Hopefully despite our bad weather, you have been able to play some tennis.  On June 1, the ladders will be set with A ladder and B ladder.  Beginning in June, you can challenge up to 10 positions above you. Please review the Challenge Rules on our website if you are on a Challenge ladder. If you have any questions, feel free to contact any of the officers. Remember if you are a SOCIAL member, you can come to Open Play, sign up for Doubles or Singles tournaments as well as tennis clinics, July Salad Bar and Harvest Moon.

Challenge Rule Change: The results are in and the rule change proposal to switch from 5 above to 10 above passed. Therefore, starting June 1, you may challenge from 1 to 10 above. If you wish to do only 5 above or less, that is your choice. Hopefully this new change will make it easier to schedule matches.

Open Play: Hinkley Park will be resurfaced from now until June 1. During that time, Open Play will be at Northeast Park. As a reminder, due to tennis lessons by the Park District, we have only 4 courts at Hinkley Park in the evenings. On Monday and Thursday evenings, Open Play has priority over matches. We would suggest either scheduling your matches starting at 7pm or later at Hinkley. We have the most people coming for Open Play between 5pm-7pm.  Another option is to play your matches at another local park.

Forfeits: Please do not take these personally. Once a match is officially scheduled and it is not played for whatever reason, then the match is forfeited. Points are awarded to the non-defaulting team and ladder changes will be made if necessary. Forfeits are a way to keep the ladder moving. Please fill out the Match Reporting Form and indicate Forfeit on it and the circumstances. Remember you can wait 7 days and challenge them again. Remember that we do have the weather alert/heat index rule for challenges. In that event, you can re-schedule without a forfeit.

Turnovers: The board has received a number of inquiries about turnovers especially in the month of May.  In the Challenge Ladders Rules, number 4 provides: “If any player in the top 3 positions is turned over and a team or player is just below any of the top 5 positions is challenged, the winner will move up above the team(s) turned over. “When the player/team who was turned over returns, and if she has/they have dropped below position #6, then she is/they are allowed a free challenge to resume their previous position to be taken within 2 weeks of their return. If the number one team/player is turned over, and the number two team/player is challenged, whichever team/player wins the challenge will automatically be moved to the number one spot.“

Report Results; Remember to report your results via the Report Matches tab on our website.

Congratulations: The winners of our May Round Robin were: A division-1^st place (tie) Kristen Lay and Lidia Dyjewski; B division-1^st place Kathy Wood. Congratulations to the winners and everyone who came out. I understand it was a very cold morning.  Big thanks to our Event Chairs Midge Mountin and Marilyn Fritz.

June Tennis Clinic Rescheduled: Unfortunately, we have to cancel the June tennis clinic set for June 14 due to our tennis pro’s conflict. We have rescheduled the clinic to Sat June 21. Emails will be sent to all that signed up for the 14^th and will automatically have the option of playing on the 21^st. If you did not sign up and are available for the 21^st, please sign up online. Those already on the wait list would have priority. Remember you can only do ONE tennis clinic per year.

June 1, sign up opens for July event: All the links will be posted on our Home page for July Round Robin on July 12, the Tennis Clinic on July 19 and the Salad Bar Luncheon on July 30.  You do not need a doubles partner for the July RR tournament.   If you don’t remember if you signed up, look at the tab for the events on our website. Please do not sign up twice.

50^th Anniversary Party: What a grand celebration it was! Thanks to the committee led by Janet Joyce and her committee: Wendy Varygiannes, Lori Lamey, Patti Miletic and Sherri Wolff. Some of the original ladies who started the group were able to join us too. It was a fun evening of socializing.

Reminders: Join our private Facebook group as last minute changes will be posted here. The page is for all members to post questions or pictures. If you forgot the password for the directory, contact one of the officers.

Tennis Etiquette: Let’s remember we are a SOCIAL LEAGUE. We are out to have fun, exercise and meet people. Here are a few reminders about tennis etiquette:

1. Don’t protest or question an opponent’s calls either by speech or gesture. Remember we are out here for FUN. Give your opponent the benefit of any calls. If you aren’t sure if IN or OUT, give point to your opponent.
2. Make calls of “out” or “let” immediately. A ball is called IN or OUT by the team on the side where the ball lands.
3. The server should announce the score loudly before serving. In case of any errors, it’s better to correct immediately.

Hopefully we are done with the rain and cold weather so we can play more tennis in June.

Let’s also remember that everyone has problems, but when we play tennis we can just focus on that and enjoy!

Tori Jepsen, PRWTA President