By Darlene Jackson

All Newtown Tennis Association members are invited to a free tennis party on Saturday, October 16, at Beaver Brook Tennis Club. It is the annual General Meeting of the NTA and a short awards ceremony and business meeting will begind sharply at 7:30 pm.

After that, it is free tennis until midnight.

A quorom of 15 is required for the meeting, so it is important to be there on time. There is a vote needed in order to ammend the NTA Consitution and By-Laws to include a paragrahp on dissolution. Please RSVP to Barry and Carol Lipnick at 426-5068 by October 12.

The Tennis Woman and Man of the Year, as well as other awards, will be presented that evening. The meeting will mark the culmination of the 1999 tennis season that has been so successful, with two major tournaments, clinics, barbecues, tennis ladders, the Berlingo Challenge Cup, Junior team tennis and championships, sandlot tennis, and the new emphasis on women’s tennis.

And, most importantly, the current effort to resurface all the public courts.

The Executive Committee and many volunteers of the NTA have made all this happen and soon we’ll be announcing the new Web page that Curt told you about a few weeks ago.

Now it is on to the indoor season.

The first inter-town match in several years was held last Saturday at Candlewood Racguet Club. The woman’s team, led by Lorraine Chappell, and the men’s team, led by Tom Conrod, finished tied. There were two men’s doubles, two women’s doubles, and two mixed doubles matches.

Newtown’s Bob Elliott and Carol Lipnick won the first mixed doubles match against Deb and Al Turner and both of the Newtown men’s doubles teams won. Mike Bailey and Bob Elliott played Owen Robertson and Al Turner, while Paul Stauffer and Tom Conrod won their doubles.

The Brookfield teams defeated Jan and Hugh Lavery in mixed and the women’s teams of Teresa Kennedy and Diane Gucciardo and Lorraine Chappell and Jean Salbu.

The Brookfield competition started many years ago and it was a tradition that the winner keep the trophy until the next contest, which rotated between the two locations. At that time, only residents of the two towns were qualified to play.

The trophy has been in Newtown’s possession for some time and currently is at the Booth Library.

Another end of the year celebration was the Junior party held two weeks ago with nearly 30 juniors filling the courts at Beaver Brook. Alex and Marj Aitchison, Teresa Kennedy, Bill and Dale Meier, Barry Lipnick, Martin West, and a group of volunteer parents organized the party.

Sponsors for the event were My Place and Pizza Villa, Wendy and Charlie White’s Ice Cream Shop, and the Newtown Tennis Association.