Happy New Year to Gulf Harbour Tennis!

While many were ringing in the New Year, Gulf Harbour’s tennis members brought in 2011 with a bang…and if you were at our New Year Tennis Celebration, you know I mean a BANG! The 64 tennis members who came together to start another terrific year of Gulf Harbour tennis were treated to fun tennis, terrific camaraderie, a magnificent smorgasbord, refreshing mimosas and the unparalleled Meg Jacobs Bloody Mary. It was especially good to see April Burkholder (who is now cancer-free) and Bob Ostrom (also well ahead in his battle with cancer) swinging racquets with their tennis friends.

Despite the usual last minute cancellations, eight teams of eight players each competed against each other for the right to hold the distinction of “First Champions of 2011.” After the cannon booms had faded, lingering slightly longer than the noise of Bill Wright’s failed attempts to blow Alan Canfield Jr. off the court, the team consisting of Arnie Wohl, Lili Canfield, Tony Cupaiuolo, Ann Wright, Tom Van Wyk, Sheri Krzak, Chuck Tebbetts, and Karen Ort took home the honors.

Big Match on Tuesday the 4th
Tony is hoping that the New Years Day win carries over to the big match his men’s Blue-A team has coming up this Tuesday, 2:00 P.M. at home against our other Blue-A team led by Jim Masiello. Our condolences to Jim who had to leave to attend services for his deceased cousin, and we hope his absence put too much of a damper on a match that we have all been looking forward to for some time. I hear the wagering is quite intense and the competition is likely to be as well, as the teams are tied for second place in the division. I hope someone records it, because I’ll be on court. You, however, should not miss the happening if at all possible.

April Burkholder

Maxwell Thompson

Club Championship Singles
While the men of Blue will be flexing their intensely competitive tennis muscles this week, next week in competition that we hope we will less intense the bravest of our tennis members will be taking to the courts to compete in our Club Championship Singles event. As of last look, only 30 members had made the commitment to get our Club Championships off to the kind of start representative of the awesome participation we have had at Gulf Harbour.

In case you are on the fence about whether or not to play, we’re hoping you’ll remember that you’d be playing against players of similar ability and are likely to have a maximum of four matches over the course of a week. You’ll also be able to play at your convenience through the semifinal round, and, gosh darn it, I bet you’d have a good time doing it! You can sign up for the division you would like to play online or on the bulletin board adjacent to Court 1.

More Home Matches
In addition to the second place standings of our two Blue-A teams, our men’s Red-C and White-B teams are in first place in their divisions. John Hess’ division-leading White-B team will be at home Monday (tomorrow), playing against Pelican Landing at 2:00 P.M. and I know they would love your support.

We also have another division-leading team playing a home match this week, but this team is one of our Lee County Women’s Tennis League (LCWTL) teams. The 3.5-Minus Sure Shots will be taking on the Lexington Love Bugs at 11:00 A.M., Wednesday the 5th, as they try to maintain their division lead. Their sister team, the Power Shots, will also be in action at home on Wednesday. Our final division-leading team, our men’s Red-C, will take to our home courts on Thursday the 6th against Beachview.

Gratitude
Before 2010 fades into the recesses of my deteriorating memory, I’d like to thank the terrific members of Gulf Harbour’s tennis community for another outstanding year, and for being so generous in spirit and deed! You really make this a delightful place to come each and every day. Happy New Year and let’s continue to make Gulf Harbour one of the best places to play tennis in Southwest Florida! Game, set, match….