News on the Senior Tennis Team

Hi Ladies,

Good work, we are undefeated!! I would like to have a practice/get-together Saturday (the 4th) at 10:30 a.m. at our courts. Hopefully most of you can attend.

I am hoping to have the following people play next Tues. the 7th: Joanne, Jenny, Donna, Tricia, Jan R. and Carol C. and I would love it if all of those could come Sat. so we can come up with a good lineup. Only Violet is out of town as far as I know, so you others need to be on "standby" just in case. Violet, will you be back for the 14th? Tues. the 7th is a home match so hopefully the nonplayers could come to cheer us on.

Let me know how the 4th at 10:30 works. Thanks.

Carol Chiolero.

Second Win for Seniors

HEB Senior Ladies won their second match at the City of Aurora on Tuesday night. Two of the matches went to three sets - one match lasting for 2 hours and 40 minutes. Needless to say, our ladies were tired at the end (unfortunately losing the tie breaker) but they thoroughly enjoyed themselves and said their opponents were friendly and yet competitive.

The senior team have a bye next week (7/31), but we'll be ready for our next match which will be played at home on August 7th - please come and cheer us on.

Monday “Drop In” Tennis

From left to right: Marlene, Tricia, Corky and Violet stop for a moment during Monday "Drop In" tennis a few weeks ago. As you know, the drills have stopped for a while but we are still getting together at 8:00 AM on Monday mornings, so please drop by.

Rain stopped play last week for our Thursday "Sign Up" session. We all took shelter at the clubhouse, but the rain was so heavy we knew it was time to leave. Let's hope the weather will be kind to us this Thursday.

Back to Normal

Hi Ladies,

Since our drills have come to an end on Mondays, we will have all the courts for drop in tennis. Let's meet on court 1 for Monday tennis @ 8:00 a.m.

Thursday tennis is still @ 9:00 a.m. and you must sign up ahead of time on the sheets on the tennis bulletin board.

See you then,

Gail Hedy

Heroic Effort

Here's Carol after one of the most courageous efforts anyone has ever made on the tennis courts. She's still in pain from the leg cramps but the smile on Mo's face tells the outcome of a thrilling 3 set victory that was very even all the way through the third set tiebreaker.

(Larry Place's photo and comments)

Tuesday began with temperatures reaching 100 degrees and ended with high winds, stormy skies and very light rain, but that didn’t stop our team winning 2-1.

Carol Lawson and Mo Schween won their match after a fantastic effort in which Carol suffered badly from cramp in her leg. After a five minute break, the match resumed and included a nail biting third set tiebreaker, which thankfully Carol and Mo won. They were both very courageous despite the obvious pain that Carol was experiencing. Needless to say, we were all thrilled when they won.

Afterwards, we sat in the gazebo and toasted Carol and Mo and all those who participated in our team effort. A big "thank you" to our team and all those who came out to support us. Jan Place, who injured her ankle in Saturday’s practice, came out on crutches to watch us play. Jan, we hope you get better soon.

Violet is Recognized by Avon

Violet Marquez, a member of our HEB Pink Team, was recently honored for her efforts in raising money for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer. She is an ardent supporter of the walk raising at least $1,800 (each year) to help fight the disease. She was featured in the Avon July 2007 newsletter as the oldest participating member of the walk at 75 years! Yeah to Violet! We’re proud of you – what an inspiration!

Second Year to Districts

This is the second year that HEB (pink) team will represent our tennis club at "Districts." Last year, our team came second in the District Tournament losing by only one game. This year, we have done particularly well in the regular tennis league with a score of 10-0. We plan on doing our very best at the District Tournament in September. Please wish us luck!

HEB Gold Finishes League in Style

(Please note: Not all members were available for our photo)

The HEB Gold team finished their season of league play on July 13 in third place – only one match out of second place winning six matches out of ten. Being a new team captained by Susan Behm and Carol Lawson, they were off to a very slow start. Not having enough players in the early matches contributed to them losing a match or two and starting out the season in last place. But after losing their first three matches, the “Gorgeous in Gold” team came back and won all but one match losing only to the “Pretty in Pink” HEB Pink Team. Two of the teams that beat HEB Gold in the early season were beaten by them handily in their second matches of the season.

We will sadly miss Mo Schween next year as she has moved out of the community and is no longer eligible to play. We really hate to see her go. Mo played in the six of the #1 doubles slot with Carol Lawson and once with Nancy Bishoff in the #2 doubles and won all seven of her matches. Thank you, Mo, for your contribution to our team and for helping us pull out the third place finish.

It has been a great experience and hope to all be back next year and be right up there with HEB Pink. Everyone is so proud of all our girls.

