Villages Golf & Country Club, San Jose, CA
To celebrate all our Villages tennis skills displayed in our Fall Doubles and Mixed Doubles Tournament, we have planned the Awards banquet for Sunday, October 6 at Foothill.
Really, Sunday night, September 8 was better than the July 4th fireworks this year! Wow! The food was fantastic, the tennis show was amazing with so many great shots, and the turnout crowd was wonderful. I would like to commend EVERYONE’S EFFORT, starting with the food, Betty, Karen, Marty, Jayme, Dari and Nancy! What a treat that was with grilled hamburgers and great hotdogs and fruit and everything else!! What a maiden food victory.Talking of victory, yes the show was second to none, pick your theater, sit down and enjoy. Ken and Brian were lined up against a steep talent team that won over Silver Creek, and they put forth a valiant effort!!
Paul and Don simply did not let their opponents up for a breath. When they caught a breath, they went under for five more minutes. Don, you had many, many great shots including baseline lobs that set up Paul every time, that is, if they could even get to them. What a victory!!
Now, the show of the evening on court four was better than fireworks!
Clayton and Venkat just dug and dug and dug till their fast hitting opponents just could not keep up a breath. They won their first set with a 7-6 Tiebreaker, Bay Club hammered out a 2nd set win, and then the Tiebreaker show began. Lights lit up, the audience let up, but then the stadium went quiet; everyone was holding their breath!! Back and forth, back and forth Clayton and Venkat battled with astonishing knock out hits from Clayton, simply eye-popping candy with oohs and awes on every hit!! In the clutch Clayton ripped six shots that Bayside had no answer for. Looked like Brett shots!! And few of those shots were even possible without the sharp curve set-ups of Venkat!! Wow. The Tiebreaker went on and on till Bayside finally gave up their ghosts with something of a 15-13 Villages final set Tiebreaker win. The spectators got their money’s worth as mentioned by Lisi. That was the treat of the night.
Put these dates on your calendar and come cheer your fellow villagers at their home matches:
09/21 : 5pm against Los Gatos [HOME]
09/29: 2pm against Bay Club Courtside [AWAY]
10/06 : 12:30pm against Wallenberg Pk [HOME]
10/11: 7pm against Morgan Hill [AWAY]
10/17: 7:30pm against Wallenberg Pk [AWAY]
10/20 : 5pm against Almaden VAC [HOME]
10/27: 6:30pm against Almaden SR [AWAY]
11/02 : 3:30pm against Bay Club Courtside [HOME]
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Tennis Talk
By Betty Olsen
One more time get your calendars out for more tennis dates!
Friday, August 23. Rescheduled Mixer
Saturday/Sunday, September 7 & 8. Club Tournament-Men’s and Women’s Doubles. This is the first half of our annual club tournament. All play will be in the morning with 2 matches on Saturday and 1 match on Sunday. The format is a compass draw where you keep playing whether you win or lose if we have 8 teams in the draw.
There will be 2 categories: “A” and “B.” Please signup below. There is also a signup link on our tennis website: villagestennis.vgcc.club. We hope to have 16 teams signing-up, so don’t delay. Find a partner and join in the fun.
Play will be in the mornings only, starting at 8:00am to beat the heat.
Men’s 6.5 USTA Home Schedule. For the first time, the men are fielding a 6.5 USTA team, coached by resident pro Brett Foreman That is a combined team of a 3.5 player and 3.0 player. Please put these dates on your calendar to come down to the viewing stand and root for your club.
Sunday 9/8 4:30 PM vs LG Bay Club
Saturday 9/21 4:30 PM vs LG SR
Sunday 10/6 12:00 PM vs Wallenberg PK
Sunday 10/20 4:30 PM vs Almaden VAC
Saturday 11/2 3:00 PM vs EVC
Saturday/Sunday, September 28 & 29. Club Tournament – Mixed Doubles. Same format and it is not too soon to secure your Mixed partner.
Sunday, October 8. Award Banquet at Foothill at 5:30pm. You don’t want to miss this Italian catered dinner with short ribs, chicken piccata, and vegetarian homemade cheese ravioli.
Saturday, October 19. Semi-annual match with Rossmoor Tennis Club here at the Villages.
Tennis Talk
By Peggy Seidel
Friday, August 23, 2024 is the new date for the annual Summer Tennis Club Mixer Social. Unfortunately, our first attempt on July 19 was cancelled due to a weather advisory – heat over 90 degrees at 5 pm is just plain too hot to be fun!!
The notice has been sent out to all TC members this week to sign up (we request that you sign up again, even if you did it before). Let us know if you are bringing a guest for the dinner, as well as if you prefer non-meat options. Our VP, Gene Mariani, has let the Mixer committee know that he expects GOOD food for the event, so we will do our best to comply. If you are not currently receiving the regular communications in your email, please give Don Clarke a note at don@clarke2.com or call/text him at 408-218-5450.
