The Tennis Club Tournament of Champions brings the end to a great season of competition at Rossmoor, shortened a little because of Covid-19.
This is an invitation only event for anyone finishing in the top three scoring positions for any of the other tournaments during the year. Not surprisingly, the standard of play was very high with tight play and close results. Indeed, the overall results were all open going into the last round and all six top players could hardly have been closer.
Photo L to R: Dave Kern, Pauline Hanley, Yvonne Merrick, Bob Benz, Ken Steiner, Carol Pillsbury
On the mens' side there was a tie between Bob Benz and Ken Steiner for top honors, with Dave Kern one point off the pace.
The womens' competition was just as tight with Pauline Hanley taking first place, one point ahead of Yvonne Merrick, who was one point ahead of Carol Pillsbury in third.
Everyone had a great time. The event was hosted by Tournament Director Chris Slee who would like to thank all the volunteers who help run these events during the past year.
We all look forward to a complete season in 2022.
Photo L to R: Dave Kern, Pauline Hanley, Yvonne Merrick, Bob Benz, Ken Steiner, Carol Pillsbury
You must show proof of vaccination upon entry into the Fireside Room.
The annual Holiday Party for Tennis Club members and guests will be held on Thursday December 16, 2021 in the Fireside Room at Gateway from 5:00pm to 10:00pm. The cocktail hour will begin at 5pm with wine, beer and soft drinks. A sit down dinner catered by Creekside will be served at 6pm starting with a salad. The entrée choices for this year’s dinner are filet tips, salmon or stuffed butternut squash. These will be served with skin on russetmashed potatoes and a seasonal vegetable.. Cake will be served for dessert.
Music will be provided by a disc jockey starting at 5 pm.
The cost for the party is $45.00 per person. Make checks payable to the Rossmoor Tennis Club or RTC. Please send your check to Pamela Ovalle, 1801 Skycrest Dr. # 7, Walnut Creek, CA 94595 and include your choice of entrée and the name of partner or guest. The deadline for checks is December 8th.
If you have any questions about this event or how you canvolunteer to help, please contact the event organizer DavidHickey at 805 868 6040 or email David at
Saturday saw the last Wild Card tournament of the 2021 Season. There was a full card with 12 men and 12 women including five newcomers out for their first tournament with the club. Chris Slee, tournaments chair, was on hand to host the event.
On the womens' side, newcomer Mary Benin and Terry Quinlan took first place honors. Anna George and Delia Wilkes took second place jointly, while Joan Gardner had the third highest score.
Barry Brian, playing in his first Wild Card, overcame his opponents with topspin, side-spin and underspin, anything but a simple flat shot. Jerry Robinson and Rick Sterling came in second, while newcomer Greg Hanson had the third highest total. Congratulations to all the winners.
The upcoming 2021 Womens Doubles Tournament is planned for Sat October 16 at 9 am and the last opportunity to win an invitation to the November Tournament of Champions. Rossmoor Tennis Club members may sign up at the Buckeye Tennis Complex kiosk. Stuart Coffey and Ike Ichikawa are the hosts for this event.
Rules for Buckeye Tennis Effective 17 Mar 2021 ... Doubles!
As updated by GRF/MOD
Buckeye Tennis Courts are for Rossmoor Residents only.
Must adhere to social distancing of 6’ at all times.
Masks must be worn at all times when not playing. Masks are strongly recommended while playing doubles.
If sick or exposed to Covid-19, stay home.
Use Hand sanitizer stations and/or wash hands for 20 seconds frequently.
No sign-in at kiosk. If courts are full, alert others you are waiting.
Limit to 60 minutes for match when people are waiting.
Doubles play is permitted however there is no mixing of partners during a visit. Play must be with the same partner.
Those waiting for court time must sit a minimum of 6’ apart, only one person per bench.
No gatherings before or after matches.
No sharing of club or personal equipment.
No tournament play, league play, or group instruction.
No handshakes or contact.
BBQ area will remain closed.
Use of Golden Rain Facilities is subject to City, County, and State Health Code directives. Conditions of use may change without notice. Abuse of these rules may jeopardize the use of this facility for all Residents.
The Rossmoor tennis club selected Mary Ann Shields and Ron Wyman as its 2019 Service Award recipients. Each year the awards are given to club members who have consistently promoted the fun and smooth functioning of the club.
Shields has been an active member of RTC for 13 years. Her creative genius for organizing social events has given club members some great times. Ask if anyone remembers the Spring Fling that featured Mary Kay, Peter and Dick in a bath tub singing “Splish Splash I was Taking a Bath”. It was Mary Ann’s idea to hold Kentucky Derby parties. Fred Barnes was in charge of wagering, the ladies wore amazing hats and we drank mint juleps as we watched the race. Our summer Saturdays on the patio at Buckeye have been more fun since Mary Ann thought of serving mojitos and burgers to the music of Jimmy Buffet. She plays on the ladies’ BALLS league Oaks team and still works part time as a flight attendant.
Wyman has been in the club for almost 20 years and is one of the lefties on the men’s SMIL team that competes with other Bay Area teams. He has managed many of the club’s weekend and inter-league tournaments over the years and its tournaments with other communities such as The Villages in San Jose. He was a key contributor in the creation of the club’s event history that now appears on the club’s web site at rossmoortennis.com under the “About” tab. He has served on the club’s board of directors and was the club’s Correspondence Chairman.
By Kind Permission of the Rossmoor Pickleball Club ... [RTC emphasis]
Our RPC Board of Directors is still hearing rumors regarding singles vs. doubles pickleball restrictions. This week I couldn’t stand it anymore and decided to go to the source to confirm the facts.
On Monday, June 22, I emailed County Supervisor Candace Andersen asking for confirmation of County pickleball restrictions. On Tuesday, her office called me. They recommended that I call the County Covid-19 hotline, (844) 729-8410, which I did.