Susan Behm

General Tennis Guidelines for Thursday Tennis

After speaking with Gail, coordinators and listening to members’ comments and suggestions to improve our Thursday tennis sessions, we thought we'd pull some guidelines together. They are:

• Each player should sign-up by noon on Wednesday for the next day’s session. If a player has signed up and cannot make it – then they should try to find a substitute (a friend from another location would be good) or let your coordinator know quickly and she will do her best to find a replacement
• Players should be punctual and expect to play for 2 hours
• If the coordinator has an odd number of players, then the odd number players (those who were the last to sign up) may be dropped or perhaps they can play Australian or singles, but will not participate in the rotation (see below)
• On Wednesday afternoon, the monthly coordinator will pick up the Sign Up Sheet and arrange a line up of players for the following day. Depending on how many players, the coordinator will choose the first 4 players for each court.
• After the first session is finished, everyone moves around using the rotation method explained below. This seems to be the fairest (and best) method that most ladies seem to prefer
• The coordinator will list the 4 players on each court (first session) but the players themselves decide who will be their partner. Usually, 2 ladies spin their racquets. If the spin matches (both down or both up), then those 2 ladies will be partners. If the spin doesn't match (one up and one down), then those 2 ladies will be opponents
• There will be approximately 10 minutes of warm up and then approximately 40 minutes of play time in each sessionAt the end of the first session, the coordinator will advise the teams that 40 minutes has lapsed
• After the first set, winner move up, losers move down, the only exceptions are the winners on Court #1 stay and the losers on the last court stay – then split partners. At each rotation, players should split their teams using the method above (spinning racquets).

Other ideas or comments: The coordinator will bring the following week’s Sign Up Sheet down to the courts so that members can add their names to the list.

Since our sessions are approximately 40 minutes, it doesn’t matter whether you use regular scoring or no-ad scoring – that’s your choice.

These guidelines have been prepared to help our ladies and the monthly coordinators organize the matches. After all, this is a time for less stress, more fun, more enjoyment and learning more about tennis.

Double Winners!!

HEB Gold and HEB Pink teams both won their league matches this morning. Pink team played at the Colorado Athletic Club, Monaco, and the Gold Team played their away match at Gates Tennis Center. Competition level was high as some matches took more than two hours to complete. Several players were tired and "just wanted to get it (the set) over and done with..." but they persevered and we're glad to report a double win for HEB Ladies Tennis.

Photograph courtesy: Marlene Murray

Cool in the Shade

Two members from last Thursday's tennis take a breather in the shade. With temperatures close to 95 degrees by lunch time last week - most players paced themselves, took a rest and drank plenty of water. Thankfully this week, the weather has been a little kinder to us all.

Tennis Mixer - July 22nd

We are planning a Tennis Mixer & BBQ on Sunday, July 22nd. Tennis will be from 4:00 - 7:00 pm and the BBQ will be from 7:00 - 9:00 pm on the patio.

The tennis is free and the cost for the BBQ will be:

Hot Dogs or Bratwurst $5.00
Chicken or Hamburgers $7.00

The meal includes a side dish & lemonade or iced tea. There will also be a keg with $2.00 beers and & $6.00 pitchers.

There is a sign up sheet on the Tennis Bulletin Board. If you spouse/significant other does not play tennis, they are welcome to come and join us.

Since we are having our mixer during the pickle ball players scheduled court time, we have asked the pickle ball players to join us. They can rotate in and out like the tennis players and join us for the BBQ. (I don't think there are many pickle ball players at the time, but they are welcome.)

The mixers are always a lot of fun, so sign up early so we can get a count for the BBQ. Thanks,

Gail Hedy

July 9th Tennis Committee Meeting

At our next tennis committee meeting on Monday July 9th at 7:00 PM, you will have a chance to meet and talk to Edward Simpkins and Jeffrey Wells. Jeffrey is the new Clubhouse Manager. This will be an opportunity to discuss tennis at HEB and improvements you would like to see for the rest of 2007 and for 2008.

I hope to send a few questions to Edward by Thursday so we can resolve a few issues at the meeting. If you have any questions you would like to have presented, please forward them to me. After the list is reviewed, I plan to allow time for questions from the group.

I hope to see many of you at the meeting.

Larry Place
Gail Hedy

Anyone for Mixed Doubles - Time is of the Essense!

We have been trying to form an ITA 6.5 Combined Rating Mixed Doubles team. Matches would be on Sunday afternoons from mid August through the end of September. We don't have quite enough players yet to form the team. Our deadline is in about a week. If you are interested in playing on the team, please let me know ASAP so we'll know if we will be able to have an HEB team or not.

Also, we play our regular HEB Mixed Doubles on Sunday mornings at 9:00 am. We'd like to offer an additional time to play on Sunday evenings at 7:00 pm. If you'd like to play some informal mixed doubles on Sundays, and Sunday mornings don't work for you, plan on playing Sunday evening, starting this Sunday, July 8th.

Have a nice 4th of July,

Gail Hedy