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Go Bucks!!!! Beat Michigan!

More Pics from Indy Frolic

Super Seniors Second at Indy

John Clark's super senior team lost to Michigan in the final match at the Indianapolis MidWest Sectional playoffs. Congratulations to the team as they were just one match away from nationals.

John has an eye for beauty with the hostess at Champs.

The legendary team of Lancaster and Pare. Art and Dave

Headed to Indy!

Good luck to John Clark's Super Senior team as they head to Indianapolis this weekend for the sectional championships. These crotchety old guys have the talent, luck and ability to make line calls that will take them on to Nationals!

NIFTY NIFTY JW IS FIFTY!

The Five Seasons parking lot was full Saturday even as John Wong and a few close friends got together to celebrate the BIG 50. There was tennis, food and drink(much drink) and even a DJ for song and dance. Why don't guys do the Electric Slide?

Thanks to John for a great party and some great tennis! JW shows how it's done Alexis saves a picture of Dick & Joe. Photos courtesy of Pam & Todd

Tennis God Celebrates the BIG 60 In vegas!

Frank Mucklo, Jan Hansar, Rick Rogalski, John Wong, Steve Poe, Joe Pare and several others traveled to Vegas to celebrate Dick's birthday. A great time was had by all despite the fact that Dick, Joe and Frank arrived twelve hours late because apparantly, Continental airlines has only one plane capable of flying to Vegas. Steve and Jay enjoyed $70 Kobe mini-steaks at Sensi at the Bellagio. The gang treated the birthday boy to dinner at Batista's where the food , drink and atmosphere was terrific. All had fun gambling(even the novices) and Frank was the big winner. We want to know his system! Plans are in the works for another trip next year. Here are some pics from the trip. And remember, Steve goes by movies.

STATE CHAMPS!

The River Oaks Super Senior 7.0 team won the Ohio State Championship on Saturday 9/16.

From Captain Clark's report:

We beat Shadow Valley from Toledo last night at LaTuchie to win the State Championship, 2-1!

Court 1: Art Stehlik and Bob Barker beat Win Sturgeon and Bob Filiere, 6-4, 7-6.

Court 2: John Clark and Frank Mucklo lost to Steve Brannan and Oakley Schroyer, 7-6, 6-2.

Court 3: Joe Pare and Dick Lancaster beat Sam Radal and Bill Dean, 4-6, 6-4, 1-0.

The last tie-break was a masterful job of "come-from-behind" in spite of some non-help by the tournament referee.

Great job, guys!!

WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS STAYS IN VEGAS!

MORE TO COME ON THE LANCASTER BIG 60 BIRTHDAY BASH.

Egon consults with Brad in Cincy.

Some Pics from States

Farmer's Girls Capture States

Congratulations to Serene Farmer's River Oaks 3.0 senior women's team for winning the Ohio State championship. The team moves on to Indy next week. You go girls!

Season fades into the shadows

The River Oaks 3.5 senior team met the end of the road at the state tournament at Toledo's Shadow Valley Club. The Ohio Valley team from Charlston, West Virginia took home the prize.

Joe Pare gets mentally ready for States!

EB Bunny Says...

GOOD LUCK TO THE 3.5 MENS' SENIOR TEAM AND ALL NEO CHAMPIONS IN

TO - LE - DO...

BRING IT HOME! KEEP IT GOING !!!

HOLY TOLEDO! River Oaks sends 5 teams to states

There must be something in the water or maybe the Court Room drinks. River Oaks is sending five teams to the state championship round. Congratulations to Judy Gonzalez's 3.5 senior ladies team, Serene Farmer's 3.0 senior ladies team, Deb Cahill's 4.0 adult ladies team, the Dick Lancaster 3.5 senior men's team, and the John Clark 7.0 super senior team. Notice how the term "senior" is dominant. All of these teams will play in Toledo this coming weekend except for the Clark super senior team which plays in September. Let's "bring it on home!" to River Oaks.

Northeastern Ohio Champs!

The Lancaster 3.5 men's senior team defeated Chagrin Valley 3-0 to become NEOTA champs and move on to the state championships in Toledo on Friday. Egon Luengo and Mack Thomas needed a match tiebreaker to pull out a tough first court match. Court 2 was manned by Jay Hansar and Tim Rickard who won close one in straight sets. Court three was full of knee braces but Joe Pare and Dick Lancaster had no mercy using their patent dink-and-lob game to stimie their opponents in straight sets.

