As happens every year, the Club will be closed over the holiday period while our staff take a vacation and we complete the end-of-year audit of bar stocks, with the Club Censor, our internal auditor.
The Bar and Restaurant will therefore be closed for the end-of-year audit and holidays from 7:45 pm on Sunday, December 18th, reopening on Monday, January 2nd. During this time there will be no access to the Club interior upper level and the Queen’s Room.
External facilities, the gym, and the changing rooms will be accessible from 9 am to 3 pm on the weekdays before Christmas (Monday 19th to Friday 23rd). Members will be able to play tennis, use the gym and use the Club grounds as well as the changing rooms and showers. External cleaners will come in once while our in-house team are on holiday – please, as always, leave the changing rooms as you would like to find them.
The Club will be completely closed from 3 pm on Friday, December 23rd until 9 am on Monday, January 2nd, 2023.
Wishing everyone a wonderful holiday season, and hoping to see many of us at our Christmas Black Tie Dinner on Saturday, December 10th.
https://www.helloasso.com/associations/standard-athletic-club/evenements/black-tie-christmas-dinner
It was worth the wait. SAC brought its post-pandemic football drought to an end with a pulsating 6-5 victory against Pascal Gastebois’s visitors.
Read on for full details and photo.
Next Sunday, SAC has a return match against the Kerala Tuskers. It promises to be another close one.
Click on the photos below to get a full-size version.
The Club is planning to offer this new sport to our Members, both adults and children, with a highly qualified coach from the St Germain Club (black belt, 7th DAN) giving classes. The Taekwondo Club of St Germain is one of the best-known clubs in Paris. Many children (from 4 years old), men and women, young people, and seniors, including black belts, regularly participate. Several champions, including members of the National French team, have been trained there.
If you or your family members would be interested, could you please contact Philippe Ayme-Jouve, who is managing the new Section, at:
The black and red of SAC took on Los Pipos on a cold, wet and slippery pitch last Sunday, the 6th of November, holding their own in a physical encounter until the visitors slotted in a late brace of goals.
The final score of 2-7 didn’t do justice to SAC’s sterling first-half performance. Arnaud Paquier, with an assist from Rhys Parkin, had kept the home team in touch with a close-range goal so at half-time the SAC was trailing only 1-2. Magnificent saves from Rich Parkin and two goal-line clearances from Alex Curtin had also kept the visitors at bay. Arnaud had other chances, Rhys and Elias Appert combined well in attack, but in the tough conditions, the visitors’ deep bench of substitutes paid dividends, particularly in mid-field where they steadily took control, depriving SAC’s forwards of possession. A late own-goal by Los Pipos saved SAC from a Brazil-like defeat.
Our next game is the Armistice Day memorial match for members on Friday 11th November. All are welcome. Registration closes at 10:30 for an 11:00 kick-off.
As there were only 4 tables, the "Howell" movement was used, meaning that every pair changed places and opponents at each round. Warm congratulations to the winners - Murielle and Anne - with 55.56%, and also to Nicole and Jean-Paul - close seconds - with 55.09%, not forgetting the thirds - Maureen and Ann - with 54.81%.
Full results are attached to the main article, as are some worked examples from the quiz.
Last Saturday's AGM saw a new Committee voted in for 2022/23
- Maxime Antoni: Chairman
- Guillaume de Gournay, Olivier Plessis and Philippe Vignal: Club tournaments and Tennis evening
- Phoebe Strouts, Victoria Migliore and Matthew Curtin: Tennis school, Junior Tennis and Tennis coach.
- Mikaël Jayet: Competition team
- Melvyn Cooke: Sèvres Tennis Club and Tennis licenses
- Philippe Ayme-Jouve: Grounds
Two more volunteers are expected to join the Team in the coming days.
The quiz for Friday's pairs tournament, following the theme for the BCSH Ecole de Bridge simultaneous tournament, is "the economic 2-suiter bids by opener and developments thereafter" (Le bicolore économique et ses développements).
See the main article to see the Quiz on how to respond when Partner had shown an "economic 2-suiter hand". This sequence comes up really frequently, so it's good to know what to do.
Also attached there are the answers to last month's Quiz on the 'Sputnik Double'.
Our next tournament will be a 'pairs' one on Tuesday 22 November. We are proposing to base it on another BCSH Ecole de Bridge tournament with the theme: "Replies to the take-out double". See the main article for a quiz based on this.
We propose to start the afternoon with a review of the quiz by Jenny at 2 o'clock before the tournament proper starts at 2:30.
If there are enough people interested, there would be a "buffet campagnard" from 5.30 pm until closing time and we would ask for a contribution of €10 per person. Please let Anne Raynaud () and Jenny Pratt () if you would like to participate, and also if you can stay on for the cocktail. If you need a partner, one will be found for you.
Warmest congratulations to Ghislaine and Nicole, the winners in NS with 73.45%!! And to Elise and Yves, first in EW with 58.02%!
Worthy seconds: Robert and Rémy in NS with 59.92%, and Jane and Marie-Claire in EW with 55.91%. Read on for the full results.
The SAC football season kicked off in style on Sunday in glorious autumn weather with a hard-fought match but a deeply disappointing result against the Tuskers.
Tahar scored SAC’s only goal in a 1-6 defeat which didn’t do justice to a great team performance and the athletic goalkeeping of Rich Parkin. Missed chances by Luc Wismam, Arnaud Pâquier and Valentin Mignot might have levelled the game but our opposition made good on the chances they had with three quick goals in the final quarter.
