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!

WINE-TASTING AUTHOR

I have received a message from a member who has already published a book on wine called, 'Corkscrewed'. He is American, Robert Camuto, who you may have seen on the courts, when he is not travelling around vineyards in France & Italy, writing about what he is eating & drinking. He also visits Sicily looking for traces of his ancestry. Interesting recitals of his gastronomic journeys are often published in the 'Washington Post', & you may consult these on-line on his website along with the occasional video showing him visiting vineyards & tasting their products.

He tells me has now published another book on his passions for vineyards & wines, but this time in French (His wife, Gelda is French & born in this area.) In case all this whets your appetite to know more, Robert's message to me gives the following details for perusal, & possible acquisition of a signed copy of this latest publication.

The simple ceremony will be held in the nearby bookshop of Pré-du-Lac, next Saturday morning from 9.30 am to 12.30 pm. The event will be all the more convivial by the presence of another member & wine-bibber ; none other than our Michel Piffaretti, who of course will be offering the annual wine-tasting of the Beaujolais nouveau.

If the prospect of having to read a whole book in French seems daunting to some of you, my suggestion is that this may be just the Christmas present the most appropriate for some dear friend.

The bookshop-café in Pré-du-Lac is on the road to Grasse, near a bakery. See you there perhaps.

SMASHES

I promised to write about smashes in your doubles games: so here is a description of the technique, with photos. The demonstrations are kindly provided by the teacher Franck, Captain of the Men's First Team (right-hander); and First Team player & Breton, Yann-Vari (left-hander).

The main points to note are:

1. Immediately in position under the falling ball, with front shoulder towards the net, the racquet head should be well back behind the head.

2. Watching the ball very carefully, the racquet is projected with fully extended arm, to meet the ball.

3. The follow-through of this stroke normally ends on the other side of the body to the hit, with a breaking of the wrist to bring the ball down well into the court.

4. Although this point is not demonstrated in these photos, we lesser mortals are helped in concentrating on the ball, by using the free arm to point directly at the ball until the moment of contact.

In good doubles play, it is a useful tactic with a high ball nearer the net, to smash at an angle, forcing the opponent to have to chase the ball well out of the court. It is often better with lower balls to volley deep down the middle, between the two opponents.

Finally, it is essential to practise smashes during the warm-up, 'to get your eye in'.

Go to it!!

HOW TO PLAY DOUBLES

This morning I was enlisted non-forcibly in the Doubles Jousts of our dear friends, the Ladies Internats (8 different nationalities among 10 last time, American Captain, Judy-the-Tallest). I was against Scottish Loic & Dutch René-la-Grande, as for some reason, I'd asked to play with Jane-the-English. (Can't stand the English in general.)

We started off pretty well, & it seemed we were going to have an easy win: it was me to serve. I noticed, with some consternation, that my dear partner was standing in the best position to avoid all balls that were not in her small quarter of the court. Well perhaps she's just bluffing I thought: she's going to move like greased lightning the moment they lob her. Not on your life! She didn't move a centimetre, and me, anticipating a cross-court return, watched the ball fall far away on the other side. The game went on to a miserable defeat, & I'm pretty sure, if I'd drawn a circle around dear Jane before a point, she would have still been inside that circle after the point was decided.

To tell you the truth, she played very well most of the time this set, & even together with my mistakes, we only lost 3/6; I'm just making my first point :

1. BE MOBILE ! ANTICIPATE WHERE THE BALL IS GOING !

Watching average sociable doubles play, another very common error, is the player who sticks close to the net with partner serving - then remains near to the net - rather like a spare-part.

Moving from one side to another barely helps, & looks rather ridiculous as the poor server runs from side to side recuperating the lobs. Far better to move back to the service line to help cover the whole court! And if the opponents get a good initiative & start smashing...... move right back behind the base-line. Just until you two have returned everything & are ready to move forward volleying. Next rules then......

2. THE CLOSER YOU ARE TO THE NET, THE MORE IMPORTANT IT IS TO HIT A WINNER!

3. MOVE BACK WHEN YOU'VE NOTHING TO HIT! DON'T BE A SPARE PART!

For my second match, I again, without thinking, chose Barbara-the-English! After the first few mistakes, we played pretty well & won our first set 6/3. There was some combined play with quite a lot of volleying & overhead work. This reminds me, that some English are not all that bad, & of further important points about doubles play..........

4. TRY TO SET UP YOUR PARTNER FOR A WINNER!

This often means returning service as a strong ball to an inconvenient place on the back-line,

so that your partner can advance to make a winning volley. There are many other occasions for you to play as a team!

5. ADVANCE TO VOLLEY & BE PREPARED TO PLAY OVERHEAD BALLS!

The alternative is to indulge in cross-court singles in a doubles match........Ugh!

Much better, more exciting, & more attacking, is to make a first long, high return, & then to advance mid-court to give a first, long volley. The second volley or smash depends on your technique - try to practise smashes in the warm-up. (I'll give some description of classic smashes in a later post.)

6. ENJOY YOUR TENNIS! (as I know we all do!)