. Light-hearted but sensitive, this thoughtful guide covers it all."
While We Were Sleeping by David Hemenway.
"This book powerfully illuminates how public health works with more than sixty success stories drawn from the area of injury and violence prevention."
The Parents We Mean To Be: How Well-Intentioned Adults Undermine Children's Moral and Emotional Development by Rick Weissbourd.
The New Yorker review said, "In this ardent and persuasive inquiry, Weissbourd, a Harvard psychologist, warns that 'happiness-besotted' parents do children a disservice by emphasizing personal fulfillment over empathy."
Some useful links:
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.
"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.)
The Yearbook
link will take you to the last newspage from 2014. 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 Cambridge weather site.
Click for weather forecast
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 said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2014). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