It was a magnificent morning’s sport all the same played in good spirit, with enough strong individual performances to offer plenty of encouragement for the season ahead, including this Sunday’s match against the Ludovic Cohen XI.
(Click for a photo of the teams)
The 41st Autumn Vase, like last year's, was blessed with lovely weather and some good scoring.
Overall Autumn Vase (best Net Stableford) winner and best SAC scorer: Marie-Alice Anglade with 43 points! The Best Gross score of the day was by Dimitri Ansart from Villarceaux - again!
Longest drive. Ladies: Sue Hall; Men: Xavier Bedel.
Nearest the pin. Ladies: Marie-Alice Anglade; Men: Jacques Botto.
More details are in the main article. (SAC players underlined)
Continuing our long-term relationship with the Golf de Villarceaux, we will be organising the 41st Autumn Vase there on Saturday 8 October.
Read on to see the start times.
Among the main points that will be discussed at the AGM:
- Election of new Tennis Committee President
- Election of new Tennis Committee members
- Tennis court equipment needs
- Brainstorming on 2023 priorities
Candidates for the Committee or for President should write to and attend the AGM.
There were 7 tables on Tuesday for the Individual Tournament - a perfect number thanks largely to Jane Brooks who invited 4 guests. First of all, warmest congratulations to the big winner - Ian Jones - with 63.89%. The firsts in the other lines were: Penny Tagher (S) with 62.3%, Jane Maurin (E) with 61.9% and Denis Grumbach (N) with 57.54%. See the main article for more detail and the results are attached there too.
Thanks go to Anne (Raynaud) for all the organisation and shopping she did for the much appreciated "buffet campagnard" and her home-made "rillettes".
Raymond Natanson kindly presented the Henri Natanson Cup to Jane Brooks for the highest overall score for the 2021-22 season; the Oliver Langhorne Cup to Christiane du Couedic, and the Freddie Chakour Trophy to Ian Jones.
The next tournament will possibly be on Tuesday 18 October - to be confirmed.
52 players took part In the 41st Spring Cup and enjoyed pleasant playing conditions (though heavy rain earlier in the week had left some challenges!). wonderful weather. Congratulations to Dimitri Ansart, winner of the Castrol Cup, with a gross score of 37 points and to Financial Times Cup winner Guermonprez Véronique with the best Ladies' Gross score (22). The best SAC net scorer was Adriana Delacroix with 40 points.
Golfers went off to Omaha Beach Golf Club for their Autumn Weekend from Friday the 16th to Sunday the 18th of September.
The two main prizes for Saturday's Stableford competition are the Kiwi Cup (donated by Alan Kerr) for the best Net score and the Irish Trophy for the best Gross.
This edition of the Kiwi cup was won by Jean-Charles Saden with 37 points and the Irish Trophy went to John McCallum with 16 points.
Read on for more complete details or visit the FFG site for Omaha Beach's "MOORE" competition.
On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Standard Athletic CC hosted The Embassy (BECC). After having won the toss and deciding to bat, BECC scored a total of 267 runs for 7 wickets. Needing to score at 7 runs an over, SAC chased down the total with aplomb for the loss of 2 wickets with 10 overs to spare! (Full details in the main article.)
This weekend will see the final fixtures of the season against Thoiry and Chantilly.
Saturday, the 10th of September saw us entertain one of our long-term sporting rivals in both Cricket and Football, The Kerala Tuskers.
Due to the weather front situated over the IDF both Captains agreed to a reduced 25 overs, with stand-in captain Andrew winning the toss and electing to bat (he is good at something).
With the French national captain as one of our trialists people were looking forwards to a captaining masterclass from the SAC skipper.
SAC put a useful 179 runs on the board with Suobin high scoring with 48 and Sachin adding an aggressive 34 towards the innings close.
Tuskers took the field and were soon 1 down for 1 run off 4 balls, then the rain came. Match abandoned.
The French captain, well he missed out on an education.
With the weather set fair after Saturday’s wash-out, Andrew J. won the toss and elected to bat. Things began well for Standard as Henry and Andrew put on 40 runs in the first 10 overs. After Andrew was run out and Praneeth was caught on the long-off boundary. Sharva scored quickly before departing for 49. Henry the teamaker retired on 68! Then the tail-enders made some useful contributions leaving The Sultans needing 242 to win.
With the wind in their sails after a great batting performance, SAC’s bowlers knew that a victory beckoned if only they could limit the opposition to ones and twos. After both Sachin and Shaunak maintained their line and length to frustrate the opposition, captain Andrew then turned to his spinners, starting with Money and Hilal. Both bowled exceptionally well with Hilal taking 5 wickets! With the opposition 9 down for 139 runs, Praneeth finished off proceedings with his first delivery of the match! The result – a 103-run victory for Standard Athletic CC
(See the main article for a fuller report.)
The opposition made the not inconsiderable trip arriving well before the home team, who had a much shorter trip. Subsequently, Captain Andrew lost the toss and the opposition chose to bat against our 9 men. However, the skipper set a field and the bowlers by and large bowled to it, so when the missing two players arrived Valenciennes were 48-1 off twelve overs. Then wickets fell at a steady rate with the visitors finishing on 200 all out off 40 overs.
Surely a target with our batting lineup we could easily chase down? Well, the captain's advice to build slowly meant we were 45-1 off 5 overs, then the wheels fell off; the pick of the batsmen being Trevin, Jyoty and Sachin. SAC finished with a disappointing 167 all out with 6 overs left.