Justice Prevails

Yes, Michelle's 4.0 River Oaks team is going to NEOTA playoffs after all. It seems that one of the self-rated players on the North Ridge team didn't put all the facts on the self rating sheet. She was a rated junior and played high school and college tennis. This is an automatic 4.5 rating. All her USTA matches are disqualified. We are glad to see that this self-rating stacking of teams is coming to an end. Thank you NEOTA. Last year a River Oak's 3.5 men's team fell to a team that had self-rated state ranked high school players that were on their way to college tennis.

Steak an Corn Roast

Thanks to Linda and Rick Rogalski and Dick Lancaster the tennisfriends gang had their 2nd annual steak and corn roast Saturday night. Play the video.

River Oaks goes to NEOTA playoffs

Youth triumphed over age as Glenn Feagan's River Oaks 3.5 team defeated the Lancaster River Oaks 3.5 team for a spot in the NEOTA playoffs next week. Good luck to Glen's team next Friday. Meanwhile the Lancaster 3.5 senior team will prepare for their NEOTA playoff match at Western Reserve next Sunday.

John Clark's super senior team has already qualified for states and will be practicing between now and September 16th on clay to prepare.

CLASH OF THE TITANS!

After soundly defeating Hall of Fame by a count of 4-1 in round one of the qualifier, Lancaster's 3.5 team will take on Glenn Feagan's team on Saturday at 10am to determine who will advance to the NEOTA playoffs.

Grey Kennedy was super in downing his first singles opponent 6-1,6-2. Wally Mueller fell 1-6, 4-6 at second to even the match at one all. It was all doubles after that as Renzelman and Wacker(the twin towers) prevailed 7-5, 6-2 at first. Mucklo and Pare toughed it out for a 6-4, 6-4 win at second and after crushing the opposition 6-0 in the first set, Hansar and Lancaster hung on for a 7-5 second set win. Glenn's team beat North Canton 3-2 . Both singles were victorious and Tony Crimaldi and Chris Prall clinched the win in a third set tiebreak. See you guys Satuday. Good luck to John Clark's NEOTA champion Super Senior team tonight as they attempt to finish the regular season undefeated.

River Oaks Seniors have Purrrr...fect season!

River Oaks senior 3.5 team completed a undefeated season Tuesday night at North Ridge. They took Hank Thomay's boy 2-1. Egon Luengo and Frank Mucklo won on one. Tim Rickard and Jay Hansar took court two. Dick Lancaster and Joe Pare almost pulled out a rabbit being down 8 -1 in a match tiebreaker coming back to lose 10 - 12. Hank Thomay talks about sending his loosing players to Siberia while Egon listens and Jay goes for the chips. As we were leaving we saw a large bus pulling up to North Ridge with a sign that said "Siberian Express". Good luck to Hank's players; dress warm.

THEY DO IT WITH SLIPPERS AND BATHROBES!

John Clark's Super Senior team covered Mayfield with a wet towel for the third and final time this season. The premier team of Joe Pare and Dick Lancaster pinged, dinked , and lobed their opponents Don Vogel and Dave Dawson. It should be against the law to play like that, especially against super seniors. Bob "sign-painter" Barker teamed up with Art "Mr. hoops" Stehlik to defeat Paul Chajmovic and Charles Brooks. Mayfield's Art Kraus and Norty London used their home court advantage to win over John Clark and Lars Eriksson. The big Swede must have been tired out from the night before when he played a legendary Racquet Club East team noted for their outlandish court behavior. He told his partner that he was not having fun. We hope he finds his swing on his vacation to the motherland.

We need your help

Here's a message from Todd:

Raffle items for Varzelle Benifit

Hi everyone,

I know everyone's mind is focuse on ending the USTA season on high note, but if you or anyone on your team would like to donate a raffle item (tickets to sporting events, gift certificates, etc) for our Paul Varzelle Extravaganza, I would really appreciate it. No item is too small, anything will help. Please contact Michelle or Todd at 440-331-4980 if you have any donations. As of now we have close to 50 people signed up and we are still a month away. My goal is 100 people, Let's do it!

Thanks for all your hard work in making this another successful USTA season and I hope to see you on August 25.

Todd Ashdown

Cheers and Tears

The Court Room has been filled with cheers and tears this summer. Mike and Carol have been fine hosts as another USTA season comes to an end. Could there be a more friendly laid back place to enjoy our successes and cry about our failures? As all of you have traveled all over North Eastern Ohio this summer playing matches at all different clubs have you found a more comforting setting than the Court Room at River Oaks? This is the REAL Cheers! The next time you're there, thank Mike, thank Carol, thank Michele, and thank Amy for putting up with our noise, bad jokes, some bad language, and making this the best after match setting ever.

