Hinsdale Paddle

Well, you could be crunching numbers on your 1040 or you could be enjoying a night at KLM playing paddle with your grade-school-aged children. I know where I'll be!

What: paddle, pizza, & prizes
Where: KLM paddle courts
When: Friday, April 15, from 5:30 to 7:30 PM
Who: Kindergarten through Fifth Graders (and siblings as necessary)
Cost: $5 per child and $5 per adult

Each child must have a parent who is participating in the festivities. (Please, no drop offs).

Wear sneakers. Paddles are available for anyone who needs them. Please e-mail paulwiggin@yahoo.com by April 12 if you plan on attending, so we have enough pizza.

First, congratulations to the winners and runners-up in this weekend's tournaments.

Men's tournaments (including several women!):

A
1 Jeff Byrnes & Louis Jacobsohn
2 Ryan Edlefson & Marc Veverka

B
1 Sam Hart & Van Stapleton
2 Dave Leonard & Sam Stout

C
1 Jim Weil & Bob Westrick
2 Andy Bizub & Michael Lee

Women's tournaments:

A
1 Molly Hughes & Sue Sprovieri
2 Betsy Bradley & Missy D’Alise

B
1 Jackie Nelson & Julia Wade
2 Mary Beth Daly & Susan Muir

Second, congratulations to Nancy Ballantine, Mary Doten, and Charlie Usher on putting together the largest and best tournament weekend Hinsdale has ever experienced. (I helped some, too, but thought that being self-congratulatory was gauche.)

Tournament results will be posted in the KLM hut. Call Gary Doten at 708 473-9132 to report scores.

A Draw.xls
B Draw.xls
C Draw.xls

Guidelines.doc

Who: all paddlers, spouses, dates, and esteemed guests
What: food, drink, revelry
When: 7 PM - ? on Saturday, March 19
Where: Salt Creek Club, 830 North Madison, Hinsdale (one block north of Ogden)
Cost: included in tournament fee or $35/couple if you aren't entered

#10 The Battle of Burr Ridge over KLM Operating Hours

Getting permission to play league matches until 10:30 was a nice little win, but our feelings are a little hurt that dogs are now welcome in the park 3 hours before paddlers.

#9 Viking Academy on September 23-25, 2004

The RV pulled up and we knew it was time to get serious about positioning, deck dinks, and aiming for the reset spots on difficult overheads.

#8 Ed and Pat Usher’s Victory at the Intermediates

We should have known. It's in their genes.

#7 First Year of the Lessons by Doten, Lockhart, and Veverka

Who realized there might be lesson programs going every day and that three great instructors might be finding full classes in the inaugural year for a Village program?

#6 Local Superstars Shine All Season

Congrats to Mary Doten, James Goldman, Nancy O’Sullivan, and Charlie Usher on their excellent season at the regional and national tournaments. And they're all still as humble and lovable as ever (well, maybe humble is a tiny stretch for Charlie, but he's always smiling).

#5 League Champions in Series 1, 2, and 11

All nine HPD men's teams finished in the top 4 slots of their respective series. Jack Welch must be envious. Series 1, 2, and 11 finished on top.

#4 Doubling of Passholders in One Year

From 237 passholders last season to more than 475 this season. Think Trustee Laura Johnson recognizes how wrong she was yet about this being a small group of fanatics? Speaking of fanatics, did Schultz really go from series 13 to 11 to 9 to 7 to 5 to 3 all in 4 months?

#3 Reservations Web Site

Doug Brown deserves the bronze medal for implementing on-line reservations. Now if he can only turn his genius for the Internet into some gold like Jeff Bezos and Al Gore did.

#2 Opening of the KLM Paddle Facility

Pardon the indulgence, but I'd say that the silver medal has to go the new KLM facility.

#1 Annual Paddle Party at Salt Creek Club on March 19, 2005

Finally, the top event of the 2004-05 season goes to this Saturday's party at Salt Creek Club, 830 N Madison, Hinsdale. 7 PM start. Be there. The party has to wind up before the tournament finals on Sunday morning can begin.

Paddlepro.com has a recap of the entire tournament at this page: http://www.paddlepro.com/nationals/index.shtml

You'll see some familiar names in the draw sheets!
Nancy O'Sullivan teamed up with Terry Phelps Miller and made to the semi-finals with a big upset win over Mary Doten and Susie Keane. So, Nancy O. took 3rd or 4th place in the women's draw.

