David Kilby, Managing Editor
MONROE — The Regency Active Adult Community has bragging rights after winning eight of the 11 cups in the annual Mayor’s Cup hosted by the township, but all those who participated know that having fun is the true purpose of the tournaments.
The cups took place from April to October in several active adult communities, at the Monroe Township Community Center and at Country Lanes in Manalapan.
The 10 active adult communities that participated were Concordia, Clearbrook, Encore, Greenbriar, Regency, Renaissance at Cranbury Crossing, Renaissance on Route 33, Rossmoor, Stone Bridge, and The Ponds.
All 10 communities participated in bocce, nine in bowling, men’s tennis, men’s golf, duplicate bridge and shuffleboard, seven in women’s golf, women’s tennis, and basketball, and five in table tennis.
The mayor’s cup began about a quarter century ago and is the idea of the late former Monroe superintendent of recreation, Tom Allen.
”He was it,” said Jay Brown, Monroe Recreation Department’s program supervisor and organizer of the cup. “There were no supervisors when he began, just him and a secretary. A lot of what you see (in the Mayor’s Cup) is his vision.”
Mayor Richard Pucci of Monroe presented the trophies to the winning teams at the Township Council meeting Monday.
”It’s not the winning but the participation that matters,” Mayor Pucci said at the meeting, and Township Council members shared similar comments.
”It takes a lot to put this thing together,” Council President Gerald Tamburro said. “For all those who did participate, they’re the ones who made it such a great event. Congratulations to everyone.”
Councilwoman Leslie Koppel said the most important part of the cup is getting all of the different communities together in one place. “I’m proud of the Mayor’s Cup. As they say in Barclay Brook School, if you had fun you won.”
On April 13, the bowling cups took place at Country Lanes on Rt. 33 in Manalapan. Encore Active Adult Community’s women’s team, which was coached by Ed Mitnowski, won the women’s cup; and Regency’s team won the men’s cup while led by Ping Eng.
On May 23, the women’s golf cup was played at Concordia Active Adult Community. The Regency women’s golf team took the cup while being led by Linda Elrich.
Regency also took the men’s tennis cup played at Concordia on June 4. The team was led by cup participant Jay Sachs.
Another Regency team, led by Shelly Borak, continued Regency’s reign in the cups with a victory on June 20 at the men’s golf cup at Concordia.
The women’s tennis cup took place on June 25 at Concordia, and was won by Diane Altman and the Greenbriar at Whittingham Active Adult Community team.
On July 7, Regency won the basketball cup at the Monroe Township Community Center with a team led by Al Maltzman.
Then Harry Borenstein and Bobby Lutsman led the Regency team that won the table tennis cup on Aug. 18 at the community center.
Encore won its second cup with a team led by Ron Feldman at the duplicate bridge cup in The Ponds Active Adult Community Aug. 21. The bocce cup on Sept. 26 at Thompson Park had so many participants that they had to be broken up into two divisions. Renaissance at Cranbury Crossing’s team won one division and Regency’s team, led by Carmine Carrara, won the other. The two teams then played in a championship game, and Regency won its seventh cup this season.
The shuffleboard cup, the last of the 11 cups, was played Monday at The Rossmoor Active Adult Community. The team from Regency also won this cup, with George Steinberg as its captain.
Regency won eight of the 11 cups, Encore won two and Greenbriar won one.
Councilman Irwin Nalitt said it seems the older communities in Monroe like Concordia and Greenbriar have been downgraded to the minor leagues since they don’t seem to be winning many cups anymore.
”Congratulations to the newer communities in town,” he said.
”We feel (The Mayor’s Cup) is an improvement in the quality of life,” Mr. Brown said. “People move to Monroe for that reason. We feel we’re offering a service and people have responded to that wonderfully.”
