ANOTHER SUCCESS!

The doubles tournament I publicised recently by email to 203 of you, took place as planned last Thursday morning. By the smiles on the faces of the participants after the event,(photo) and on the obviously happy atmosphere during the play, the efforts of the organisers were well rewarded. The randomisation of partners & opponents was obtained in an informal, but effective way, by a mixing up of racquets. (photo) Complaints such as, "I had to play against that horrid man with a beard 3 times", were not heard, & several players were seen to be well pleased, to be on the same court as a former 'Champion de la Côte d'Azur'. (photo) The entire play took only the allocated one & a half hours, with each timed encounter involving about 4 games - deuce scores being followed by 'no-add' ('sudden death') to abbreviate game-lengths. There was an enormous good humour generated by all this, & the concluding ceremony in the restaurant, awarded the prizes to the well-merited winners: gentlemen - George Buter, & Charles Bond; ladies - Bridget Milburn, & Laura Debruce. Well done!

I hear that similar events will be planned about every 6 weeks: a convenient number of places in each of these tournaments seems to be 24, taking up 6 courts, with each player occupied for the full one & a half hours. To work well, such a system necessitates definite registrations well before, with no last-minute drop-outs, please!

Best wishes for future good matches, all of you, & perhaps a better score next time! But it's the fun that counts, isn't it? A bientôt!

WEEPING WILLOW

Those of you who had noticed that the tree with descending branches near the office, was a weeping willow (Fr. saule pleureur), must have also noticed that it received its annual pruning the other day. Here is a photo with Fred's head in the middle of it. All the branches have since been removed for burning: a pity, some will say. Ardent basket-makers may still have time to find a pile of these thin, flexible branches down by the swimming pool, to practice this ancient craft. A neighbouring farmer was an adept many years ago.

An interesting tree, the wood being used to make cricket bats, the bark having yielded salicylic acid used in the preparation of aspirin. A literary history also - a symbol of unrequited love: remember the song in Shakespeare's 'Othello'. Here's the last lines:

Sing willow, willow, willow:

Sing all a green willow must be my garland.

Act 4 Scene 3

And for our German friends, a reference to the same tree (die Weide) from a Schubert song in the cycle 'Die schöne Müllerin':

In Grün will ich mich kleiden,

In grüne Tränenweiden:

Mein Schatz hat grün so gern.

TOUSSAINT DOWNPOUR

With remarkable regularity, the beginning of November brings us rain. This year was no exception, we had a day of very heavy & incessant rain, with the accompanying rivers on both sides of the Club carrying lots of sand, earth, & stones before them. An immense amount of work was as usual needed to restore the claycourts to a playable condition; but after such a downpour, some of the hardcourts also, were badly affected. My first photo shows a fairy-like view of courts 6 & 7; note the rows of sand washed in from the opposing side, & the strange reflections from the remaining water. Hardly recognisable as tennis courts!

I include also a photo of a tennis ball that acquired a good coating of mud during the deluge. Even a golf ball appeared near the courts, washed down from 'La Bastide'.......

We were lucky to have been able to replay on all the courts so soon after all this.

NEW GIRLS

The current situation in many Tennis Clubs in the area, is a lack of good lady players (girls in my title) : so that it is with particular pleasure that I post this photo of a group of promising players containing 5 new faces. This was taken after a 'roundrobin' tournament arranged by the two new coaches.

Training sessions of such groups occur frequently now; they are well worth watching for the enthusiasm of both coaches & girls. There is an emphasis on rapid movements, well-finished strokes, balls hit to the baseline, volleys & smashes. Exercises in important tactics in doubles- play are frequent; the spectacle can be exciting, & always full of good humour. Come & watch, & you will want to join in!

CONKERS & CHESTNUTS

Visiting Belgian friends Alain (a valiant tennisman) & Janine Verrydt (photo) for a shampoo & haircut in their saloon of La Grande rue, Valbonne, I left by first crossing the Place des Arcades towards the Post Office side, & then by starting to walk up the long flight of steps. Looking right, I noticed horse-chestnuts (photo) below a tree that I hadn't ever noticed before: I went down & collected a few of these shiny, mahogany-coloured seeds. In England, they are known as 'conkers'; the reason being, that as children we made a hole through them, & passed a piece of string, knotted at one end, through the hole. The game was to play alternately 'hold a suspended conker in the air' & 'hit the opposing conker with your own', until one or the other was broken. In this way, separate conkers accumulated a score according to the number of opposing conkers broken. The added scores of opposing conkers were added together & attributed to the new winner. This once-popular English game between schoolboys is apparently unknown in France: presumably it is known that they are unedible, except for pigs (& perhaps horses).