One other request: please let us know if you still own a very old wood or early metal variety tennis racquet you can bring to use in our fun tennis games designed by our pro Brett Foreman.
Please sign up here, or on the tennis club website (villagestennis.vgcc.club).
Choose your preferred time to play, 4:15 or 5:30. We would love to see 24 players at each time slot. Hope to see you there!! Questions? Call Peggy Seidel at 713-398-7955.
Hoping for better luck with the weather – on August 23!
Yes, we haven’t given up on playing the Summer Mixer social tennis event.
Please sign yourselves up below, or on our website (villagestennis.vgcc.club). We will have two groups, early birds starting at 4:15, and later arrivals at 5:30. We will play 24 at each time period, all 6 courts, men and women together, and we will mix it up with some great funky tennis games designed by our pro Brett Foreman.
The food will be great – the Tennis Club has a new grill to try out. Let us know your preferences for meat or non-meat items. Come and bring your spouse/partner/friend.
Note: We will not play if the forecast says it will be over 90 – any heat that warrants a weather advisory.
Hope to see you there!
Tennis Talk
By Marty Funcell
The Villages is fortunate to have 6 championship tennis courts and wonderful viewing stands. Each year the Villages Tennis Club Board elects a Tennis Court Manager to oversee keeping the courts in the best shape possible. Since 2023, Marty Funcell has been the Court Manager.
Court Manager:
The Court Manager’s role is to monitor the physical conditions of the courts, viewing stands, tennis shack and storage units, and recommends upgrades to the Club Board and coordinates maintenance and upgrades with the Villages Golf and Country Club.
Court Projects:
One of the major projects this year was to seal the cracks on Courts #1 through #4. Village Maintenance used internal resources to complete this task which they estimated saved thousands of dollars. Although both blue and green crack sealant was applied, the color mismatches the original paint resulting in spider patterns. There is a plan underway to touch up the cracks with matching paint to improve the court appearance.
Court Enhancements:
Recent Upgrades:
Ball Machine:
The Villages Tennis Club is fortunate to have a Tennis Ball Machine that Tennis Club members Tim Keys and Gil Ong volunteer to oversee the maintenance, training and managing the plethora of used tennis balls. Used balls are first repurposed for the ball machine, some balls are collected and donated to Silver Creek High School and the unplayable ones are simply trashed. Thank you, Tim & Gil!
Next Tennis Club Event:
Tennis Talk
By Betty Olsen
Heat is back….and so our planned Mixer scheduled for Friday, July 19 has been cancelled, hopefully to be rescheduled if and when it gets cooler! During our last heat wave, it was a pleasure sitting inside watching Wimbledon as it rained every day for the first week and people were bundled up.
Because I bought a raincoat for my 2018 trip to Wimbledon, it did not rain one day and it was quite hot sitting in the stands. London men who usually attend Wimbledon in suits or coat and ties were suffering. Everyone took breaks to go inside for the air-conditioning and watching the matches on TV. And the players were struggling with heat cramps!
How about those Wimbledon matches this year! The top echelon of tennis seems to be changing. Alcarez is not only a spectacular player, but is so fun to watch. Too bad Sinner got injured because we did not see his full talent and capability.
And what a treat to see Paolini play her matches…. the energizer bunny. I am sure all of us short tennis players were rooting for her and her unique game against mostly tall and taller big names.
Can’t wait for the Olympics and US Open.
By Betty Olsen
Meet new Tennis Club members Mary Green and Manny Juarez who moved into Hermosa about 3 weeks ago. This tennis couple have been together for 25 years. They met playing tennis at Cuesta Park in Mountain View.
Mary retired in 2016 from working at Stanford University. Her final position at Stanford was working in their Graduate School Business Department working with data. Manny also retired in 2016 from Agilent, and they decided to move to Arizona for their retirement. They built a lovely home and spent 3 years in Arizona, but eventually found it too hot and they missed the bay area weather, their friends and familiar surroundings.
Therefore in 2019 they moved back to the bay area, first renting and then buying a condo in Sunnyvale. Next came the opportunity to buy a condo in Hermosa, first doing a little remodeling, but finally moving into the villages about 3 weeks ago. They are currently emptying boxes in their garage and trying to sell their condo in Sunnyvale.
Mary is ready to get back on the courts and I suggested Brett’s Thursday clinic at 10:30. In her tennis past, she played for several different USTA teams in the Southbay, but mainly for Cupertino. Manny does not play much tennis anymore due to an aging slow-down, but I assured him he would fit right in with the rest of us slower tennis players and advised trying the Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday drop-in.
Please say hi to Mary and Manny when you see them around the courts.
