WINTER ACTIVITIES

We have reached the end of year 2016 : not only are all courts functioning, but we are enjoying bright sun, and a beautiful, cloudless sky.  Time to forget recent cold mornings with several clay courts out of action because of freezing - even then our two indoor clay courts were still available for play. Illustrating clearly this kind of weather is this photo of the shadow of one of the numerous high ash trees showing up on the roof of one of the covered courts.

shadow of ash tree on roof of covered court

Recent loyal Club members after a hard-fought doubles match on number two court, submitted to a photo recording the event.

Observant readers will have noticed the lack of a fourth player - the son Xavier recently back from his work near the North pole............here he is ........

Incidentally, Xavier's absence from tennis for months at a time, did not prevent at least one of his smashes ending up in the car park !

Some time ago I watched a lively match on one of the hard courts - they too were so proud of their game, they immediately asked for a photo. Here it is and I will close this blog with these four happy faces.

A Happy New Year 2017 to all the Vignal!

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

Important new developments continue to show the Club as a centre of sporting activity. First teams performed particularly well during the year,  the young ladies dominating regional contests and the men rising to grade 3 at National level.  The high level of ability in this region of France was certainly evident during our Vignal Tournament in July; about 800 players of all ages competed in the various categories, with younger players well represented.  The Men's Open was won by Jonathan Eysseric with Thomas Unia (from Cagnes) giving him a tough fight in the Final.

Play on several Sundays has been enlivened by miniature tournaments between youth of the surrounding départements. Organised by Didier Eysseric, these have been successful in bringing new parents into the Club, and in showing us the remarkably high level of tennis of youth in the area. Here is a photo showing a typically keen Sunday group.........

Coming back to developments in the Club, the Swimming Pool appears more in evidence, and gradually in more use.  Here is a view through an attractive row of Nerium oleander ........

The two new wooden buildings are the first to attract questions from members and newcomers. They are attractive, and of course, intriguing as to what are their functions. Looking from centre court,  they fit well into the surroundings, as well-conceived by the architect.......

And in actuality..............

The bigger one contains a Sauna (for 4 people), an imposing Musculation machine, and two Pedal exercisers (one elliptical, the other with variable seating) ........... The smaller building to accommodate Academy members when studying.

This should give some idea of how the Club is developing - use of the two new Padel courts next to the carpark has not yet attracted sufficient interest.  Something to look forward to..........

In the mean time, keep fit, enjoy your restaurant and your healthy, friendly society!

HOISTING OF THE FLAGS

The title implies important news; not only that our proud international status can be seen from afar, but a series of essential preparatory procedures have been effected with success. Here are the flags:

Now for some of the earlier works; an enormous crane was needed to fix the lighting supports for the illumination of courts 2 and 3. Our intrepid workers, Hervé and Fred look at it with amazement........

Moved around the Club Parking space it slowly exhibited something of its capacities.......

Very sturdy concrete bases were ready to receive each of the four new lighting supports, coming in apparently by air! (Four original supported lighting systems can be seen in the background used to illuminate the hard courts.) The eventual claycourt lighting is shown below............

                                                                                                                              photo by Kaffo

So what was needed next?

Remember that irregular parking surface for your precious vehicles, that you've been putting up with all these years? (and without complaining too much........)  Well, see the difference now! and here's the conversion in progress..........

As for the increased Tournament activities, many of you answered the entreaties of our charming Secretary, Nancy to come and support our girls LadiesI team in today's Regional Semi-Final against Menton. We saw passionate play with the doubles match won 6/1 6/0 by Mirabelle and Miranda being particularly spectacular. Our congratulations then to these players and their trainers; we watch your progress with great interest.

Here they are exchanging quiet words just before and after the match...........

Hoping for a similarly exciting and brilliant match next Sunday!  Our team having won this encounter, is ready for another such performance in the Regional Final in 7 days time.

Greetings to all Members, Players, Visitors that are making the Vignal a much more active place for all ages and levels of play and for a friendly meeting place for all nationalities!  

Congratulations to the Owners and President-Managers who are making all this possible!

PATHWAY PRECAUTIONS

Enjoying so many beautiful sunny days we tend to forget that the year 2014 was a record year for rain (1 238 mm in Cannes)  and that in October of year 2015, we lost two cars and two peacocks from drenching rain during one day alone!  It's hardly surprising then that work in the Club grounds has been concentrated on ditches to avoid flooding of the covered courts and the construction of cemented pathways to allow players to walk from Club House to tennis courts without getting their feet wet.  All this was arduous, time-consuming labour............

 During all this time playing on the courts continued with very little restriction - it is reassuring to note how fully our facilities are used during daytime: also, after a day of rain, late in the evening under the 'bubbles' protection.

Visitors continue to arrive: in the Christmas period we were glad to welcome two old friends Veteran Captains of Ireland and Sweden teams: Neagle Cathcart and Mikael Kirs :

Allow me at this point to introduce a sad note at this point concerning the passing of a long-time member of our Club by a crushing illness after a lifetime of sport and artistic activity.  Michel Slatkine was known to many for his cheerfulness,  good humour and sportsmanship. To record this loss, a small gathering of friends took place in the restaurant. Here are photos of Michel in happier times, and of the meeting of friends in remembrance of him.

Now most players are familiar with our veteran worker, Fred and know that it is thanks to him that the courts are kept in such fine condition - few however know who can act when Fred is on holiday. The following photo gives away this secret:

Another sturdy Club character was caught bringing in extra decorations in the form of one of his wife's  recent works of art:

                                                                                   Well done,  Nicole and Gilles.

