Tuesday, December 14, 2021

2021 Holiday Party

The year would not be complete without our annual Holiday Party. Good food, good friends and lots of merry making.

Happy Holidays

Photos by Carmen Wong

A number of our fellow tennis players got together for one last round with Ken and Yupayong before they departed for North Carolina. Note that the size of the group grows until "Critical Mass" is reached.

Best of luck Ken and Yupayong

Photos by Carmen Wong

Monday, November 8, 2021

2021 TournaSocial

Twice a year we celebrate. In the Spring we celebrate the start and in the Fall we celebrate the end of Daylight Saving Time. This celebration is a combination tournament and social event. Hence, TournaSocial.

The social side gives us an opportunity to say Adieu to Yupayong and Dr Ken who are moving to North Carolina.

For those who might not recognize them off the tennis courts

The job of organizing the tournament twice a year is a complex matter which falls on the shoulders of Joe Downes. The number and gender of the players varies from year to year and Joe has to come up with an appropriate scheme. This year Joe provided us with a copy of his score sheet which shows the complexity of the process.

Bill Wong takes the men's trophy with 23 points

Everyone is on the edge of their seat

Dr Ken says he could have taken the trophy but he was busy packing

A question?

Who took the ladies trophy?

That would be Zeny with 25 points.

A word from Coach George

A picture in a picture

Runner Up Trophies to Jackie Evans, Ed Chow and Carmen Wong.

They each had 18 points.

Dr Ken with a couple patients

Photos by Carmen Wong

Sunday, August 22, 2021

Tennis & Eats II

8/22/2021

Our second Tennis & Eats

Hello Tennis Club Members,

We had another successful Tennis & Eats outing Saturday afternoon and evening. Seventeen hardy souls played tennis in a brisk breeze with temps in the low 70’s. For people in California that’s like playing tennis in Alaska with a chill factor of -20 degrees! Once we got the ice and snow removed from the courts. Oh no wait, I think we just had to start with old tennis balls. All I know it was a tough beginning. Zeny came to the rescue and delivered four cans of new tennis balls (life was good)! The tennis play went from 4:30 to 6PM. Our big winners for the evening were Laurie Redfield and Carmen Wong for the ladies, and Ed Chow and Al Morrison for the guys. The four of them took home lavish gifts provided by Yupayong. Thanks, Yupayong.

At 6PM we all wandered over to the bocce picnic area and were joined by other tennis club members and guests to socialize, have a drink or two and prepare for the feast to come. At 6:30 we grabbed our plates and headed for the food. Our main course of pulled pork was prepared by Jackie Banga, Jane Kriete, Yupayong Thirakomen, and Cindy Kienzle. Thanks for a great job. We also had tons of salads, side dishes and desserts to round out the meal. All told, thirty-five of us sat down to a great meal and some lively chatter.

Thanks to Bill Wong and Carmen Wong for taking photos of the event. Thanks to Claude for obtaining the tables from the HOA that we used for the food. Also thanks to all for helping with the clean up after the event. Hope to see you all at our next scheduled event on November 7th. I know Joe Downes has a great tournament planned for us.

Bill Kienzle

There are two components to this event - tennis play and eating. Our photographer was busy playing during the tennis competition and was unable to take photos, so we are showing tennis photos she took the day before.

Back to the event

Our Winners

Time for Dessert

Happy after another successful event!

Photos by Carmen Wong

Saturday, July 17, 2021

Tennis & Eats 16 JULY 2021

Greetings Everyone,

Our first Tennis Club function of 2021 was a big hit. We had twenty-three members who played tennis on a nice warm evening (some would say hot) with no wind. We played three rounds of tennis; each round every player had a new partner. Since we had such a great turnout, for each round three courts had six players and one court had four. Six players you say, how did that work out? Easy, three on a side, one on ad side, one on the deuce side and one in the middle. No just kidding. On the courts that had six players four would be on the court and two would sit out. The winning team of the four on the court would stay on the court and the team waiting on the side would come in and challenge the winners. The winners of that game would stay on the court and the team that lost first would come on and challenge the winners. The six players would play a total of six games. So as a team you would play a minimum of three games with a maximum of six games depending how many you won or lost. Somehow that seemed to get lost in translation. By the second round, that got all worked out and play went as planned. If you were on a court with four players you would play four games. We finished up at 6:30 and adjourned to the bocce court picnic area to enjoy some social time and prepare to eat a fabulous meal.

We had an additional thirty some members and guests show up to join the players for the Eats part (seems we always have plenty for that part). I guess they heard the famous Bay Area Chef Ken Yoshii was grilling up the burgers. He brought along his apprentice Chef Serdar Gurel to assist him. Once the word was out a line started forming near the grill to be among the first to try these tasty burgers.

To accompany these burgers the club members supplied some of the best salads, side dishes and desserts ever known to man, woman or child! So if you missed it this month, we hope to be doing it again in August.

A special thanks goes to:

Ken Yoshii and Serdar Gurel for all their hard work at the grill

Jerome Kahele for heading up the clean up crew

Joe (Jose) Downes for securing the picnic area for our use

Bill Wong for being the roaming photographer

Yupayong Thirakomen for supplying the trophies

The rest of the club members and guests who pitched in to help.

HOPE TO SEE YOU ALL NEXT MONTH

Bill Kienzl