Daisy (Janie) making an exhibition of herself at the Newport club
Mercifully a less action-packed day. We took it easy in the morning and ambled back to the Newport Club via some shops that Janie wanted to see and the wharf area where we took some pictures.
A Streetcar Named Fisher doesn’t have the same ring to it as A Streetcar Named DesireA street car that defies descriptionThey didn’t lie to us – not a spare court in the whole club
With the World Championship over, the afternoon was a far less formal affair, with the main combatants pairing up with Newport pros Tony Hollins and Josh Smith to play an exhibition doubles for us.
The lunch once again was very good and it gave us a chance to chat with some of the members, not least Paul, Chris, Noel, Ellen, Kelsey and Sarah who made us feel very welcome. We even met Sarah’s mum that afternoon.
The informal atmosphere enabled us to view some of the tennis from each of the Newport vantage points, which was a nice bonus.
By the time we got home for a rest ahead of the tournament dinner there was not much time, but still we (I) had a short rest and then we Ubered it to the Newport Beach House for the dinner.
We chatted with the young Lumley’s for a while over cocktails and then sat at a table for the meal with some very interesting people, including Jonathan Pardee to Janie’s right and an architect-regular-combatant of Jonathan’s to my left.
After dinner, we chatted with Freddy, Judith (Freddy’s mum) and Rob Lake for a while, until it dawned on us that we were almost the last people left around!
If the cap Fitz…some beards simply defy description
This turned out to be a crazily busy day but very enjoyable.
With the weather now restored to dry…even borderline sunny, and thinking that we’d get no other chance for exercise, we took a long, photogenic cliff walk.
Here’s our route…except we cannot take the start of this route…
…traversing the island to the forty steps, then being re-routed as a small chunk of the rout just south of the forty steps is being repaired…
Salve Regina……hac lacrimarum valle
…but then walking the cliff route past The Breakers, as far as The Marbles, then returning via Bellevue Avenue.
Less than two hours but more than 90 minutes of walking. Lots of photos.
Then, quick shower and change and off to the Newport Casino Theatre where I was to deliver my “1875 And All That” talk.
Nigel (above) prepares to hand the baton to me…
My talk seemed to go down well. I heard no snoring, no walking out in disgust and people were polite enough to say that they had enjoyed it. Judith, Freddy’s mum, was especially effusive in her praise.
Judith, effusive.
Here’s the very paper I presented – I talked through a little more than half of this paper:
We enjoyed the whole afternoon of talks, although only I had remembered my jumper and Janie was feeling the cold more than me, so I let her use the jumper while I suffered in near silence about the cold. Near silence, I said.
As the weather had improved, Janie and I enquired about playing tennis on the grass, only to discover that the place was so very fully booked out on the Saturday that our only sensible slot was 17:00 that afternoon. We worked out that we could still see the museum, dash home to change, dash back, play an hour of lawn, dash back to change again and still get to the conference dinner on time. So we agreed to do that and I handed over an infeasible guest fee for an hour of lawn and a clutch of tennis balls.
Me & Jimmy Conners (above), Janie & Steffi Graf (below)We gave the museum and the hall of fame a solid but quick once over
The museum tour was very interesting – well laid out in the modern style and with more space available than we have at Lord’s for the cricket equivalent. The International Tennis Hall Of Fame gallery was a bit of a highlight. The opportunity to chat with some of the other speakers and attendees of the conference while milling around the gallery was also a highlight. Janie and I took it at fairly high speed though, to ensure that our timings would allow us to fit in the prized extra item of an hour of lawn.
Freddy grabbed us for this photo op. as we arrived courtside in our whites
We were back in our whites about 15 minutes ahead of our slot. Kim in the pro’s shop took pity on us and showed us to a court that we could use straight away. “Centre Court” (ie the middle one of three) at the side of the court tennis building. We very much enjoyed our hour, playing alongside a friendly bunch of regulars who made us feel very welcome. It was a great honour, privilege (and expense) to have been able to play on the grass at Newport. A big tick on the bucket list.
Exhausted, but unbowed, we returned to the apartment, showered and changed there, then on by Uber to the Stoneacre Brasserie, where we dined with the conference crowd.