There is a confusion in the naming of these seeds of the chestnut & horse-chestnut trees which I will now try to elucidate. In French, the distinction 'châtaigne' from a 'châtaigner' & 'marron' from a 'marronier' is clear: the first is edible, the second is not. But what about 'chaux, chaux les marrons !' & 'les marrons glaçés' ? Both these products emanate from châtaigners and not marroniers, n'est-ce pas?

For botanical precision, the trees are Castanea sativa yielding the chestnut, & Aesculus hippocastanum yielding the horse-chestnut.

This is now the time of year to visit St. Vallier, sur la route Napoléon, the village has a fine array of marroniers surrounding the equivalent of an English village-green (even used as a cricket pitch!)

The route from Grasse is either via Cabris, or via St. Cézaire. A good weekend outing: then please watch the Club notices for match events the following Thursday morning, & for music-lovers, another notice gives the details of a concert next Sunday in Peymeinade: the Dvorak 'cello concerto & 'New World' Symphony.

What an amazing area we live in!

OLDEST SURVIVING MEMBER

By the title of this post, I mean the Club member who started at the earliest date with the Vignal. I played against him this morning, & as we have confirmation from Madame Gardet that Alan Bennett (not the author of this name) was already a member in 1982, I feel obliged to make the fact known, & also to accede to his request to publish a photo of himself. Here is one above, & there will be one somewhere on my tennis website later.

If any of you have not met Alan, it will be because he has done a great deal of work these last few years in Kazakhstan, looking for oil - to keep 'the home fires burning', & to keep our cars on the road. Alan is a geophysicist specialising in seismic studies (he sets up earth vibrations by explosives, or other means & records the subsequent vibrational echos. This gives information as to where oil may possibly be found, & so to where drilling could be profitable.)

On the other hand, you may be surprised to learn that Alan's wife, Carmen in her own speciality, recently became World champion in Dog Obedience Training. (We have no evidence that she has ever practised these skills on Alan! or has ever taken her animals to prospective oilfields in sniffing trials.)

The only other competitor for the title of longest serving member, as far as we know, is Stefan van Holst of Frankfurt: but his membership is recorded as starting in 1984, two years after Alan. We await any claims from other readers............

FRENCH TENNIS BALLS

Numerous are the Anglo-French matches in our Club: one of the most recent was between our Cornish champion, Matt Frost, & that well-known anglophile, Jean-Philippe Goudeau (photos). As Matt trundled himself onto court, I heard him mutter something about the battle of Agincourt. In fact he used the correct name of the village associated with that massacre; 'Azincourt', which is situated in the Pas de Calais near Boulogne-sur-mer. (The village named 'Agincourt' exists, but is near Nancy in north-east France.) The origins of this well-chronicled battle date from the time when the English King Henry V claimed land in France from their Charles VI; & in fact coveted his crown. The cheeky reply from the French king's eldest son, the Dauphin, was a present to King Henry of some tennis balls!

Shakespeare records the reply with his customary elegance:

K.Henry:

We are glad the Dauphin is so pleasant with us;

His present and your pains we thank you for;

When we have match'd our rackets to these balls,

We will, in France, by God's grace, play a set

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

K.HenryV,ActI,ScII

A little explanation is needed of the term 'hazard': this word, unused in our 'lawn tennis', occurs in the older game of 'royal tennis', now called 'real tennis' ('court tennis' in the States). The 'hazard' is the side of the net from which players receive the balls: the server plays always from the other side. This game is now only played in 40 courts around the world - covered courts, as balls may be hit against the walls & windows. The balls are made of cork, felt & tape - they rebound less than our tennis balls, so the special wooden rackets are curved to facilitate play off the floor & in the corners of the court. This may have helped royalty, who were not used to bending their knees! (see previous post: KNEES.)

Anglophobes will try not to remember, that the result of this infamous battle was an overwhelming victory for England, (in spite of the vastly superiority in numbers of the French forces.) As for our Cornish veteran, I am, for the moment, uninformed of the outcome.......

MOUNTAINS & MEN

Looking out from the Vignal courts in a north-northeast direction, we have the pleasure every day of seeing the nearest mountain: it's called 'Les Courmettes'. (photo) Many are surprised that it's altitude is over a thousand metres : in fact 'Le pic de Courmettes' has a height of 1 248 m! Only 96 m less than Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the British Isles).