James Goldman and Charlie Usher upset two seeds on their way to a quarter-final match against Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager. That was the only match they lost, putting Goldman/Usher in fifth place for the men's draw.

Some comments from Nancy about the tournament:

"The experience for me started at the airport. Murphy's law would prevail throughout the day for this O'Sullivan. By the time I got to my gate, they had cancelled my flight due to weather conditions. I was then placed on stand by on the next plane to Pittsburgh at 3:40. I didn't make that one either. The last plane was leaving at 7pm and it didn't look good. I had contacted the tournament director to see if they could push back my 9 am match in the morning. There was a flight at 6 am that got into Pittsburgh at 9 am. The director said that no special arrangements could be made because we were not seeded in the draw and that we would have to forfeit our first round and play the back draw. Ugh! It was a long wait until 7pm (the beer made it go faster) but I did manage to get onto the flight. I also managed to get
to my hotel by midnight. It took me another hour to get into my room...that's another long story of mishap...Needless to say that I was tired and had to be ready for 4 matches the next day.

"My partner, Terry Miller (who had no problem with her plane) and I played a decent local team and won 6-0 6-1. I was glad to be on the court and not in the airport finally. We were then matched up with Marina Ohmuller and Susan Penny who are a solid team from out East. The points were good but they were rather shell shocked by our drives I think. Our next match we knew was going to be tough. We were playing
the Hinsdale legend, Mary Doten and her partner Susie Keane. They were the two time national champs and the #3 seed in the tourney. All the points were hard fought by everyone. We prevailed 6-4 6-3. Our 4th match of the day would be against another Chicago team, Sally Cottingham and Chris Sheldon who were seeded #5. It was night time, heavy snow and lots of steam from the heaters. We were down 0-3, 15-40
in the 3rd set and I'm not sure what happened but we won the next 6 games. We are now in the semi's. We lost to the top team from out East in 3 sets, who eventually won the National Championship.

We had a great tourney and I think Rich is happy that the drilling will finally end ...... or will it?????


Next, some comments from Charlie about the tournament:

"Quite a day for us.

- first round match against Nationally Ranked (#23) Crabtree/Moore at 7:30 a.m. It was chilly and snowy conditions. James correctly stated that snow benefits guys who regularly play in snowy conditions. Rather easy win, 6-1, 6-1.

- second round, a couple Pittsburgh locals who didn't belong in the second round. Easy match.

- third round, #7 seed Cordish/Caldwell. Huge hitters, kinda of play to our game, we think we can volley it. We scouted their previous match and decided that Caldwell's backhand was deadly. No matter what position we were in, there was no worse place to hit it than to Caldwell's backhand in the back court. We won the first set. Were down 5-4 in the second set, then won 3 quick games. It should be noted that on the first match point we had, James Goldman hit me squarely in the back of the head with his serve, what seemed to be our first really bad mistake of the day. Our strategy worked with Caldwell hitting less than a dozen backhands in the entire match. We were playing in the "stadium court" and it seemed that hundreds of people were watching. We thought we were really a big deal until we figured out that the Women's Finals was after us and all the fans were there jockeying for good seats for the next match.

- fourth round, #12 seed Power/Power. We owe this one to former Hinsdale player Andy Todd. Right before the match the Power brothers told Andy they had never heard of us. They asked Andy how they should play us. Andy told them our volleys were suspect and that they should just drive on us. They followed Andy's strategy. We just closed the net, made numerous drop shots, and won 6-2, 6-2.

- quarterfinals, 5th match of the day. Played #1 seeds Mansager/Goodspeed. Usher was out of gas, end of story. We lost quickly 6-0, 6-2.

- quarterfinal reprieve. In an unfortunate display of sportsmanship. All of our opponents were upset that they weren't in the semi's of the main draw. They all defaulted. We got 5th place overall.

Secret to success - James Goldman identified our biggest weakness. It was his serve. For the last 3 weeks he developed a new serve. Drilled on it regularly. Then made it work for the entire tourney.

Watch out for Goldman/Goldman in the upcoming Hinsdale Platform Tennis Open.

Our HPD 1, 2, and 11 teams finished at the top of their series. Here's a snapshot of the champs of the series 2 team, courtsey of Heather Concklin:

Tentative draws have been put together and will be finalized Wednesday, March 16. It looks like we'll be very close to sold out on all 3 men's draws and will also see record participation in the women's tourney.