I was very impressed. The woman I spoke with was well versed on the County’s pickleball and tennis restrictions. She immediately knew the clause # in the public order where they were referenced.
She confirmed that the public order (dated 4-29-20) that originally opened tennis and pickleball courts with restrictions is still in effect. She also confirmed the following:
The County public order permits singles only. As long as the County requires social distancing, singles will remain the restriction.
Doubles can be played only when partners are from the same household.
Clubs and private communities, like Rossmoor, can institute rules that are more strict than the County restrictions. Here at Rossmoor, GRF is stipulating singles only. No doubles.
A city, club or community cannot institute a rule that is more lenient than the County restriction. For instance, a city cannot allow doubles across the board at this time.
The County hotline employee has received many inquiries about restrictions for pickleball and tennis. She was well aware of the lack of enforcement at municipal Rutgear (Walnut Creek) and Willow Pass (Concord) courts. She was not aware that some, if not most people were playing doubles at those parks when they were not members of the same household, thus not complying with the County public order.
Please see the links for the Walnut Creek and Concord pickleball restrictions at the end of this email.
So what caused the disconnect and how did the rumors get started? Who knows. I think part of the problem is there was no specific reference to pickleball or tennis in the public order that ‘opened things up’ (dated 6-5-20) or in the County’s Nixle messages. People probably assumed that the openings applied to pickleball, but they did not. Also the CCC Openings at a Glance chart on the County website shows ‘Open’ across the board. People might have assumed ‘open’ meant pickleball went back to normal, but again, it did not.
I asked the County hotline employee to consider changing two things. She said she would pass the ideas to management and the County Supervisors since the topic has received so much attention:
Have future County public orders, summaries, and Nixle announcements reiterate the pickleball/tennis rules since people are making incorrect assumptions. (The County needs to keep the restriction in the public eye.)
Review and consider altering the County website’s Openings at a Glance chart listing all the activities, because the all-open line for tennis/pickleball is misleading.
The County's confirmation doesn't change anything for RPC, but at least we have the facts that we can relay to you. Please spread the word.
For your reference, I’ve included a few links below. As a resident of CCC, I recommend you read the public orders as they are issued, but be forewarned, reading them is like reading IRS documentation! (Okay, maybe not that bad…)
Thank you for your patience and understanding as we go through this difficult time. Please keep things in perspective and realize that we are very fortunate that our courts are open and we can play pickleball. That’s a good thing.
An excited group of tennis fans showed up at the Buckeye courts May 5 after a seven-week hiatus due to the coronavirus restrictions. Players are required to follow the United States Tennis Association (USTA) COVID-19 Guidelines, as well as Contra Costa County and Rossmoor rules. There is no seating available at the courts but players may bring personal chairs for their own use only. Face masks must be worn outside the courts. Hand sanitizer dispensers have been installed on every court. Each player brings their own marked tennis balls and only their own balls are touched by hand. Social distancing rules must be observed at all times. Marian “Cinnamon” Renvall was part of the early crowd and expressed her thanks to the Rossmoor Tennis Club board, who merged and implemented all the rules, and to the players for following the new guidelines. The weather May 5 was perfect and everyone agreed it was great to be putting on tennis skirts and shorts, being outdoors, and having fun on the courts. Pictured are Jerry Quinlan (left), Facilities Director and Dave Blanchard, President modelling best practices and proper social distancing.
Recently, Rossmoor Tennis Club (RTC) was asked to remove various tournament plaques and service awards from Dollar Clubhouse.
The plaques date back to 1975 and, seeing all the names and dates, started a discussion about who among current and retired club members might be the most senior.
Club President Dave Blanchard sent a note to current club members and there was a flood of responses from members stating when they joined, who might have more “seniority” and relating wonderful tales of club history and activities.
Among the many surprises was S.Y. Huang, who is still living in Rossmoor. He joined the club in 1987, over 30 years ago. He says he enjoyed hearing his female tennis friendscall him “Sigh.”
Marie Hoge, a club member since 1993, has roots dating back to the club’s beginning in 1965. In 1995 she married Charley Hoge, who formed the club in 1965, and was its first president. Hoge fought to get the first tennis courts built in Rossmoor, in part by noting that the Rossmoor developer’s advertising materials showed courts that didn’t exist.
Marcia Perry, another early club member, is still a Rossmoor resident. There is a plaque that shows Perry winning a tournament, partnered with Art Kaiser, almost 30 years ago. Perry has been a very active member over the years playing, coaching and most recently being the MC for holiday tennis tournaments.
Many members who are still playing joined about 20 years ago. Among them are Joe Potozkin, Al Schwartz and MaryKay McClure.Potozkin continues to play and is the most consistent spectator at men’s team matches. Schwartz is like a walking history narrator for club activity in the last 20 years and remembers when the club sponsored two USTA teams.
McClure, who joined the club in 1999, is another great historian and has contributed much to the club, organizing social events, serving on the board and playing on the team that won the Northern Cal USTA Senior Women’s championship in Alameda in 2010.
Kerin Baker, another active member, kept scrapbooks with photos and history of members going back to the ’70s. These can now be seen on the club’s website at www.rossmoortennis.com.
She is justly proud of it.
Blanchard’s simple question revealed that RTC certainly has a long rich history, not onlyof tennis but picnics, dinners, dances and fun dynamic people. Much of it is captured on the website under the “About” tab.
Sadly we lost one of those dynamic people on April 1 when Barbara Schwartz passed away unexpectedly. Schwartzserved on the club’s board as treasurer for the past nine years. She played on the Buckeyes’ women’s team for many years and helped set up lunches for their tournaments for the past several years. She had many friends in the club and will be greatly missed.