   

Younger members  that are training hard day by day form part of the thriving Tennis Academy: the girls,  enthusiastically led by Nathalie Ballet are on court morning and afternoon for physical exercises, tennis traing and matches.  Two of them, Mirabelle Njoze and Nelise Verster leave tomorrow for a tournament in Hammamet in Tunisia - you can follow their progress in detail on internet. Here's another one of the group, Chelsea Samways in action here recently.

Back to the courts now - to practise if you're lucky enough to have reserved one;  otherwise to watch one of the high-level matches.  The first Club Tournament of the year is well and truly in progress.

FURTHER PROGRESS

The major work since I last wrote has been the clearing of an appreciable area of land south of he changing rooms: this involved the cutting down of numerous high cypress trees and the removal of a curious collection of corrugated iron shacks. The latter have served as workshops, garages for lawn mowers, tractors, ladies' pilates exercises, study room, and has housed an enormous accumulation of what can only be described as junk. The removal of all this was no small job.  Here is one photo:

and eventually............

Amazing that this conglomeration of rubbish ever got cleared away!  But it did, and so the hammering and drilling could get under way. No construction straight away, first of all destruction........ all the old tiling, pipes and wiring had to be removed. And then the re-construction - here's where the hammering gave way to quarrels and shouting - not too comprehensible - French, Arabic, Serbian............  let's start to look at the good results ......

  Here's two of the five showers:

and then the entrance corridor - lighting-up when you approach in the evening.....

Then, inside the two rooms are nice and warm; automatic hand and hair drying are available. Even chairs for comfort of friends and spectators!

Well, just a word of thanks for the two managers then.

Here they are.......(Didier & Kaffo)

One way of thanking them will be to enjoy these facilities to the full and to spend as much time as possible in this ever-improving Club.  Have a look at the proposed extensions in the plan posted outside the Office:

Let me now mention what some of our young champions have been doing on court recently......... Elsa Trelle, for example, won the Final of her Cabris Tournament match in fine style - (she is already ranked 4/6 at age 14) by defeating the young Russian girl, Natasha Mitrokhina.  It was encouraging to see them parting on happy terms after the struggle....

Some of the older girls were competing abroad during this period; Mirabelle Njoze(18) and Miranda Ramirez (16) were in Tunisia. After several matches, they actually found themselves playing against each other (Mirabelle won by 7/5 in the 3rd set). They then combined in the Doubles Tournament, and didn't lose until the Final! Well done girls!

For a photo of Mirabelle, see my last post.  She has now a world ranking (WTA) of 623.

           For a photo of Miranda, see my post of December 2014.

     For more details of Vignal match results, see the site:  https://www.facebook.com/teameysseric/

For teachers of tennis & other sports when in London, consult the site of a former club member:

 trainers4me.com

Bon tennis et bon appétit

 cuisse de pintade aux navets

(par Christophe)

EXCITING TIMES

Many of you will be aware that our Club is under the management of two active members, giving our proprietor, Olivier a well-deserved rest from the arduous duties he tackled so well. This allows him to recover his family life, and even to find time to play some tennis! 

The other great advantage is that the two managers have set themselves the immense task of improving many aspects of the Club Life and amenities. 

Naturally you are all anxious to know in detail what is going to happen to your favourite place of recreation and relaxation!  Be reassured - we are in good hands……. To make my report of progress of all the the work undertaken, I will need a little more time to ensure it is comprehensive: but be sure I am watching carefully what is happening.

In the meantime, I have just been handed a very agreeable notice inviting us all to a cocktail to mark the opening of the season. This will be on Friday 25 September starting at half-past seven. 

Bring your children and friends - particularly those you may persuade to join us in our increasing number of activities.  Here is a copy of the notice:

And just to give you a view of what Academy Level tennis looked like this afternoon, here are my photos of two of the group of girls training on courts 8 and 9:

Mirabelle Njoze

Nelise Verster

See you a week on Friday, with some good tennis in the meantime!

TOURNAMENT TIME AGAIN

To start at the beginning, the preparation work for a tournament of collecting and arranging inscriptions is known to the members, although appreciated in its entirety only to the few.  Our recent July event was exceptional in the volume of applicants, which for the first time in the history of the Club reached over 700! It is difficult to imagine the amount of work this has involved before and on a daily basis during the play; and so it is hoped that members anxious to follow their usual passionate tennis programme were sufficiently understanding of the constraints they had to put up with.  I'm sure that many of them will already be making up for lost time today and all this week.

A word of thanks to dear Fred, who kept the courts in impeccable condition during this period;  here he is transporting brickdust from the recently replenished stack to form the statuory 3 mm surface layer on each of our 5 claycourts.

After two weeks of concentrated and often hectic play for both Senior and numerous Veteran categories, we eventually arrived at the match Finals for which prizes were to be awarded. Here now is Olivier standing ready behind the Cups for his Opening Speech to Prizewinners and friends.......

Hardly credible, but completely true;  the expected crowd of Champions and Well-Wishers were all absent:  no-one to listen to Olivier!

Here they are, not far away;  you have perhaps already guessed where they were and what they were intent on watching!

Wimbledon Men's Final on TV!  

And it took quite a time for Federer to win tie-break of the second set...

Back to the Prize-Giving eventually:  and the usual devoted team joins Olivier..........

Just a few of the fortunate winners:

  

   

               

      

A side of bacon that you see above is called a 'flitch'; the term persists in the English town of Dunmow, Essex, where a yearly ceremony awards a flitch of bacon to the unlikely couple who prove they have lived a year and a day in conjugal harmony.  Quite a challenge! The final figure, Louis, looking unfamilarly timid here, would like everyone to know that in spite of this unexpected success, Tennis is not really his game - but he is a very good Squash player.

And here is the group photo:

BONNE CHANCE ET BON TENNIS!