Stanley Park Tennis Club

Its officially all over for 2011. Many members will continue to play in the park on club nights until until the days become too short, and the rains too steady. Don’t hesitate to join in.

This blog page will now go dormant until its time to announce the Annual General Meeting in early 2012.

Year-end play & dine extravaganza:

Saturday, September 10th – One-day tennis tournament (for members only), followed by dinner at Checkers Bar & Grill, located at the Best Western Sands Hotel (1755 Davie, near Denman). 

Tournament format is round robin doubles, and members sign up individually. Teams will be assigned on the day of the tournament.

Tournament and dinner (members) $25.00
Tournament only (members) $10.00
Dinner only (members/guests) $20.00

Please sign up with Marni, Vangie, Jewal or Laurie on any club night.

Members able and willing to donate prizes for  September 10 are asked to email to mysptc@gmail.com, or call Vangie Johnson at 604 505 1126.

Members who wish to donate prizes may contact same.  Thank you in advance.

The Stanley Park Open Tennis Tournament has been and gone. We are back on our home courts 15, 16 and 17 by the Fish House.

Tuesday evening, July 26, the club will have a Looney Twoonie Tuesday Barbecue courtside. Burgers, dogs, salad stuff and soft drinks served. Bring your appetites.

Non-members are invited to take advantage of SPTC’s mid season Drop-In Special:

$30  (regular membership is $60).
Good for unlimited use until Friday, September 2.
Tuesday and Friday evenings, 5:30 til dark.

Includes our July and August Loonie Twoonie Tuesday Barbecues.

Amazingly, gloomy skies cleared in late afternoon on the 31st, the courts quickly dried, and the Stanley Park Tennis Club was able to play and cook. The rains came again in the evening, but many a burger had been eaten by that time. Thanks to all who participated. Next Loonie Twoonie Tuesday barbecue is scheduled for June 21.

This year, like last, has not yet brought forth weather to make outdoor tennis always possible. A year ago, after the rainout of the club’s first barbecue night, I embedded some videos in a post here, to help show the way to getting some excercise indoors, when the weather outside may be putting the kibosh on plans for tennis. In this deja vu circumstance of unseasonably cool and rainy weather, I am moved to do something similar. Unfortunately, I cannot find any good videos of anyone doing as entertaining a job of at-your-desk dancing as Gary Broisma lip-synching O-Zone. But I have run across some neat videos that show great ways to dance to a lot of exercise without taking up much space, indoors or out.

The first is a video by a cute Japanese girl named Kozue Aikawa, who dances to Vocaloid songs – that is, songs made by a vocal music syntheziser.  I’d say the dance shown below involves all the muscle groups. The video includes a few out-takes at the end.

Kozue Aikawa has over 60 of these videos on YouTube, and has formed a troupe of young ladies, called Danceroid, who perform to Vocaloid pop songs in Japan. She does not always wear the mask.

Many of you may have seen the video of a guy from Seattle, who backpacked around the world, and along the way shot a video of himself dancing on the spot badly at exotic locations. That original video attracted a sponsor, whose backing enabled the intrepid bad dancer, Matt Harding, to do the definitive, big budget, cast-of-thousands, blockbuster remake of that simple idea. He did that a few years ago. I saw the remake for the first time yesterday. Its a very upbeat thing, and I include it here, with apologies to all who have already seen it too many times.

Well, hoping we see some summer tennis weather soon, I end this post with a video of some weird, amazing, little-space-needed dancing, by popper, Phillip Chbeeb.

Remember, you cannot get too fit for tennis. Go easy on the munchies as you watch these videos.

A SPTC member of some years, who works at Statistics Canada, has requested that the club executive contact members to remind them, if they have not already done so, to fill out the 2011 Canada Census form. Well, dear reader, the executive has demurred on sending out e-mails about the census. But your humble SPTC Website Coordinator does not mind writing this post, to satisfy the concern of our Stats Can member, and thereby, perhaps, to perform a small public service.

As many of you know, the census comes around every five years. It provides information on the population of Canada which, hopefully, will guide decision-makers of all kinds to the formation of policy and provision of services based on a shred or two of intelligence.

There has been controversy about this year’s census, having to do with a change in one aspect of the information-gathering. But the filling out of the census form remains an obligation for all residents of the country. There are actually penalties that can be brought against those who do not fill out the census questionnaire.

The information-gathering was supposed to have taken place in early May. The government has by now sent out reminders to households that have received census forms, and have not yet responded. According to the Stats Canada web site:

Households that don’t complete the forms by June can expect a more personal intervention. OOoooo!!!! (spooky music, knees trembling). Anyway folks, if you haven’t done it yet, now is the time.

I excerpt below a couple of paragraphs of a letter, found on the web, sent from Statistics Canada to someone who had asked about the penalty thing:

No person has ever been sentenced to jail for failing to complete the census. In the majority of cases referred to the Public Prosecution Service of Canada, the individual completed a census questionnaire. A very small number of individuals were fined.

The Statistics Act requires that each household is required to complete the census form it receives; they are mandatory. Specified within the Statistics Act are fines of up to $500 and/or a jail term of up to three months.

Below I copy excerpts from the message our SPTC member wished to e-mail to everyone:

…the census can be completed online at www.census2011.gc.ca by using a secure access code. It’s easy and secure. Or, they can complete a paper questionnaire.

Information on how to complete the census, including the secure access code, can be found in the yellow census package received by each household or by calling the Census Help Line at 1-877-777-2011.

Now, back to tennis….. Barbecue tonight (Tues)!

And if you could all take a few seconds to do a little chant to help ward off any rain Tuesday evening, that would be just fine.

SPTC Social Coordinator, Marnie Thorpe, turns out not to have been seriously injured when she had a fall last week, and will be selflessly organising provisions needed to have the season’s first barbecue this Tuesday, May 31. Marnie, you are our hero! The event had been originally scheduled for last week, until a series of unforeseen circumstances forced a postponement.

Unless it is actually raining, bring your appetites to courtside on Tuesday evening, folks. These days the courts dry out quickly once the drops have ceased falling. Don’t let a shower in the afternoon prevent you from grabbing your racquet and coming down to the park. 5:30 till dark.

Click on graphic to enlarge.

DOWNLOAD SPTC MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

The new outdoor tennis season is heaving into view. The Stanley Park Tennis Club invites all recreational tennis players interested in meeting new people and playing doubles and mixed doubles to join us Tuesday and Friday evenings, May 3rd to September 2nd,  for another summer of social tennis. Courts 15, 16, and 17 are the courts reserved for club use, from 5:30 to dark. The club rents a fourth court on Tuesdays. Download a membership application here. Or come to courtside any time after 5:30 pm on a club night and sign up.

Read more here.

Get a better look at where we are here.