July 2017 enewsletter

It’s a long one this month, but please persevere in reading through as there may well be something relevant for you!

Don’t forget to have a go at the tennis quiz at the end of this newsletter. There will be a prize for the winning entry!

2017 HOSPITAL CUP:
After the thrill of Wimbledon earlier this month, I can give you an update on our own local tournament. Through to the quarter finals of the men’s singles are Matthieu Glasson and Ross Armorgie. And in to the quarter finals of the mixed doubles are Lisa King and Ross Armorgie and Daphne Lunnon and Simon Playfair. Fortunately, all the Stansted entrants are in different halves of the draws, so there’s still a chance of an all Stansted final in the men’s singles and mixed doubles. We can live in hope! Fiona Pye and Lisa King are through to the semi-finals of the ladies’ doubles. Our men’s doubles entrants and ladies’ singles entrants have all been knocked out. Good luck to everyone still in the tournament. For everyone else, there is still a way to get involved in the tournament. The event is a charity fundraiser for the local hospital in Saffron Walden. Funds are raised through entry fees and a raffle. All participating clubs are asked to donate raffle prizes. For some years now, Stansted has donated one prize in the form of a themed hamper. This year’s theme will be the colour red. So if you have anything red that you could donate to the hamper, please leave it in the box in the clubhouse. Or contact me to collect direct. Many thanks for your support. Daphne Lunnon (07790 473893)

Adult/Child Tournament:
What a brilliant afternoon this turned out to be, with various combinations of adults and juniors competing in an excellent spirit! Ten pairs competed. The round-robin was divided into a group of 5 pairs of secondary school aged children and their adult partners and a group of five pairs of primary school aged children and their adult partners. All pairs within each group played 5 games against every other pair. All pairs then competed in the knockout stage. In a gripping final, father and son pairing of Michael and George Casey beat mother and son, Ginette and Tom Basten 6-3.

Next Adult Social Doubles Tournament:
This is due to take place on Friday 21st July (tomorrow), starting at 9am. Thankfully the weather forecast is looking good!

Next Committee Meeting:
This will be held at Jan’s house on Friday 4th August at 7pm. If you have anything you would like to relay to the committee prior to the meeting, please either contact a committee member directly or use the suggestion box in the clubhouse. We are still very keen to recruit any members who would like to support us by becoming a “Friend of the Committee”. Please get in touch if you would like to volunteer.

Club Tournament:
A reminder that all those involved in the quarter finals need to have arranged and played their matches by 9th August. If you know your semi final opponents, please start arranging these now too. Club Finals’ Day will take place on Sunday 10th September.

Stansted in Bloom:
STC was awarded a certificate of commendation at the awards ceremony at the Day Centre for our country garden themed display. Many thanks to Sarah for all her hard work in designing and creating the garden and hanging baskets and to all those members who helped by watering over those baking hot weeks prior to judging.

Ladders:
It’s not too late to join any of the ladders. You need to have emailed me by the end of July and I shall add all newcomers at the start of August.

Ladies’ Night:
The next Ladies’ Night will be on Monday 14th August starting at 7pm. All ladies welcome!

Year 3 coaching:
I shall be starting a Year 3 coaching group in September at 4.30pm each term-time Tuesday. There are still a couple of free places, so if you are going to be starting in Year 3 in September and are keen to start lessons, please get in touch with me.

Individual lessons:
Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in early morning weekday individual lessons over the summer holidays. All the slots for next week are booked up, but if you are keen to have a lesson and would like to be added to the group email, please contact me.

Wilby Tournament:
The sign up sheet is now up on the clubhouse noticeboard. Ideally, we would like 8 men and 8 ladies, so if you would like to take part, please sign up.

Wimbledon experiences:
Many thanks to Felicity Shakespeare, Sarah Hollis, Gerry Howley, Lorraine Cowie and Fiona Kelly who have each written a short resume of their day out at Wimbledon. Please see below to share their experiences.

