The annual Spring Luncheon has been set for May 10th at Churchill Downs. There are still several tickets left, so grab your team and come on out for a great day of fun, food and great prizes. The reservation form is available under the FORMS tab above. Just print it, fill it out and send one check to the address on the form. We always have a great day at the Downs recognizing the winners and runners-up of each division, so don’t miss it this year. It won’t be the same without you.
The Rules Committee will be meeting on January 30th at 1:30 at the Blairwood Swim, Tennis & Fitness Center in the back room. Also, the Spring Luncheon date has been set for May 10th at Churchill Downs. Order forms will be available in late February or early March. Keep checking back for updated information. Happy playing!
The Tennis Club at Springhurst was damaged today by the severe weather. The club is officially closed tomorrow, Wednesday and Thursday, January 18 and 19, so all matches scheduled for Springhurst will be cancelled. We will treat under Rule V. H. 2. Please note that the captains involved have 14 days to agree on a date to play the rescheduled match. We would prefer that the rescheduled matches be completed by the end of April, so that we can know the results by the end of season luncheon on May 10. However, if the end of April is not possible, please try to finish in the first week of May (not necessarily our favorite week to try to schedule matches, you know). Please demonstrate the same spirit of courtesy and cooperation that you have all shown each other this year as you try to work out the arrangements. Captains must notify their directors of the rescheduled match date.
We will update you as soon as we know about when the club can reopen for match play.
Although RCRL does not facilitate any junior leagues, we know that some of our members have young children and grandchildren who they would like to introduce to tennis. Here’s what Karen Draper, a long-time RCRL member and USTA representative, recently shared with us about the little ones:
The game has changed! USTA sanctioned tennis for kids ages 10 and under is now played on shorter courts with slower and lower-bouncing balls, smaller racquets and lower nets. Kids can now rally and play “real” tennis successfully at an earlier age.
For more information regarding 10 and Under Clinics, Play Days and Jr. Team Tennis, contact USTA KY at 491-1290 or Karen Draper, 10 and Under Coordinator, at Draper@sta.usta.com. 10andundertennis.com has an abundance of information, resources and videos relative to this revolutionary change.
UPDATE 1/4/2012: The parking situation at Springhurst is back to normal. You may park in the regular parking lots at the club. Thanks for your patience!
Springhurst is involved in a construction project which involves changes to the parking lot. Currently, the regular parking lot is not available, and this situation may continue for a few more weeks. There is parking available in a Republic Back lot which is behind Springhurst. Enter the bank parking and follow signs to back and to the right, which will terminate in the overflow lot. From there, follow the straw path and signs to the back entrance of Springhurst. Please be aware that the path can be muddy, and you might want to wear shoes other than your court shoes, and bring your good tennies, if it has rained recently. We will let you know when the regular parking lot is available again.
Did you know that a child dies every 15 seconds due to water-related illness. 80% of all sickness in the world is attributable to unsafe water and inadequate sanitation. If we provide safe water to the entire world, 2 million lives could be saved each year without any other medical intervention. EDGE Outreach provides training in water purification, hand pump repair, disaster response, and health and hygiene to ordinary individuals seeking to address the world’s water problem.
In order to raise funds for their vital work, EDGE Outreach collects shoes and sells them to an exporter, who sells them to local vendors in developing countries where there are water purification projects. In this way, EDGE not only gets vital support for its work but also is contributes to micro-enterprise ventures that benefit the local economy.
Boxes have been placed at Blairwood, LIRC, LTC, Bass Rudd, Advantage and Springhurst to collect your new or slightly used shoes. Any type of shoe (from sandal to tennis to dress shoes) for men, women and children are needed. Please look for these boxes when playing at any of the tennis clubs and bring your shoes!
Margie Cowden
Under each division tab above, you will find a link to the .pdf version of the division schedule. We are in the process of uploading them to Top Dog, so thanks for your patience as we have transitioned to a new Data Administrator this year. Top Dog should have the schedules by the end of this week. Thanks a ton, Dawn!
Have fun this year! (After all, that’s why we play, right?)
Attention RCRL Captains!
If you have players who (a) do not have 8 matches of history in TopDog or (b) do not have a current USTA rating, they MUST be rated by a pro OTHER THAN THEIR TEAM PRO before they can play matches this year. RCRL has set up five clinics in order to facilitate this process.
PLAYERS MUST CALL THE CLUBS TO REGISTER FOR THESE CLINICS.
Players will be charged $5.00 to attend a clinic. If your player cannot make any of these clinics, they must arrange to have a pro other than their own rate them, and they will be charged the club’s/pro’s hourly rate (or portion thereof).
Here are the pros we are using this fall for the verification clinics:
If you have questions, please contact your division director.
We are happy this weekend to launch our beautiful new site. Feel free to “click around” and check us out. You’ll find lots of helpful information and links to other pages you might need.
There is an on-line directory which is password-protected. So if you want to look up a player’s information, you will need that password. You can e-mail your director to ask for the password. We’ll be changing it every season, so current players will have access, but the cyber-world will not.
You’ll also find some How-To pages which share some great information about how our league works (or is supposed to!) If you have suggestions or comments, e-mail Cindy or Dawn or Marie and let us know what you think.
The Rules Committee has been hard at work making some big changes to the rules of the league. There were two main areas of concern that had continued to come up year after year, but had not been tackled until now.
The first is an individual dynamic rating which will allow the league to identify “mis-placed” players. The committee looked extensively at the membership and all the NTRP ratings and self-rated players to try and determine if there was a large group of people playing out of the appropriate level. Fortunately, the committee found only a very few players playing below the level at which they should be playing. The committee also looked at players who were forced, because of a USTA ratings bump, to move up a level. They tried to determine if it was fair to make players move up in RCRL because of a rating in another league, even if their RCRL record did not support a move up.
The second major area of concern is the issue of sportsmanship. It seems like the board is getting reports of a larger than usual number of instances of poor sportsmanship. The RCRL board will now have the authority to deal with these issues by means of varying levels of sanctions, from letters of reprimand to suspension and even expulsion from the league. The framework for this system will be effective in the 2011-12 season.
The rules will be posted on-line shortly after the May 2011 meeting, so be looking for them. The changes will be highlighted in some manner, and if you have questions, please contact your division director or any executive board member.