Looking northwest, the highest point is somewhere above Le Pas de la Faye, at over 1 400 m (photo) & north of St. Vallier: thus, higher than the Scottish peak (1 344 m).

Those of you wishing to be seen on the summit of our neighbouring mountain, must take the road through Bar-sur-Loup, Pont-du-Loup, continuing a hundred metres in the direction Tourettes-sur-Loup, & there turning sharp left to the village of Courmes. There you will find refreshment before leaving the car & walking up to the summit. Please tell us when you set out, & wear something yellow, so we will be able to see you waving!

I have often been surprised when chatting with Vignal members & visitors, by the unexpected activities of people: these surprises have sometimes occurred after many years of aquaintance. Imagine after about 10 years, finding that the late friend Hank, of the Dutch group, had not only been a racing driver, but was well-versed in the intricate construction of stringed instruments & especially of double-basses! It is certainly interesting to talk to people - to be friendly towards others - however much they are strangers in the first place. You never know what you may learn.

All this is an introduction to what I recently learned of one of us: he hasn't been a member very long, but when he passed by my balcony the other day, not having seen him for some time, I asked him why he hadn't been playing recently...........

He had been training to climb Kilimanjaro!!

The details followed by email: this is an amazing effort by Jonathan Hooker, to raise money for poor children existing in the village of Amani, at the foot of this mountain.

You may find all the details of altitude, volcanic activity, exposure to high winds, lack of oxygen, &c here. This will be a feat, starting October 13th, needing considerable endurance & courage.

Jonathan is appealing for sponsorship from friends & relations, & any of you inspired by this example. He has sent me the following links :

www.justgiving.com/jonimanjaro to donate.
www.amanikids.org to find out more about the childrens home.
www.facebook.com/jonathan.hooker1 to see my progress.
www.twitter.com/jonimanjaro to see my progress.

TOURNAMENTS

The earlier announced Exhibition match, postponed from the previous Saturday, eventually took place on the afternoon of the 25th September. This turned out to be an appropriate day for this celebration, as it was also Jean-René's birthday. During an appropriate warm-up for such a strenuous match, the strokes became more & more rapid, the serves rose to a lightening rate, the volleys & smashes took on an incredible force & accuracy, until the actual match was underway. It soon became evident that the younger contestant had an extraordinary mobility, with always that magnificent stability & balance at the moments of making a stroke. Manu, on the other hand, covered the court with increasing rapidity with his enormous strides, & was the more enterprising in his frequent adoption of service-volley tactics. This, of course made the exchanges very exciting, & the appreciative crowd roared their approval. Perhaps Manu was more favoured by the applause, being better known by the Vignal members, & apparently winning slightly less points...........

We have to remark at this stage, that the umpire, David Gorman, seemed gradually to make more & more errors in announcing the score! This was of course very unusual in a match at this level; fortunately the audience took all this in good part, as these errors were always to the advantage of their favourite player......

To add to the unorthodoxy of the umpiring, there was obviously a certain collusion, between both players & David (see photos), as it shortly appeared that neither contestant had won this match, & as we all know, tennis matches can never result in a draw.......

The occasion finished outside the Restaurant, where food & drink & prizes had been efficiently organised by Lori. The prize-winners were from the recent Club tournament: one small family predominating here, (which we hope will be remedied at subsequent events). Come on you others!!

EXHIBITION MATCH & BARBECUE

The club tournament matches played off this last weekend will be followed by a series of finals this Saturday the 18th. If you hadn't entered this tournament through modesty, fear of being beaten, or any other reason, you must still be interested in seeing some high class tennis on court rather than on TV. An Exhibition Match has been promised with one of the players being our resident Top Player, Jean-René Lisnard, mentioned in an earlier blog. This is to be arranged starting at 5 pm, & will be followed by a Barbecue, as a fitting end to all this great tennis. Reserve your places with the Restaurant (04 93 66 55 73), bringing friends if you wish.

I'm adding photos of our English Coach, David Gorman, & our old friend & Monaco Davis Cup Team Captain, Emmanuel (Manu) Heussner, both organisers helping to revivify our Vignal Club. Support them!

CLUB PLAYERS

After writing about 'top players' recently, I come back for a moment to our more modest 'Club players'. They have been making their own efforts, which I think should be recorded.

