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!