The Woody Championships

[natiblake]

Firstly, kudos to all of you collectors: your finds are beautiful and a pleasure to read about.

Secondly, does anyone know the status of the Woody Championships? thewoody.net/webpages/resultstitle.html

Last results posted are from 2007 that i can tell

Would love to swing my Davis Imperial Deluxe on a grass court against other vintage wood.

[joe sch]

The website was not updated but the tournament is on for 2009. New players will need sponsors and some kind of qualification, like a player recommendation. Its a great tournament with many very good woody players. Email the contacts on the website for more information.

[plasma]

that's insane, you can see photos of countless modern 5.5+ level players using wood. I thought the review of the TAD davis though was more opinionated and shortsighted than this classic wood deserves. He's basically describing something as common and basic internationally as a prostaff; as being some elusive discreet weird racquet. Obviously a great person in the industry was bored and just shared his subjective ironically curious take on this racquet as opposed to its true history, influence, performance and overall scope in relation to the game....TAD davis had better feel than any wood but the Tracy Austin, that's why it was so successfull for so long...

[natiblake]

yeah, would love to see some video clips of that tournament...

The Davis Imperial is one of the most beautiful frames i've come across: visually, in terms of its craftsmanship and in terms of its playability.

unbeleivable flex and maneuverability.

the only stroke it hurts me on is return of serve....

[plasma]

Although the aesthetics and feel of the Davis were historic, I re-read the review and it's spot on. He could have actually picked on the lamination and some other manufacturing goofs in this frame more. Although TAD will never compare technically to bancroft or other stronger, more intelligently constructed woods. The passion, even the mistakes, the graphics, the name, all make the TAD memorable...that's why I erroneously lashed out like a defensive lunatic. It turns out though that this guy wasn't TAD bashing at all, he's just a manufacturer,engineeer and designer who examines things on a scientific and quantifyable level. I beleive the place where the wood came from, the finish, the design on the buttcap and other more qualitative factors to be relevant to my plasmatic thought and world....compared to folks like Rich Janes ( the engineer and author of the review, who I would be honored to meet and talk with for hours), I am an idiot and a child. How can my 2 year obsessive hobby comapre to a lifetime these guys have spent, 8 hours a day 320 days a year 20, maybe thirty years, designing and building racquets????....I'm waaay out of my league!!!

[Virginia]

Talking of Davis's, I'm making a sort of collection of them. I have two traditional Davis Imperials with slightly different colourways, with a new open throat one on its way to me, a Davis Classic and a Classic 2, both beautiful frames, with an open throat model on its way to me and the Davis Lady Elite, a really pretty little frame that a good friend gave me.

Oh and I have the Davis Professional and the Davis CL-500, a beautiful and rare wood composite.

Must take a family portrait sometime.

[plasma]

Davis Lady Elite... I'd love to find some of the old ads for these racquets! Lady Elite sounds classy. There must have been other Ladies in the Davis Lineup as well, the Elite sounds like the queen though....

[Virginia]

Indeed - totally appropriate for me to have one....

[joe sch]

The latest TAD models were really beautiful, nice paint and a awesome clearcoat finish. They were mostly midsize open throat rackets using diff wood composities. Check them out:

http://woodtennis.com/tad/tads9.jpg
http://woodtennis.com/tad/tads9a.jpg
http://woodtennis.com/tad/tads9b.jpg

Below is a good picture showing many of the standard head rackets:

http://woodtennis.com/tad/tadsStandards0.jpg

[onehandbh]

Originally Posted by joe sch

New players will need sponsors and some kind of qualification, like a player recommendation. Its a great tournament with many very good woody players. Email the contacts on the website for more information.

I've tried to get in the last couple years. I e-mailed *WAY* in advance
but was unable to get in. Do you know when the tournament will be this year?

I'm thinking of starting a local one here in LA that has a lower barrier to
entry and also a lower entry fee. Unfortunately, there aren't really any
public grass courts in LA, so it would probably have to be on hard courts.

I wonder how much interest there would be...

[natiblake]

onehandbh:
you can count me in for one on any surface.

and, i know at least two others LA area players i could get to play.

all of us in the 4.0-4.5 range.

joe, those split throat Davis are beautiful. how do they play relative to the Imperial?

[joe sch]

Originally Posted by natiblake

onehandbh:
you can count me in for one on any surface.

and, i know at least two others LA area players i could get to play.

all of us in the 4.0-4.5 range.

joe, those split throat Davis are beautiful. how do they play relative to the Imperial?

This tournament is somewhat exclusive, the players really need to be atleast 5.0 level and very skilled with S/V play using "standard head" classic wood rackets, not larger graphite laminated wood rackets that led to the midsize and oversize graphite baseline bashing era of tennis. Furthermore, this tournament is played on grass so the ability to hit half vollies and off the rise on grass is really a prerequisite skill. This is not something a modern 4.5 player will learn during a tournament if he does not have classic experience on grass. Most of the participants are former college players with wood experience. Some of the players even played the tour back in the "day"

I really never played the midsize davis rackets. I have played many mid size woodys but spend most of my wood racket playing time with the classic wood rackets. Midsize wood rackets are good choices for modern players trying to make the transition back to the classic game but do play quite different than the standard wood rackets.

Hope this helps,
Joe

[AndrewD]

Joe,

Having had trouble getting an email through to you at wood tennis (had a couple bounce), I'll ask here. Do you sell to Australia and, if so, are people able to request a price list of available frames?

[onehandbh]

Originally Posted by natiblake

onehandbh:
you can count me in for one on any surface.

and, i know at least two others LA area players i could get to play.

all of us in the 4.0-4.5 range.

joe, those split throat Davis are beautiful. how do they play relative to the Imperial?

I'll start a new thread in either the tournament or travel section for this.