We should congratulate, first of all, our enthusiastic doubles couple, Ken & Joyce, who, not content with winning honours locally (see photo), made the journey to England this summer, to take part in a tournament on grass at the Tunbridge Wells Tennis Club. They reached the doubles final together & were only beaten by a couple of their own countrymen. Well done! They have also played separately in Singles tournaments: Joyce narrowly missed winning the final of her category in the recent ITF tournament in Grasse La Paoute.

I have earlier mentioned our Irish Veteran Captain, Neagle Cathcart, who continues to grace our courts with his efficient presence: he, also took part in this recent tournament in Grasse,& while being eliminated in the over 55 men's final; combined with our loyal, Lucien, won the men's doubles convincingly.

Neither has our youth been idle in competition: Alexander Pearch was only beaten in the 4th round of a Bath tournament. He has already shown his promise in several tournaments in this area, as photos on the Club office door testify.

That our Club is becoming a hotbed of junior talent, is shown from day to day by the participation in high-level training of the family Ferro, for example. All three siblings were here again this evening: Fiona, telling me she only lost in the Sophia final at the incredible level at that age-group of -4/6! Here's a promised photo of this 12-year old France number 1.

More news of these gifted youngsters profiting from vigorous training here in the Vignal, in future posts.

I promise not to forget to comment on all we others: but please take more balls in the air in your doubles matches..............

Don't be dull base-liners! Aggress!

TOP PLAYERS

During the last few weeks we have had the privilege of being able to watch some top players on the Vignal courts. The highest ranked of these is Jean-René Lisnard, who is number one in the Monaco Davis Cup team, & who has been a few years ago, in the first hundred players in the world. Here are photos of his service, & of his backhand: for details of his career you can consult the ATP site.

We have seen this player training young champions such as Enzo Py, under 16 French & European champion: notice the position of his racquet as he serves in the next photo.

The youngest champion we have seen is from Valbonne, Fiona Ferro, 12 year old champion of France. I hope to photograph her for you on her next visit.

In the meantime, don't hesitate to ask me to take photos of your best shots; although I can't promise to publish them for all to see ..............

Coming back to the subject of my last post, the captain of the Irish Veteran Team, Neagle Cathcart, has given me details of a his recent knee operation, 'keyhole surgery', or 'arthroscopy' in which his cartilage meniscus necessitated a 'trim' after a slight injury he suffered through an over rapid twisting leg movement. (What did I tell you about getting in & out of the bath!!)

Anyway, all is apparently well thanks to a Wellington Hospital surgeon, & you will probably see him giving Lucien Zsarnai a hard time tomorrow lunchtime on number 2 court. At other times you may see that his young son, Patrick doesn't quite manage to beat his dad yet. So paternal honour is preserved for the moment.

Now get out there you lot, & volley your way through a few more sets! Best wishes!

KNEES

In my last post, I mentioned the numerous 'bandaged ' knees in my photo of the Ladies' Group. I have encountered more damaged knees since that time, so I gladly enter into more details on this subject, with warnings of what movements may further endanger the stability of these important joints. Let us first of all, be quite clear, that knee joints are 'hinge' joints which means, that they have evolved to move mainly within one plane of movement. They are unlike shoulder & hip joints, which are described as 'ball & socket' joints, & which obviously have a much greater range of movement in space. Here, I introduce the first photo above the text - six volunteered undamaged knees, whose owners, you are free to guess!

What must we do, to preserve our knees in these pristine states? I will attempt to answer this question as best I can, with some reference to injuries I myself suffered back in year 2005. My indiscretions were, first of all, to play too many hours per week, with a fair proportion of these hours on hard court rather than the kinder clay surfaces. Ignoring the first signs of damage, I was then over-assiduous in following the professional instruction provided in a restaurant SALSA evening (epoch of Fabien & Guilène - for those who go back so far). The next photo shows something of the warm ambiance of that evening - which may perhaps explain any undue exuberance we showed. Study the lower leg movement in this dance, & you may imagine the injuries sustained!

For more normal daily pursuits, here are a few warning remarks, to help you preserve those valuable knees:

1. Be especially careful, when stepping in & out of the bath, not to slip on the dangerously wet surfaces.

2. When walking, keep your leg movements in correct vertical planes & avoid irregular surfaces. Do not wobble!

3. Avoid being offered a lift in over-expensive car front seats, such as those of Aston Martin, Mercedes, &c : you may manage to ease yourself into one of those low-lying seats, but the effort of extracting your two legs simultaneously from that position, may prove fatal to those precious knee ligaments.