Sitting nearest to me and Janie: Michael Wooldridge, Adam Inselbuch, Nigel a Brassard, Marc Lewinstein, and Marc’s dog. All made for excellent conversation apart from the dog, who was very well behaved such that I didn’t even notice their presence until the end of the meal.
With the pre-tennis match reception starting no earlier than 13:00 (we planned to arrive a little later than that) we had time to visit one of the nearer mansions, The Elms, during an ingeniously-picked break in the almost-relentless rain that morning.
Some of the regular houses on the way to the mansion were quite grand.
We found the inside of the mansion rather hideous in its ostentation and faux-baroque grandeur…
…although the kitchens and gardens made the visit seem very much worthwhile.
As seen in The Gilded Age, apparently.
We resolved to take in the other mansions, all of which must be similar in most ways, by dint of a well planned cliff and street walk the next day, weather permitting.
Despite not being drowned like rats that morning, we still freshened up and choose to Uber it to the Newport Club rather than risk getting soaked in our glad rags.
We enjoyed a fine lunch and then witnessed, from the Club Room, Camden Riviere winning the World Championship again by taking three of the day’s four sets to complete the task 7-1 in just two days.
Want to see more than just a couple of photos? You can see all of the play on our day by clicking the link below. You can occasionally see me and Janie sitting up in the top right hand corner of the club room:
John Lumley put up a fine fight on that second day. It was a great honour and privilege to attend that day and to be on the court itself to see the trophy presented.
John Lumley (above) came an honourable second on Day Two.Tony Hollins rounded off the formalities
We returned to our apartment to change into more casual clothes, then went out to try a local restaurant with a good reputation for seafood – The Moorings. Obviously super-popular, even though it’s was out of season they had no tables, but could offer us full menu at the bar, which was very well appointed.
We ended up being served by a very interesting barman/maitre d, who seemed a bit suspicious of us at first, but once Janie asked him a question about the NFL football he became our best friend.
“Let me explain the offensive backfield in motion and offside penalty rules to you…”
Superb clam chowder and lobster rolls, with a fine Napa Valley Chardonnay. A very enjoyable evening.
We took a gazillion pictures that day. If you want to wade through all of that eye candy, then click the Flickr link here or below.
Apparently they had almost no rain at all in Newport for months, but the forecast had promised and indeed delivered two rainy days to greet our arrival.
I had told Freddy Adams in advance that we would not attend the morning session of the history conference, as we would need the time to catch up on sleep and orient ourselves. That was indeed a wise decision. We zombied around the apartment for a while and looked a lot of things up.
Then, late morning, we decided to walk the long way round to the conference despite the rain. Mr Google told me that the Newport Mansion Preservation Society offices would be open and that mansion was not too far from our place and then not too far from the Newport Casino.
Unfortunately the information was incorrect and the offices are no longer open. Of course it was possible to arrange mansion views on-line, but my hoped-for old-fashioned leaflet and building with friendly face-to-face advice was not to be.
Looking like drowned rats, we arrived at the International Tennis Hall of Fame‘s Newport Casino Theatre well ahead of the afternoon sessions, which were very interesting, despite the cold inside the heavily air-conditioned theatre itself. Note to self – bring jumper on Friday whatever the weather.
The rain had stopped by late afternoon, so rather than hang around we chose to return to our apartment and freshen up/change ahead of the evening’s art exhibition at the Newport Art Museum, about which we had learnt a fair bit in that afternoon conference session.
That evening turned out to be quite a highlight, especially for Janie who was hugely impressed by the show, as was I.
In particular Bill Sullivan’s cartoonish and Bauhaus-inspired works…
Bauhaus or Bau-mouse?More lookalikes – a pair of Micky Mouse tennis players
…plus some of Freddy’s own pictures, Beth Curren’s pieces, Charles Johnstone’s photographs and works by Robert Manice…and others.
Two of Beth Curren’s piecesTwo inspired pictures (photo art) by FreddyThree of Charles Johnstone’s picturesRobert Manice explaining his methods to JanieThe artists for these two classic works did not show up at the preview/launch event, for some reason.
Feeling very tired, we skipped the informal dinner gathering and went for a very casual quick bite at the Mountain Moose Noodle bar across the street from our apartment, then an early night.