Essex Small Clubs League:

Results:

Mixed Premier:
Henham 14 Stansted 2
Stebbing 7 Stansted 9
Harlow 4 Stansted 12

Ladies’ Premier:
Henham 8 Stansted 8
Stansted 6 Dunmow 10

Ladies’ 3:
Stebbing 4 Stansted 12
Stansted 5 Much Hadham 11
Henham 8 Stansted 8

Men’s 2:
Stansted 10 Harlow 6
Stebbing 16 Stansted 0
Stansted 16 Stebbing 0

QUIZ:

AND FINALLY!
Thanks to all of you who responded to last month’s e-newsletter quiz. Congratulations to Debbie Lane who won a big box of Maltesers.
Please have a go at answering the four questions below and emailing your answers to me within the next 48 hours. There will be a prize for the member with the most correct answers. If there is a tie, names will be drawn from a hat. You can use any technological device to help with the answers.

1. Is the receiver allowed to stand outside the lines of the court?

2. Who is the only Wimbledon winner whose name alternates consonants and vowels?

3. Complete this sequence:
H.KONTINEN (FIN) & H.WATSON (GBR), M.DEMOLINER (BRA) & M.MARTINEZ SANCHEZ (ESP), K.SKUPSKI (GBR) & J.RAE (GBR),……………………..

4. Which birthday was Gerry Howley’s mum celebrating when he treated her to a day out at Wimbledon?

Good luck and best wishes,
Chris

Wimbledon experiences:
Hi Chris

Thanks so much for organising the Wimbledon ballot again this year, we had a great time. Here’s a short piece about our day:

We had a brilliant time at Wimbledon on ‘manic Monday’. The line up for Number 1 court for a start was fantastic: Konta v Garcia, then Nadal v Muller and finally Djokovic v Mannarino. The tennis certainly lived up to the billing and it was great to see Konta defeat Garcia so convincingly. The next match was an epic battle, which had us gripped the whole time. It lasted nearly five hours before Muller finally crossed the line and just before the sun set. Unfortunately as this match went on for so long we didn’t get to see Djokovic play but we couldn’t complain as we’d certainly had our money’s worth!

Many thanks
Fiona
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Hi Chris

I’ll see what I can remember – it was sooo long ago!!

We went on the first Wednesday (5 July) which was one of the hottest days, so keeping cool was high on the agenda, fortunately there were plenty of taps dotted around the site where we could replenish our water bottles! We had seats on No 1 court, but as play wasn’t due to start until 1.00 pm, we arrived at the grounds in time to see Heather Watson on the big screen beating Sevastova. The first match on court 1 was Nishikori v Stakhovsky – the match went to 4 sets with 3 tie-breaks – some excellent tennis to start the day off with. This was followed by Venus Williams playing Wang Qiang from China – she raised our hopes by taking the first set from Williams, but was soundly put in her place by VW in the next 2 sets. Finally, an exciting ladies match between Halep and Haddad Maia from Brazil which finished the day off nicely. A great day for watching world class tennis – heat and flying ants notwithstanding!

Flick
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Hi Chris,

Our day at Wimbledon was an absolute joy.
It was inspiring to see a junior match, a master class to watch the ladies doubles semi finals and thrilling to see the sheer genius of RF on the big screen whilst sitting on Henman Hill.
Thank you STC.

Best wishes
Lorraine
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Hi Chris

I was lucky enough to go twice… court 1 in the first week and Court 2 the second week. It is hard to say which matches I enjoyed the most, but it was probably Kei Nishikori v Sergio Stakhovsky and then Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis v Roman Jebavy and Lucie Hradecka. The atmosphere was great on both days, though we battled with extreme heat, flying ants and constant drizzle, but the company and picnics were fabulous. I thought the planting was particularly good this year, beautiful purples and greens and very fragrant. Thanks to Flik and Sharon for 2 great days!

Sarah
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Chris

I took my mum to Wimbledon as a treat for her 70th birthday. The seats were excellent – as always. It was her first time attending, and she really enjoyed the experience. It made for a very special memory for her birthday.

Thanks for everything you do for the club.
Gerry