4. Avoid buying one of the said vehicles.

5. Practise cycling as often as possible.

6. Swim as much as you can, but never using the breast stroke, which has an inconvenient leg movement.

7. Don't sit with your knees crossed.

8. Don't listen to nonsense about acupuncture, but if you really enjoy having needles stuck into you, it can't do you much harm.

9. If you are really convinced on the merits of ingesting compounds such as 'glucosamine' daily,

keep on as long as you like - they are not particularly poisonous.

10. Consult a good physiotherapist, who may give you daily exercises to develop muscles surrounding your knees. (This worked for me.)

Good luck with your articulations & your tennis!

ANIMATION

Summer days are here at last, & several events have already filled up the Club with matches & good humour. Last Friday, the Ladies International Group arrived with pleasantly outrageous hats, & other appendages: so here's a photo of them before they started playing their 'round Robin' tournament. (Notice the number of bandaged knees before the play: I hope to refer to knee problems in a later post) After the 2 hour struggle, drinks, speeches, & prize-giving, the 20 or so ladies disappeared. As, soon afterwards, a well-known husband & his son appeared in the restaurant explaining that they had been thrown out of their villa, I knew where the team had gone.

The following morning saw the arrival of our former tennis teacher, Manu Heussner, with an English coach, David Gorman, both prepared to encourage arriving parents to enrol their offspring in the coming holiday stages of tennis & other sports. They had announced 'Open Day' from 10 to 12 that morning: an event to be repeated later on. An all-too short demonstration of tennis doubles was included in the morning's activities: it seemed that the two coaches were rather too dangerous for a couple of sea-faring new members shown in the next photo.

Sunday morning started off at 8 am with the regularly enthusiastic men's doubles organised by myself & matt frost: the latter however was clearly seen to pass by our court during play, & on into the swimming pool. The reason for this change of direction has not yet been revealed, but the extent of the 'splash' was unmistakeable!

The main animation of this Sunday, consisted of match play between younger & older players of a certain level, organised by our senior teacher, Philippe Pech. Let me illustrate the kind of level by the next photo: many of you will have seen the vigorous play between Ken & Jean-Marc & their friends; well, I am credibly informed, the winners of this tournament, were Sylvain & Max, two of our more promising youngsters. (They often help with the teaching of our école de tennis on Wednesdays & Saturdays.) Congratulations to all concerned, including Jacqueline & helpers in the restaurant, catering for about 50 in the barbecued meal which followed.

Monday saw 6 visiting ladies from Shrewsbury, England, on the courts again for 2 h play. They cooled off in the pool afterwards, before regretfully finishing this short Valbonne holiday. They thoroughly enjoyed their visit & said how much they liked the Vignal. We shall surely see them again next year.

That summer is well & truly here, was shown at Tuesday lunch: the restaurant was crowded with two groups - Dutch & French, plus several other tables. A good sign.

JOUR DE FÊTE

click on photos to enlarge

To record the success of Monday's events, I think a series of photos illustrates what happened much better than words. Note the photo showing the concentrated study needed at the beginning - to cope with last minute withdrawals - then see what they missed!

You'll note Stuart carrying beer for his supporters, but then wisely drinking water on the court. In the excellent meal following 4 rounds of arduous, & well-fought doubles, you can count the smiles in the sunny restaurant scenes. This gives some idea of the overall good humour pervading this happy day.

Suggestions that some of the couples were too strong for even competition have been heard. Computations to correct this in arrangements for the next friendly tournament are already well in progress. We hope you will not have long to wait before you can enjoy a similar jour de fête!

EASTER MONDAY

You all enjoy playing with your usual partners; next Monday, you will have the chance to play with several different ones. Look around the Club, & imagine how lucky you might be! The happy event of a Club Friendly Mixed Tournament has been announced, & I promised to remind you of this. Many of you know the way it works. First you have to sign up in the Office (hurry! numbers may be limited!); you pay €20 to include lunch, & you arrive promptly at 9.30 am, Monday the 5th April, well-equipped to flash those balls back & forth. You will probably have to play at least 5 rounds, with a different partner each time. Matches are abbreviated to a total of 8 games, or something like that: watch out that the games are not announced 'no-add': you will be told all this when you arrive well on time.

