Molly Downer, Women's Singles Champion
"The jaws of darkness do devour it up:
So quick bright things come to confusion."
-Lysander A Midsummer Night's Dream
Act 1, Scene 1
The Columbus Day Party was a hoot: the stars were out, the weather just about perfect, the food wicked plentiful. People ate and laughed and whacked balls and chatted and grilled. What fun, what fun.
The tournaments are over. The Columbus Day Party has passed. And now the light disappears. Darkness does us in, more than cold weather. Darkness eats the back courts at 6:00 now, so there's no play on the back courts after that eating. The front courts are under the lights. Mornings are still busy, though many players are opting for indoor play. Oh woe. Is there nothing here for us?
Sure there is: we still have some beautiful days with clear, soft light and agreeable temperatures. And:
| The club's Closing Party, aka the Year End Cocktail Party, will take place early this year, on Sunday, October 24, from 6:30 to 8:30 (Note the time change.) Beer, wine, soft drinks and exquisite gourmet nibbles will be served. The time of the event has been changed to mitigate traffic and parking problems caused by the Head of the Charles Regatta. The courts will still be open for a while after the party, but this is your last official chance to party down at the club. |
The last day of play is November 11.
And the 2010 club Champions are:
|
Thanks to the players and the fans who braved the cold weather this past weekend for the final series of club championship tournaments! A first note: I want to send a big thank you to Joe DeBassio for making this weekend's tournament work. Following Friday evening's deluge, Joe was at the club at 6a on Saturday morning, mopping up courts and - against all odds - getting them ready for play by 10a on Saturday morning. Thank you, Joe! The women's doubles draw had a dearth of teams and in the shortest club championship tournament ever, the first round AND finals were one and the same. Employing their steely skills and depth of experience, the team of Lauren Norton and Maeve McNally overcame the talented but new pairing of Susanna Greenup and Molly Downer in two sets to claim the 2010 women's doubles title. Congratulations Lauren and Maeve! There were some exciting matches in every round of the men's singles tournament. One of the nail biters was the second round, three set thriller between Jackson Hall and Ken Turnbull on Saturday. While Ken was the ultimate victor, these two had some amazing points and showed great fortitude as their match exceeded two hours. Fans were energized watching their heroic gets and seemingly endless points. Just watching felt like a workout! In the men's consolation finals, with some great rallies and long points, Steve Kendall pulled one out against Peter Maggs, defeating him in two sets. The finals featured John Sedgwick vs. Michael Fix in a back and forth contest of great skill and speed. Ultimately, Sedgwick triumphed 6-4 in the third set to take the CTC men's singles title for 2010. Congratulations to John! Some club members may have noticed that the plaques have not been updated with 2009 winners of tournaments. Fear not, these will be updated in the coming weeks with both the 2009 and the 2010 victors. Thanks to everyone who played, helped, ate food, swept courts, took photos, and watched matches in the 2010 tournament season. We're already looking forward to the competition, fun, and excitement to come in 2011! Best, Lauren & Molly |
We seek contributions from members. Insights, jibes, cracks, questions, suggestions, remarks, jokes.
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? The club directory should be in your hand, always, but the website has much of this year's info.
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:
Our newest book to be blurbed is: 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."
Inside Urban Charter Schools: Promising Practices and Strategies in Five High-Performing Schools by Kay Merseth "an inspirational and practical how-to guide for school reformers."
The club directory for 2010 should be in your hands or by your side all day, every day. But, should something untoward befall you and the directory isn't handy, all of this year's information is available on the website, except for membership information.
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
The Yearbook link will take you to the last newspage from 2009. 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 said clicker can read the news pages for the whole year (2009). The less-than link (<) next to the honeycomb icon will take clickers to the previous issue of this year's newspage.
This Version:
