/ Home / Articles / Gulfshore Life / 2007 / 08 /

search

Tools

Print this page

Email to a Friend

Digg This Article

Purchase this Issue

Subscribe to Gulfshore Life

eBrochures

»» View all eBrochures

From the Editor

By: David Sendler

The way the ball bounces.

As a tennis player, I knew it was time to move to Naples when, on a brisk December morning in New York, I looked skyward to hit an overhead and saw snowflakes descending along with the ball. Now, in this Feel Good issue, you’ll get pieces of the tennis world I discovered in paradise—what to wear (p. 44) and recommended exercises to help sharpen your game (p. 73). But for the 40-and-over scene itself, let’s drop in on Lois Bolin, a 28-year resident here, voluble, a self-proclaimed sinner ("my doubles partner Mary Anderson-Goddard is the saint") and one heckuva talent at hitting the ball and dishing on aces and faces. Here’s how she sees ’em:

Longest Rivalry Arthur Allen vs. Frank Adiutori at Naples Grande Resort & Club. They’re strong players and intense competitors. Who’s come out on top over the last 20 years? It depends on whom you ask. There’s as much spin to their stories as they get on their serves.

Biggest Character Billy Tucker at Cambier. Ever theatrical, ever chattering, ever throwing his racket (no doubt to keep his arm in shape), he’s the master of center stage.

Best Trash Talker George Hahn at Port Royal. He scores many a point with his machine-gun commentary. George’ll start you off with, "You need a spankin’?" and pile it on from there.

Best Dressers Diane McGinty (Bay Colony) and Kathy Thomas (YMCA). Coiffed, costumed and classy, they get the style advantage every time out.

Most Faithful Partners (25 years) Lois Bolin and Mary Anderson-Goddard. Volatile Lois and the more proper Mary placed sixth in the USTA 2005 senior nationals in Palm Springs, Calif. Mary’s lobs and Lois’ drop shots have confounded rivals for decades.

Most Touching Moment When Tom Manring needed a kidney transplant—and had no insurance—locals showed heart by staging a benefit tournament to help pay for the operation.

Area players will speak with awe about the skills and savvy of Johan Kriek, Dick Devoe, Pat Stranahan and Larry Turville. They’ll cite many instances of court veterans—with their sounder fundamentals—bringing down faster, harder-hitting younger players. They’ll laugh over the player with the devastating two-hand overhead and the occasional showboats who come to play with their rackets in plastic bags, their sunscreen applied like war paint, their pre-game jump-roping aimed at intimidation. The level of play is high; the camaraderie at an equal level. But let it be the true grit that defines the game here. As Lois Bolin said after losing 3-6, 7-5, 3-6 recently to a much younger rival, "If they have blisters and I’ve got cramps, it’s been a good day."

IS THERE A (JACKET) DOCTOR IN THE HOUSE?

Talk about those embarrassing little moments of truth we all endure at one time or another. Here we have NCH Healthcare System CEO Dr. Allen Weiss in full cry at one of his empire’s annual Magnolia Balls. Only suddenly he notices something. It’s on the lower sleeve of his spanking-white dinner jacket, a garment he had worn only once before at a previous Magnolia Ball. It is, for goodness sake, the tag that came with the jacket describing the fiber, etc. Not a CEO-worthy style note.

What to do? Hide the lower arm for the entire evening? To the rescue came Garrett Richter, a politician trained to have ready answers under pressure. Flashing a pair of small scissors, he snipped the threads and banished the embarrassment. Snipped Dr. Weiss to Rep. Richter with tongue in cheek, "Thanks, but I was planning to return this in
the morning."