STRESS

In this gloriously warm weather, with your luxurious swimming pools close to hand; your tennis game facilities, relaxing conversation on the renewed restaurant terrace, prolonged lunch rendezvous;  few of  you may be feeling any of the stress that the New Owners may be experiencing during their multifarious new efforts and duties.

But a new factor in our environment has just appeared - on the ground-floor, south-west there is now a well-furnished bed with accomplished masseur in attendance !!

So it is here the few of you longing for a relieving anti-stress massage, will be treated: 

the first client emerged just this afternoon after a one & a half hour scéance:  a well-known character of the Club, she appeared radiant & with a completely new composure.

Many of you will surely want to follow this experience - this Claudio is from Paris, & will only be in this region for the summer holidays. Keep well & fit!

THE TIE-BREAK

Here is the adopted name of our new restaurant; not 'tea-break' you will note - but much more than a cup of tea. Since the opening last Monday, there has been a Plat du Jour, plus a Suggestion each day, with always a varied menu on the Carte. Here is a picture of the elegant setting, before the hordes of hungry tennis fans & friends arrived.

You can see the clear view of court number one, since the old cypress bushes have been removed on three sides of this restaurant terrace. (Make sure you reserve a more secluded court at lunchtime, if you are afraid of exposing your faulty techniques to the public gaze!)

Numbers enjoying the meals quickly increased during this first week of operation: by Thursday there were 36 at lunch; & by Friday there were 47!  You will appreciate the need to make early reservations in the morning with Olivier, especially in this period of beautiful weather we are all enjoying. I notice more & more visitors arriving from various wet or cold regions, coming in for a chat, perhaps a game of tennis, & surely a pleasant lunchtime meal in our good company. A few photos to record today's Sunday lunch:

Congratulations to all members of the new Club owners family, & to all of you who are helping to make this new venture a great success!

RAPID PROGRESS

Since the day the Club was bought, the premises have been gradually occupied by a host of workers of various trades & occupations. The place has been a hive of activity: first the cleaning by pressurised water of the concrete areas in front of the office & restaurant, then the washing & re-painting of the adjacent room, checking of showers & taps in the changing rooms, pruning & removal of bushes & borders. So there were teams of plumbers, cleaners, gardeners: in short, almost a regiment of workmen tidying-up the area.

Perhaps the greatest apparent change has been the removal of cypress bushes all round the restaurant terrace giving a new view of surrounding courts & players. Tennis lessons & games have continued as usual, with perhaps more interesting glances at the improvements in progress around them. This has not prevented acquaintance being made with members of the new owners' family;  they are tackling the learning of new names & faces of members & friends with an admirable  enthusiasm. How pleasant to see so many smiling faces enjoying this new beginning!

Happenings inside the restaurant were less visible but surely impressive. Drinks were continually served with speed & good humour; a sign of how we all will be served next week!

Yes, indeed, lunchtime meals will be available from Monday July 9th.

The teachers have been busy during this period, & I only hope that our Manu Heussner, has put in enough training to ensure his success in Paris to-morrow. Having beaten all-comers over 40 in the Côte d'Azur, he is now attempting to beat those in the rest of France in that category. He left for Roland Garros this afternoon.

A NEW BEGINNING

It has been a long wait since my January post, but I think my regular readers will have guessed the reason.  Quite simply, I had no definite news of the eventual sale of the Club. So here is what we have all been waiting for - the new owners of the Vignal, will be in possession from the 2nd of July.
So now we know! And the next question is how will this affect our tennis, reservations, refreshments, conversations, & meals in the restaurant?

In the case of our beloved game, I witnessed a summary inspection of the courts this morning: no doubt  substantial work on the clay courts will be instigated to correct faulty drainage, & lack of sufficient surface layer; but this will be quite an enterprise. I would expect only one court to be out of action at a time, but we will wait & see what is decided.

Reservations will be made in the usual way, your correspondent in the Office will be the new owner, Olivier Faubert.  His charming wife, Virginie, will be delivering your coffee & other drinks from the bar, & will be assisting the new Chef (name later) in serving the exquisite meals we all deserve! An important distinction from the numerous earlier restaurant gérants will be that there will be no lease - the business will be run by the Club owners themselves.

There have been two notable group events over the last months: a roundRobin followed by a meal & prize-giving by our Dutch contingent. You will see clearly below various well-loved characters, with the valiant Captain & organiser, George Buter in the centre.

