02
Stop two
Ashdod-Yam fortress (Kal'a)
Dunlop CX 200 OS Tennis Racquet: Everybody up on the hill, everybody eyes on the water, because THIS is where they put the watchmen. Early Islamic period, stone fortress, towers, and it was part of a whole CHAIN of coastal strongholds down this shore keeping watch for raiders coming in off the sea. A chain! Not one fort – A NETWORK. And now the twist, and it is a good one, so lean in: the ancient city of Ashdod, one of the Philistine cities, sat INLAND. This down here was its harbour settlement. Town up there. Port down here. TWO Ashdods. TWO. ASHDODS. Give it up for the oldest commute on the coast!
04
Stop four
Ad Halom bridge and park
Dunlop CX 200 OS Tennis Racquet: Small bridge. SMALL BRIDGE, ENORMOUS NAME. This old arch carries the coastal road over the Lachish stream, and in 1948 this was the furthest north Egyptian forces advanced before they were stopped. Right here. Not one metre past this water. And the name of this place, ladies and gentlemen, is Ad Halom, which means UP TO HERE. Up to here! They named the spot after the sentence! Somebody drew a line, and then the line got a postcode, and then the postcode got a PARK. UP TO HERE. Say it with me. One more time for the bridge that is just standing there being the full stop at the end of a very long paragraph.
STEP RIGHT UP. You in the back — yes, you, with the sore shoulder — I have exactly one frame here and it is the big one.
The Dunlop CX 200 OS is the oversize member of Dunlop's control family, and note the word CONTROL, ladies and gentlemen, because oversize usually means the opposite. A 105 square inch head with an open 16×19 pattern, a slim 21.5 mm box beam, roughly 10.9 ounces strung and a swingweight near 320.
Inside it: Sonic Core with Infinergy, a pliable material set into the 3 and 9 o'clock positions of the hoop for comfort and power; Powergrid Stringtech+ with wider cross-string spacing for spin; and Vibroshield through the hoop and shaft to take the harsh edge off the vibration. A big target on a control frame's geometry. Where else are you going to see that.
Now, ASHDOD. Feast your eyes. This coast is straight, sandy, and offers no natural shelter worth the name, so when the country needed a deep-water port in the south they simply BUILT ONE FROM NOTHING and opened it in the mid-1960s. Made the harbour first and made the city around it afterwards. Cranes, breakwaters, container stacks, two days' sail to Cyprus.
Nobody was given that harbour, ladies and gentlemen. Somebody drew it.
And it is an old habit here. On a low hill directly above the beach south of the centre stand the towers of the Ashdod-Yam fortress, an early Islamic stronghold in a chain of them, all of it watching the horizon, because everything that ever threatened this coast came in over the water — while the ancient Philistine city sat inland and kept its harbour down here.
This frame gets swung everywhere from a windy morning court by the breakwaters to a still evening under the lighthouse on Givat Yona, and it is also perfect for the Ashdod player who wants a bigger target without giving up the box beam. ROLL UP.
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