Date: Fri 06-Sep-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: TOMW

Quick Words:

Stroock-Trophy-Recovered

Full Text:

Stroock Trophy Recovered

B Y T. W YATT

The Case Of The Missing Stroock Trophy began in 1993 when Alex Aitchison

became president of the Newtown Tennis Association and, through reading some

old news clippings, learned of a wonderful trophy purchased back in the early

1970's by Bertram Stroock who founded the tournament and brought this special

trophy out to each year's event with the names of the previous year's winners

engraved on its base.

When Aitchison inquired about the award he was told that it was on display at

the Booth Library, but when he went to see it - he found it missing.

"They said that somebody took it out to have it engraved and it never came

back," Aitchison said. "And they couldn't remember who took it out. I decided

to start a search committee but nobody knew where to even start looking. We

just started spreading the word around and hoping that somebody would come

across it and that it would reappear again."

Amazingly, three years later, the trophy resurfaced. The antique trophy, which

stands between three and four feet high, was found, of all places, in a

cardboard carton in the basement of an empty house - in pieces.

"It was in a sorry state," said Aitchison. "It had been in the basement for

sometime was all moldy and tarnished. I can't imagine anyone having a trophy

like that in their possession and letting it deteriorate. It is a glorious

trophy."

The trophy was discovered by Irene Schwartz of Flagpole Realty, who noticed it

while taking one last pass through the house of 1991 and 92 Stroock men's

doubles champion Tom Peel, after selling it.

"It was sitting in the basement the whole time I was marketing the house," she

said. "I had noticed that the box was there but that was the first time I

really looked at it to see what it was. I'm not a tennis person, so I didn't

know anything about it. I just figured that it was valuable to someone. I

wouldn't throw something like that away and I had to get it out of there

before the buyers moved in, so I called the Giardano's, because I knew that

they were active in tennis. As it turned out they were searching for it."

Mr Peel was not reachable for comment, having moved out of state, but

apparently he had removed the trophy from the library to have his name

engraved on it and it, somehow, ended up in the basement.

"The trophy had last been engraved in 1989," Aitchison said, "and Roger

Giardano took it over to Engraved Products on Federal Road and asked them if

they could bring it back to life."

There, Afrim Pocesta restored the trophy and actually added a new base where

further names could be added. "For the age of it, it wasn't too bad," Pocesta

said. "It's about 25 years old. It was tarnished, the plates were a little

scratched up, the pieces were loose, and the top was broken off. It came to me

in pieces and it was just a matter of cleaning it up and putting it back

together."

Now that the Stroock trophy is back in the rightful hands of the NTA, all is

well again.

"We couldn't believe that somebody would treat this magnificent trophy like

this," Aitchison concluded. "It's like a piece of art. I have no idea what its

cost is, but they said that it would already be considered an antique. But

once we got it back, back in all its glory, we lost our vindictiveness. We're

just delighted to have it back and hopefully we'll get it on display at the

library again."

Maybe under armed guard this time.