Johanne Gauthier
"And now what rests but that we spend the time
With stately triumphs, mirthful comic shows,
Such as befits the pleasure of the court?"
-King Edward IV
King Henry VI, Part iii
"What a polite game tennis is. The chief word in it seems to be "sorry" and admiration of each other's play crosses the net as frequently as the ball."
~J.M. Barrie
Every weekday the courts are booked solid from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. (Bliss prevails.) At noon, our Outreach Program brings us dozens of frolicsome kids from camps and programs in Cambridge. Prime time is busy, and summer members are playing late. We are busy, not only anecdotally, but statistically: Sheila tells us that the chit count and sign-in sheet show that we are selling balls, using the ball machine, renting the club, and entertaining guests at a terrific clip. July may prove to be busier than June. The Vineyard must be a ghost town.
Johanne has had some impact on the club, hasn't she? She's running Round Robins (to Rave Revues), organizing pick-up doubles and clinics, playing and hitting and coaching anyone and everyone. She's everywhere. And the club is lucky to have her.
As always, we solicit your comments and queries. We have one we'd like to pass along:
"Dear (...newspage), I've been reading Today's News regularly for a while now. I would like to comment on your epigrams or epigraphs or whatever eps they should be known as. While sometimes pretentious, they are more often apt and amusing. Who knew that Shakespeare was smiling down on me while I flub backhands? The problem for me is that, of late, I've been reading only the eps and skipping the rest of the news.
I look at the pictures too.
| The next Round Robin is scheduled for next Thursday, August 2. The meal will be pizza. |
The staff kindly requests that members observe the rules regarding advance reservations. (Advance reservations may be made from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. and again from 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.) Please don't try to trick the staff, or cajole, confuse, or conjure the staff into giving you an advance reservation at, say, 7:59.99999. No heart breaking stories, please. (My llama is sick. I have to rush her to... I can't wait 'til eight. My Volvo just blew up. I have to save my children. My Golden Retriever just...)
The old house clock was triangulated to the mighty atomic clock in Berne and the Great Cartesian Grid Clock in Oblivia, but now in 2007, we are even more accurate: we use our cell phones and Lennie Singer's cell phone. Lennie's is state of the art. It is something to behold. It just radiates precision. Reservations are not taken until the 8:00 a.m. flashes across the face of what are possibly the most precise timepieces on the planet (and perhaps beyond).
The 'dedicated' court? The club is trying something new this year: a court dedicated all day for the use of the pros. Court 3, usually. The idea is that you members can come to the club any old time and find a pro or a hitting partner and a court and perfect your tennis. The dedicated court is released if no pro has reserved it by 8:00 a.m. the day before. Capiche? (You want a court for 6:00 on Tuesday and they're all booked except for the dedicated court? Call at 8:00 a.m. on Monday. Be happy.)
Please take a look at the new schedule of clinics. This year the club is offering a number of clinics that we haven't had before, some with our new assistant pros.
William Gibson, of Neuromancer fame, said that the future is already here, but that it isn't evenly distributed. CTC has its share: a wireless router. So, if you have a wireless card on your laptop and you want to go somewhere, check with the staff about our password and send your avatar off on adventures.
In case you haven't noticed, we've added some features to the website. Check 'em out.
The club book should be in your hands by now. Much of the information in the book is updated and available on the website.
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.
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.)
Take a look
Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2006. 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.
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 (2006). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage. (Skywriter is for Initiates.)
