by Jerry Quinlan

On Wednesday January 8, captain Jerry Quinlan took the Rossmoor Men’s Tennis Team to Oakland for a match against the Oakland Hills Tennis Club.  Oddly enough, the Oakland Hills club is located in the hills of Oakland. The view from the tennis courts was breathtaking as we looked westward across the bay and the bridges towards San Francisco, but not as beautiful as the views we share everyday here at Rossmoor.

The match was scheduled to start at noon but due to wet courts the first game was postponed until 12:45 for the first game. Line 1 for Rossmoor was Larry Barclay and Steve Graham who lost to the Oakland Hills team 6-2 6-4. The score is not indicative of the great game played by the team from Rossmoor with Barclay's solid serving and Graham's play at the net.

Line two was more successful with David Besenfelder and David Kern coming out on top 6-4 6-4. The win made possible through Besenfelder's aggressive overhead slams and Kern being able to return any ball hit in his area.

Line 3 was a quick match for Bernie Wolf and Chris Slee, overcoming Oakland Hills men 6-2 6-1. This was the first match finished. Wolf and Slee are not only Rossmoor neighbors but do very well next to each other on the tennis court.

Line 4 had a solid performance from Al Peters and David Hickey. After a tough start losing the first 3 games to Oakland Hills,  Al's left handed play and David's consistent  ground strokes allowed them to come back and win the match 6-3 6-1.

Line 5 was the most difficult match of the day being won by Stuart Coffey and David Corliss. Oakland Hills won the first set 6-2 but the Rossmoor men won the second set in a close tie breaker 7-5.  Having split the sets, a 10 point tie breaker was then played to determine the overall winner and the good guys again stood strong with an inspiring 10-6 win.

Overall it was a wonderful day in Oakland.  We would like to thank the Oakland Hills Tennis Club for a fine day of tennis, good views from the tennis courts, great friendship, and especially a wonderful lunch overlooking the San Francisco bay.