Dog Daze Afternoon

The Redwood Shores Tennis Club's Dog Daze BBQ Team Tennis Tournament was a truly historic affair. After playing six exhaustive round-robin rounds, the four canine-monikered teams found themselves separated by a total of five games, resulting in the closest finish in RSTC club history, if not the entire history of world round-robin team tennis events between teams with dog names. And what names! The Salukis [46 games], the Portuguese Water Dogs [47] and the Shi Tzus [48] were bested by those crazy Labradoodles with a grand total of 51 games. Top 'doodle dog Jay Muzio captained the victorious pack, aided by Paul Insel, Cynthia Hunton and Kristian Neergard. There is something of an axiom in team tennis, usually uttered when behind big-time, that "every game counts" towards the overall team score. If no one believed it before, they should now.

The second part of the Dog Daze BBQ, was, predictably, a barbecue at the cypress-festooned estate of Rudi & Mimi Kain, where all sorts of foods were grilled and then eaten. Winning team members were rewarded with vintage RSTC "ducky" shirts while the second place team, captained by Ruth Waters and aided by fellow Shi Tzus Denise Pearson, Rudi Kain, Paul Reinhardt and newcomer Renato Floresca, were awarded special gourmet barbecue sauces to salve any competitive wounds.