Monday, November 23, 2015
"That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none, or few, do hang
Upon those boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the sweet birds sang."
Sonnet 73
The courts opened on May 15 (a late date, that), and closed on November 3 (why so early? what the...?). The season was shorter than some. Yet, whooa, we packed in a lot of tennis, didn't we? We had very few days lost to rain, thanks to the drought and to the doughty staff. And we had lots of action: tournaments, round robins, family nights, clinics, groups, parties, and just, you know, play. (Want to hit a few balls?) And boyohboy did we ever have table tennis.
We thank our readers and contributors, especially Aleta for sending in many of the above photos and many other photos that we posted during the year, and Craig for his contributions. And we always thank Bob Doyle who is our guide and mentor.
Thanks to our Pres, Sharon, who not only took care of us, but gave us jolt of fun every time she came through the gate.
And to Liam, our cheery, unflappable Manager, who did an all-around nifty job.
(The crowd roars its approval.)
Sometime when you pass the club, you might look over the fence and remember that under all that ice and water and snow are our courts. Our courts.
Survive the winter. We will see you in the Spring.
One of our celebrity writers, Craig Lambert, has a piece appearing in the Sports Illustrated website on a new tennis rating system that is Give it a look.
Jen Radden, Women's Singles
(vs Donna Gordon)
Peter Urban, Men's Singles
(vs Kevin Cummings)
Aleta Cebere / Shana Roberts Jeffrey, Women's Doubles
(vs Jen Radden / Deb Pruitt)
Pierce Harman / Csaba Pazmany, Men's Doubles
(vs Michael Fix / Peter Urban)
Liz Herbert / Peter Urban, Mixed Doubles
(vs Shana R. Jeffrey / David Updike)
Molly Downer, Sr Women's Singles
(vs Faith Moore)
Anthony Herrey, Super Sr Men's Singles
(walkover)
Deb Pruitt / Peter Maggs, Sr Mixed Doubles (walkover)
Sr Men's Singles draw did not play.
Consolation Draws
Guy Stuart, Men's Singles
(vs David Smoyer)
Renata von Tscharner, Sr Women's Singles
(vs Suzanne Ogden)
Marty Miller, Sr Men's Singles
(vs Clark Abt
) Lucinda O'Neill / Carol Streit, Women's Doubles
(vs Jane Bernstein / Virginia Coleman)
Donna Gordon / Modestino Conte, Mixed Doubles
(vs Jana Magnette / Zach Goldberg)
Molly Downer / Bill Winkler, Sr Mixed Doubles
(vs Donna Gordon / Jack Hall)
Our own David Hemenway was brilliant on NPR a few Mondays ago.
David Hemenway
Here's the link to the podcast:
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 CupATP 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.
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.