This month of June saw the Ladies Group arrive in flowery apparel for a similar tournament. Here they are posing before the matches.

Again congratulations to the indefatigable Captain, Judy Arrieta.  This group disappeared after play, to the villa of one of the members, for a collective lunch & swim.

Look forward to a lot more tennis in the coming months, but keep a cap on, & drink plenty of water in the hot weather.  Keep fit & well!

A CHILLY SUNDAY

Much of the snow that fell the last day of January still lies hard-frozen around the Club & we are fortunate to have the hard courts & 3 or 4 of the terre-battues playable. Several courts were in use from 10 am onwards today - even after a minimum of -7C overnight.  Two events added some warmth to these arctic conditions: a team match against players from one of the Antibes clubs; & a new start in the Restaurant, with the wood-fired oven once again in service.  Farid & Adrian bravely combined to feed a cold group from the courts, with what I hear, were excellent pizzas:  more of this couple when we see how well this venture is supported.

Here is a photo of the First Team Men who won the Regional Match convincingly:

             Paolo Ferro                 Manu Heussner            David Gorman            Ken McNeill

Four singles matches gave us the score 3/1; the following two doubles matches gave the enthusiastic spectators exciting spectacles: our two teachers playing together, being particularly brilliant. Here they are in action:

I hope that watching such events contributes to the joys of playing in this Club; the aims of which I think, are not only to encourage better play, but to add to the feelings of being part of a happy, close-knit community.

The next important event starts on the 25th of this month - our annual Tournament.  This will mean that we are welcoming keen players from other Clubs in the region - we send out notices to over 130 other Clubs: in the Alpes-Maritimes & in the Var. Tennis is popular in France!  Some of you will have received a proforma so that you can register for particular events of our tournament on-line. Remember the last date for Series 4 is the 20th.

I now send out warnings of new posts to over 260 players & friends: although you may not add comments to the blog, I'm always appreciative of your replies by email. The blog is now attributed with over 3 500 page-views, so it seems to be helping the cause.

Best wishes for some more great tennis!

VISITORS

The Club receives most of its visitors during the summer months; but there are some who arrive at other times of the year. Last month we welcomed a Swedish player who had enjoyed playing at the Vignal last summer, & turned out to be a formidable opponent for our Irish Veterans Captain, Neagle Cathcart: in fact, so good that our member had a difficult job to win 2 of the dozen sets they played together. Quite a spectacle! Both of them now in the over 55 age group, here is photo taken back in 1972, when our Swedish visitor, Mikael Kirs, lost a Junior tournament Final, 6/1, 6/2, to Bjørn Borg!

So well done, Neagle; & Mikael was so happy with these matches that they will be meeting again in April on our courts. Try to be a spectator!

Now one of the marvellous aspects of tennis, is the fact that the game can be enjoyed at a multitude of levels. So my next photo is quite a contrast, but gives you a good view of the third author I mentioned in my last post, & who plays with us here. His pseudonym is  'George Cavendish', but his friends I've heard calling him 'Mike'. Here, he is revealed to you all:

Keep enjoying your tennis!

NEW YEAR

Let me record the extraordinary month of December 2011, when our tennis was only interrupted for a mere two half-days. From my records over 14 years, the average number of days lost in December comes to about 6;  so the one day of last year makes it by far the driest over this period. A reward perhaps after very rainy Decembers in the previous years of 2009 & 2010, but we certainly enjoyed all those blue skies!  After a day of rain yesterday, we are again fortunate with a sunny sky........ you may have also watched beautiful evening skies. Here's a record of the last evening colours of the old year......

No doubt I was too busy playing tennis rather than describing what was happening in the Club these last weeks. Parents of younger children will remember end of term festivities; there were Laura's hockey matches - red, the prominent colour worn by many; you can see some of them below as buns & cakes were enjoyed.....

On a literary note now; some of you will have already read at least one of Robert Camuto's books on wine & vineyards, & the more recent one by another of our authors, Peter Wise, on an interesting medical scientist, Claude Bernard. Yet a new author has arrived on the courts under the pen-name 'George Cavendish': you will find copies of his thriller, 'Riviera Terminus' in the Club Office, & you may even find out his real name one of these days.

But, above all, don't forget to get some vigorous tennis in to start the year on the right foot; & then, of course replenish your energies after all that running about........ in your Club Restaurant!
Bon appétit!