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.
