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!