1st Place

Dick Lancaster's 3.5 River Oaks adult team finished the season in first place last night defeating Racquet Club East 5-0.

Match summary:

Court 1-s Hoelzer won: 6-2, 6-3

Court 2-s Renzelman won: 6-1, 6-4

Court 1-d Eriksson & Mucklo won: 6-2, 6-3

Court 2-d Mueller & Buschert won: 6-7, 6-1, 1-0

Court 3-d Lancaster & Rogalski won: 6-2, 6-1

Off to playoffs next week.

Wong's Five Seasons team ends season with a win

Copied email from John to team and others:

Tonight, the good guys took a fun match from North Ridge, as follows: John Hew at 1st Singles won by 7-5, 6-4 At second singles, Lee Zalud played his first match of the year, and dropped a very tough 6-4, 5-7, 1-0 , match.

At first dubbs, JW and TD won 5-7, 6-2, 1-0. Now that the season is OVER, JW is finally ready to carry his share of the match when playing with Tony!

Maurer and Stewart dropped a close match, by a 6-3, 7-6 score.

And at third, John Alfes and Tim Urwin put in a very solid performance, taking the match 6-3, 6-4

Overall, it was an improvement over prior years. You captain extends his thanks for the cooperation you all gave this year. It would have been nice to have pulled out one of those 3-2 losses against the top two teams (Tennis Club and North Olmsted), but we really had a pretty good year.

JW

Seniors continue Roll

Senior team shoes.

John Clark and Frank Mucklo relax in the Court Room

Joe Pare and Rick Rogalski after victory.

Mentor defaulted one court so Mucklo and Clark relaxed as the team rolled on. Egon Luengo with Lars Eriksson blasted through court one while Rick Rogalski and Joe Pare took court two. The Lancaster senior team remains undefeated with one match to go.

Afterwards the Court Room was abuzz as the River Oak's 3.5 ladies played Racquet Club East. Katie Bolan and Deb Zolas were last on the court (about 11:00pm) in a match tiebreaker when a score dispute broke out. The ladies seemed to be at the net forever and Roy couldn't stand it any longer. He walked out on the court to help mediate. Howerver his efforts were in vain as the peanut gallery on the viewing deck yelled at him to get off the court. Fortunately they resolved the recipe and the match continued. Katie and Deb and the River Oaks team won.

Best wishes to Ron Thomas who is recovering from surgery.

Still Super....after all these matches. 7/13/06

The cheers could be heard all the way in the Court Room when David Hinckley volleyed the winning shot in the match tie breaker to continue John Clark's Super Senior team winning streak. David played and outstanding match with his partner Jerry Leak against Jack Burge and Ron Strobl of Western Reserve.

Genius Clark stacked the line-up with all winning teams. Joe Pare, and Dick Lancaster opened with a 6-0 first set and then had that famous second set let down but won it 7-6. Western Reserve's Dante Pieramici and Terry Swearingen were very disapointed. The captain, John Clark, choose Frank Mucklo for his partner and they eaisily defeated Dave Pine and Bob Sanders. Thanks to Roy Kaupe for his pre-match pep talk.

Carol gets hole in one, Husband asks for help.

This week proved that golf is for women and children. Carol Pare had a hole in one and an eight year old boy got two in one round. Joe Pare is sticking with tennis and occasional golf, but it is suggested that he will be taking tutoring from Carol on golf, and has been rumored to have ask Diane Peters (see article below) to help him with his tennis line calls. We hope that Diane will be a positive influence on him in this respect. Good job Carol!

Five Seasons Boys Enjoying the Court Room

While Pete Gallo's Five Seasons' 3.5 team was meeting the challenge on courts 1-5 at River Oaks, the "It Girls of Summer" were posting their sixth win on courts 6-10.? Pete's team won four courts while dropping the 2nd singles court after Mike Voll pulled his hamstring/muscle during the first set.? He managed to make it through the first set tie breaker and then the second set.? Although losing 7-6, 6-4 Mike was able to walk off the court knowing that he gave it everything he had and while suffering great pain in his leg.? The return of the doubles team of Luengo and Flash after five years of not playing together brought a win to the second doubles court, while Jeff Roberts at first singles, Farnham and Shepard at first doubles and the twins (Mike and Mike) at third doubles all walked off with decided victories. ?? ? The spoils of this win were enjoyed with refreshments and adoration from the "It Girls of Summer" afterwards in the bar.? A few candid shots below reveal activities that must not go beyond this blog. A reflection of true inter-club friendship and relationships...

More than a pretty face

Yes that's her, the same Diane Peters we all know as a great tennis player at River Oaks. This is from the Cleveland Plain Dealer 7/13/06