The shirts are in.


Salt Creek Club, the venue for Saturday night's party, is gearing up.

Speaking of gearing up, we are continuing to see full courts every night despite the end of the league's season!

Series 1 final: Indian Hill vs. Lakeshore AC
Series 2 final: Evanston vs. Winter Club

The trip from Hinsdale to Glenview is well worth it. Burgers, beers, and some fantastic paddle is free to all league members. You are sure to see some new shots with Chris Gambino, Scott Bondurant, and Peter Berka all back again in the finals.

A tough night for Hinsdale Park District teams.



Though none of the 8 matches went our way, '04-'05 was a fantastic season.

What is defeat? Nothing but education; nothing but the first step to something better.
Wendell Phillips, US abolitionist (1811 - 1884)

Isn't it great to see two teams playing in the play-offs at home?

Series 2 Hinsdale Pd vs Evanston @ Evanston
Series 3 Exmoor vs Hinsdale Pd @ Exmoor
Series 5 Midtown Tc vs Hinsdale Pd @ Midtown Tc
Series 7 Lakeshore Ac vs Hinsdale Pd @ Hinsdale Pd
Series 9 Hinsdale Pd vs Sunset Ridge @ Hinsdale Pd
Series 11 Hinsdale Pd vs Winter Club @ Winter Club
Series 13 Sunset Ridge vs Hinsdale Pd @ Sunset Ridge
Series 14 Winnetka 1 vs Hinsdale Pd @ Winnetka 1

Series1 Exmoor defeated Hinsdale (tie 6-6 by points, 38-35 by games).

Court#1, Goldman/Usher defeated Rahaley/Sullivan 6-4, 6-2
Court#2, Noble/Chabraja defeated Pat Usher/Issleib 7-5, 6-2
Court#3, Veverka/McClear defeated Veech/? 7-5, 6-2
Court#4, Vahey/Troy defeated Doten/O'Sullivan 6-1, 6-2

Series 2 (10-4) defeated Hinsdale Golf Club:

Court 2 Wade Martin/Craig Concklin def. Hans Neufeld/Clay Leonard 6-1, 2-6, 6-1
Court 3 Todd Schaefer/John Veldman def Oscar Brand/Dave Leonard 6-1, 6-1
Court 4 Scott Meyer/Justin Fredian def Van Stapleton/Jon Lanphier 6-4, 6-1
Court 1 John Hartline/Jeff Byrnes lost in 3 sets to Marty Engle/John Meyers

Series 3 (10-4) defeated Winnetka-2:

Court 1 Jim Chadwick/Donn York lost in 3 to Ryan Edlefsen/Stuart Biegel
Court 2 Steve McClary/Bob Schultz defeated ?/? 7-5, 7-6
Court 3 Kerry Koranda/Ed Usher defeated Paul Johnson/Josh Shelby in 3 sets
Court 4 Paul Wiggin/Terry Wing defeated David Kirby/Hal Sprague 6-2, 6-0

Series 5 (9-3) defeated Saddle & Cycle


Series 7 (12-0) defeated Glen View:

Opler/Mercurio defeated Dunn/Carlstrom 6-1, 6-3
Schultz/Klein defeated Staedler/Kelly 6-0, 6-1
King/Shepard defeated Meek/Fee 6-1, 7-5
O'Reilly/Foster defeated Murphy/O'Meara 6-2, 6-3

Series 9 (9-4) defeated North Shore:

court 1 herbst/sayre defeated hunt/martinsen 6-2, 6-4
court 2 hershman/bingham defeated billie/davis 6-2, 6-7, 6-4
court 3 dumon/gupta defeated boehm/mcquire 7-5, 6-0
court 4 glavin/moore lost ruddy/reynolds 6-7, 3-6

Series 11 (12-0) defeated Westmoreland


Series 13 (9-4) defeated Winnetka


Series 14 (10-5) defeated Skokie:

Court 1 Lee/Bizub lost Cahill/Burr 3-6, 6-4, 6-7
Court 2 Loughlin/Berger def. Deweirdt/Liptay 6-3, 6-7, 7-6
Court 3 Quast/Brown def. VONKREUTER/DEMPSEY 6-1, 6-1
Court 4 Wallace/Pierce def. Rudy/Harrington 6-3, 3-6, 6-0