Our Rocky Start...

About ten years ago, as naïve beginners, we entered a mixed doubles tournament. Our opening round opponents were Jerry, a man many years our senior, and his octogenarian female partner. Our singular goal was to hit some shots toward and over the net.

 They were experienced players.

No matter that the lady couldn't run; she set up camp at the net and killed all the drifting balls we lobbed in her direction. And Jerry’s returns were relentlessly unreachable. After the slaughter Jerry kindly offered us some playing tips and suggested lessons. Lessons and a decade of regular play have made us passable players.

Why we love it...

1. Competition

Rosemarie and I like competition! Some people eschew competitive activities, perhaps conflating the desire to win with hostility and aggression. We are peace loving people AND we love to win!

2.  Friendship

 Tennis has brought us a wealth of friendship.  There’s Kelly with her big heart, pirate’s curses, and debilitating outbreaks of laughter on the court; Gary’s pterodactyl shrieks when he misses a shot; and Martin bellowing “MARRRR-TIN!” when he flubs an easy one. There’s Patrick, Valerie, Jeff, Claire, Peter, Judy, Hugh, Lynn, Al, Andrew, Margaret, Kip, Sue, Rajesh, Stefan, Lioba, Josiah, Robert, Bill, Carmen, Caroline, Ian, Gabriel, Hanne, Ineke, Jeanne, Jeremy, Joan, Jim, Kyle, Mark, Michael, Penny, Rachel, Reg, Sheryl, Sid, Christie, Harry, Louise, Susanne, Terry, Tonya, and so many more!

3.  Our Wonderful Victoria Virtual Tennis Club - VVTC

We met most of our tennis friends through our amazing Victoria Virtual Tennis Club. We are “Virtual” in that we have no courts of our own. Instead, we play on Victoria’s great indoor and outdoor public courts.  Our website, http://vvtc.bc.ca/, is the hub of our tennis organization.  Check it out; it’s a marvel of accessible simplicity created by VVTC member and web wizard Mark Alldritt. Our VVTC “clubhouses” consist of the coffee shops we often gather at post-match and of each other’s homes (where we have great parties!)

VVTC membership is free and it’s is easy to sign up for on the website. We are over 200 strong and growing!

4.  Oh Yeah, and the Exercise Too

 Tennis keeps us active and fit even though it’s all fun and no work!

Alas, no Redemption

We’ve met scores of fine people across the net but, oddly, we never again played Jerry. Alas, there will be no redemption for Rosemarie and Tom from that geriatric schooling.

Lessons Anyone?

Please learn from our experience with Jerry and his partner; if you want to jump into tennis start with lessons. These three facilities offer fine beginner’s tennis lesson packages:

• Oak Bay Recreation: http://oakbay.ca/parks-recreation
• Cedar Hill Recreation: http://www.saanich.ca/parkrec/recreation/cedar.html)
• Panorama Recreation: http://www.crd.bc.ca/panorama/

 

Side with the Winners

 

You may or may not choose to play tennis. Perhaps golf, baseball, hockey, ping pong, badminton, bocce, Scrabble, bungy jumping, channel-surfing, or (you name it) is your game.  But in life we all must occasionally take the Real Estate playing field. Rosemarie and her team bring years of experience and success to winning at this game. Please do your house selling and/or hunting friends a favour and put them onto Coach Rosemarie!

 

Thank you for reading this blog and for visiting our website! And remember this;

 

LOVE means nothing in tennis!