Latest news of our Men's First Team, captained by one of our teachers, Franck Burgos, is that they came up against a very strong team in Menton last Sunday, & lost the encounter 2/5. This was the last match of the season - fortunately, the previous weekend they had won two matches magnificently at 8/0. In the Saturday match against 'Les Acacias', our Quentin Meges was able to help, back from his tennis & studies in San Fransisco for a few days. Then on the Sunday against 'Nice Mediterranée', they had our former teacher, & Monaco Davis Cup Team Captain, Manu Heussner with them.

Alternate heavy rain & bright sun, has encouraged early-flowering wild plants in the surrounding area. Look again at my tennis site to remind you of what you may find. I will mention here first, the beautiful wild anemones, & then a plant, with the curious common name of 'sun spurge', which has been present in the grounds for several weeks now. It's inflorescence contains several male organs of one stamen each, surrounding one female structure. There are no petals. It must have been an early development in the evolution of flowering plants; that is going back about 135 million years. It's genus is Euphorbia, see my photo above, along with one of two lonely anemones. Careful about examining the 'spurge', when you break the stem there is a sticky white latex, which may be irritant, & surely poisonous.

Good luck in the tournament!

FLOWERS & MEMBERS

My post yesterday was well-received, judging from the replies I received. I did, however omit to mention the early flowers appearing at the usual times. The earliest is the plant with small blue flowers forming pale blue carpets between the courts. Called 'speedwell' in English, it is a species of 'véronique', almost certainly Veronica hederifolia. Examine it carefully, & will see that each flower has only 2 stamens. I mention it in my tennis site.

The second flowering plant appearing here was the celandine, already a few colonies are in evidence. I include a recent photo. Both flowers are not easy to photograph, as they tend to glisten in the sunlight. With a digital camera, better results are obtained by using the mode 'manuel', & reducing the exposure.

Next comes the curiously named 'spurge'; various species of Euphorbe. And then this morning I found several colonies of violet, near the river Brague; the stream which runs as an eastern border to the Club. Presenting one such flower to a lady member outside the restaurant, I was astounded to find that her friend sitting next to her, didn't know that the Brague was so near. At the moment, it is fairly full & clear: one day I even saw two ducks swimming along it. They quickly flew away at my approach. Seeing such birds in the air, you see that being fairly plump, they need a wing flap of about a 100 a minute to disappear from the sky so quickly.

If you wish to walk along the chemin des Pélerins, at the south of court 10, up to the ancient Eglise du Brusc, you must wear wellingtons in this season, because the bridge has been down for years, & you will have to paddle carefully across the stream.

After reading this blog, one member replied immediately, asking why I hadn't included his picture once again! I caught him this afternoon on Court 1; so here you see him after a rigorous training session with our retired sea captain, Mike Fiddes. I don't think Mike is telling Pierre what he did wrong; he was probably recounting one of his numerous stories from the bridge: how he grounded the ship on a sandbank near the island of Porus, Greece, for example.

Let's see you all on the courts again soon, & afterwards in earnest conversation with fellow-members. Best wishes.

SPRING IN THE AIR

Excuse this long silence! Looking back to last November, we had beautiful weather; but there was a long wet period afterwards. December was very wet, rather like the previous December, but well above the average rainfall for that month. January was also well above average - similar to the two previous months of January. It was February that was really exceptional. In the 12 years of my records, this was the by far the February during which we lost the greatest number of days of tennis; you will all remember February 11th, when we had 25 cm of snow! - not seen on the Côte d'Azur since 1986.

We finished the important Club Tournament in time, in spite of a rainy start. The entry was good, although lady players were in short supply. The Men's Open attracted 132 players; there was a high level of play, leading to the well-attended final on Sunday afternoon. There was also a big entry in the 4 age-categories from 9 to 16 for boys: here again the level of play was very high. The last match to be played on Sunday was the over-55 men's event. Our loyal Finnish member, Markku lost this while other competitors & friends were enjoying an apéritif in the restaurant: fortunately, he had won the final of the over-60 event in the morning. Our lady Captain, Joyce became champion of the Ladies' Open by w.o., her opponent couldn't get back in time from a Team match in Toulon. A very successful tournament, to the credit of all concerned, & especially to the credit of the smiling, efficient juge-arbitre, Edgar Mus.

It was good to see our regular players back on the courts on Monday morning, & to see our 3 tennis teachers back at work. Some of that bright sun & blue skies that we all need, although still that north-east wind bringing more clouds along. The great thing, is that we are back playing! Spring is certainly in the air, & starts officially this Saturday. Look out for more of those enjoyable mixed tournaments for you all in the near future. I'll try to keep you posted. In the meantime; watch the ball!