Rosencrantz: "Madam, it so fell out, that certain players
We o'er-raught on the way: of these we told him;
And there did seem in him a kind of joy
To hear of it: they are about the court,
And, as I think, they have already order
This night to play before him."
Hamlet - Act 3, Scene 1
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The club is a theatre. Yesss, when you walk through that magic gate, you are on stage. The club has it all: consumate actors, stately costumes, high drama, uproarous comedy, true farce. (Do we have strutting? Do we have fretting? Do we?) And do we have dialogue? |
Player One: CRUD!
Player Two: Crud?
Player One: Yesyesyes: CRUD
Player Two: I haven't heard the word 'crud' in a while.
Player One: Just serve.
Player Off: I wish a were a better player.
Player On: I wish I were a better person.
Player Off: I don't care about any of that. I just wish I could play better.
Player Null: Come on. When you force me that far off the court you really should make the shot.
Player Void: God save Ireland, that was a terrible shot.
Player Ought: What a moron I am. Help me.
And we have stalwarts who come and play in the drizzle and mist on the soft and sodden courts. Yes, we were open during most of the rain and gloom.
Darkness devours (all? no, not all) the back courts at about 7:00 in the evening. 7:00 play is limited to the lighted front courts although some fanatics are still reserving court 3 at 7:00. The competition for lighted courts at prime time can be fierce. Please be kind to the staff when you call.
September is traditionally our second busiest month. (The busiest is June.) But way alas, we have lighted courts at prime time that are empty.
This year's tournaments have been cancelled for lack of interest except for the Mixed Doubles Tournament. The sign-up sheet is on the porch bulletin board. (You can also call the club and ask a staff member to put your name up, and you can request the club pro to find you a partner. We recommend that you ask for a formidable partner while you're at it.)
"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. Bettern't we?)
Take a look
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.
The club book, right now, should be right by your hand. The website also has up-to-date info. The Rules section, the Governors and Committees and Activities (tournaments, round robins, etc) sections are current for 2005. Also, the Waiting List (which is not featured in the book) is current and ordered on the website. (The Waiting List and the list of New Members can be accessed through the FAQ page.) We thank the committee heads for making the information available in such a timely fashion and we urge all public spirited readers to proof-read.
'Members', and' Reservation Requests' are not active parts of the site nowadays. 'Timelines' is for adepts.
We'll keep the tournament draws available on-line (including all of the results), thanks to the Java Kid:
And the previous tournaments:
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Tournaments |
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And here's the saga of 2002's tournaments (so's we can compare and contrast):
And the saga of the year before (we're mighty fancy here, and mighty grateful to the Java Kid for doing all this work):
Phew.
The Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2004. From there you can see the whole of the Persistant 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.
