Racquet

For the outdoor-types, Carroll County offers excellent fishing and hunting, while sports buffs can enjoy bowling, golf and racquetball.Freshwater fishing is one of the biggest recreational attractions in a county that features a number of public and private streams, rivers, ponds and lakes.The 300-acre lake at Piney Run Park, off Route 26 in South Carroll, is the most popular location in the county. (For more on Piney RunPark, please see Page 18B.)Each spring and fall, the Maryland Recreation and Parks Association sponsors fishing tournaments at the lake.

The owners of Greenspring Racquet Club have sued Baltimore County in federal and state court, charging that a new law designed to limit growth at Falls Road just north of Interstate 695 deprives them of the right to develop their land.The suits by William and Loretta Hirshfeld in U.S. District Court in Baltimore and in Baltimore County Circuit Court seek injunctions preventing the county from enforcing the law, which they call unconstitutional.They also seek millions of dollars in damages because of the law's effect on their 5.5-acre tract, where they would like to replace the club with offices and parking.

Ramon "Ray" Santamaria Jr., a retired tennis pro and captain of the 1954 Johns Hopkins University lacrosse team, died of cancer Dec. 9 at Union Memorial Hospital. The Cockeysville resident was 80. Born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, he was the son of Ramon Santamaria Sr., who came to Baltimore in 1938 as consul for the Republic of Honduras. His mother, Ramona, was a homemaker. He lived on Keswick Road in Roland Park and was a 1950 graduate of Polytechnic Institute, where he was class president all four years, played lacrosse and wrestled.

This is for all those people who are seriously ill and thinking they may never do what they love again. I was like that in 2010, recovering from back-to-back breast cancer and heart surgeries and the aftermath. I thought tennis, which is my athletic passion, was probably not going to be part of my future - if there was one. During my illnesses, tennis was a number of things to me: distraction, as my recovery efforts happened to be perfectly timed for watching the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open; incentive, because I couldn't wait to get back onto the court; and dream - would I ever make it back?

Since the late 1970s and early 1980s, when you could have built a case for it being America's fastest-growing sport, racquetball has declined in popularity, but you can still find a hot game on a cold winter evening at two athletic clubs in Columbia. During racquetball's heyday, the Columbia Association opened 28 courts at Supreme Sports Club in Owen Brown village and the older Columbia Athletic Club in Harper's Choice village. Court time was at a premium for the game, a blend of handball and squash in which players using stubby rackets compete by trying to keep a small rubber ball they alternately hit against their enclosed court's walls from bouncing more than once.

M. Nicole Urquhart, a resident of Columbia for the last 24 years, has joined the Appraisal Services Division of Legg Mason Realty Group as a staff appraiser.Urquhart joined Lee Mason over three years ago after being a partner with Appraisal Partners of Silver Spring.ILLUSTRATION: PHOTOCAPTION: M. NICOLE URQUHARTJoins Legg Mason groupGOLDMAN TAKES BOARD SEATRob Goldman, vice president and director of membership services for the Columbia Association, has been appointed to a three-year term on the Board of Directors of the International Racquet Sports Association, which represents over 2,400 fitness, sport and recreation facilities throughout the world.

The buzzing of exercise bikes fills the air as eager participants begin warming up for the Soul Ride spin class at 8 a.m. Saturday at Bare Hills Racquet and Fitness Club. The instructor turns on her headset microphone and cues up the playlist she has created for the session. Then she kills the lights. The buzzing from the bikes gets louder as the class begins to fight through varying speeds and levels of resistance. She calls out instructions as the bass pulses through the speakers in the dimly lit room.

Baltimore native Mark Talbott, who now lives in Rhode Island, is the defending champion and top-seeded player in the professional flight of the national squash championships, which are under way at six area clubs.The tournament encompasses 23 divisions for men and women and is being held at the Merritt clubs at Security and Towson and the Downtown Athletic Club, at the Racquet Club of Roland Park, the Baltimore Sports Club and the new Meadow Mill club.Matches began yesterday and will be conducted at all sites today and tomorrow from 7:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. Finals in all divisions are scheduled at Meadow Mill on Sunday beginning at 8 a.m. with the S. L. Green Championship for the pros set at 2 p.m.Admission is free and spectators are welcome at all sites.

Baltimore tennis star Pam Shriver served up a smash at the Player Welcome Reception for the Chevy Chase Bank Tennis Challenge. The party wasn't just a chance for fans to meet sports celebrities. For some celebs, it was a chance to meet each other. (Shriver was overheard introducing the Orioles' Brady Anderson to the Ravens' Stoney Case. Call it sports-hunk history!)Also in the cocktail-party crowd of more than 300 people: Gail Heagerty, event coordinator; Laddie Levy and Brian Mooney, event committee members; Clinton Kelly, president of the Baltimore Tennis Patrons; Doug Strouse, Tennis Patrons board member; Garland "Bo" Moore, director of Chevy Chase Bank; Lori McNeil and Johan Kriek, professional tennis players; Steve Krulevitz, president of Steve Krulevitz Tennis Camps; and Willie Hirshfeld, Greenspring Racquet Club owner.

The following is compiled from local police reports. Our policy is to include descriptions when there is enough information to make identification possible. If you have any information about these crimes, call the Wilkens Police Station at 410-887-0872. Baltimore National Pike, 6400 block, between Dec. 19, 10 p.m., and Dec. 20, 10 a.m. Two air conditioning units stolen from rear of Forty West Racquet Club. Baltimore National Pike, 6600 block, Dec. 19, 10: 15 p.m. Front door and door to merchandise area of Radio Shack pried open.