Siegel Says Simone Ordered RPTA Swag; Simone Doubts It Exists
Siegel cites a Cayman quarter-zip and a charcuterie board's approval; Simone says he was never involved.
Siegel asks to be identified as a source wearing the merchandise.
The board has not returned a message; the cornichons are gone.
By Anita Bath·Staff Reporter
Mr. Siegel presents the swag proposal to the board in the hut Thursday. It raised no objection in the 40 minutes he spoke, which he took as approval.
“I don't know, I haven't been involved. Regardless, there might not be any swag to begin with.”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 26 —Andrew Simone told the paper this week that he was never part of any RPTA swag arrangement and doubts the merchandise exists, while Hunter Siegel said Simone personally ordered a quarter-zip embroidered "RPTA Asset Management — Cayman Islands" and assured him the club money involved was "a temporary reallocation of paddle-adjacent liquidity." The two accounts, given separately and in opposite terms, cannot both be correct, and neither man has offered to reconcile them.
The matter reached the paper on Sept. 18 through a fellow paddle player who was walking his dog past the courts and overheard fire-pit talk that Mr. Siegel had offered free swag, free because Mr. Simone had agreed to divert RPTA funds to pay for it. The paper put the claim to Mr. Simone that morning, in two rounds of email, before writing a word.
Mr. Simone's first reply, sent at 8:04 a.m., did not address the arrangement. "I'm not sure Hunter is a reliable source," he wrote. His second, eight minutes later, was longer: "I don't know, I haven't been involved. Regardless, there might not be any swag to begin with. Hunter doesn't have a good track record of delivery." Asked to say plainly whether an arrangement existed, he did not reply. That made 2 answers and 1 clarification declined.
Mr. Siegel, who could not be reached at the time of the first inquiry because the paper had no address for him, contacted the paper Friday and gave a full account. He said Mr. Simone placed the order himself, that the quarter-zip was navy, and that the embroidery, in a serif thread, ran across the chest at a height he described as "appropriate for a fund." He said he was assured the money was a temporary reallocation of paddle-adjacent liquidity and that the arrangement had the board's approval.
The board, Mr. Siegel said, turned out to be a charcuterie board. He described it as oak, roughly 22 inches across, and set out in the hut with three cheeses, a cured meat, and a small dish of cornichons. He said he presented the swag proposal to it in full and that it raised no objection, which he took as approval. He added that he had not been told the board was a charcuterie board until he arrived, and that Mr. Simone had described it only as "the board."
Mr. Siegel asked that his account be attributed to "a source wearing the merchandise." The paper agreed, and the source is identified that way below. He declined to say how many quarter-zips exist, saying only that one was currently in use.
A person who answers the telephone at the club's grounds office and was granted anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the board's calendar said the board had last been seen in the hut on Thursday evening, and that it had not returned a message left on it. He said the cornichons were gone. Asked whether the board had ever voted, he said he had never seen it do anything but be set down.
Mr. Simone, who captains Rowayton E, did not comment on the charcuterie board, the Cayman embroidery, or the phrase paddle-adjacent liquidity. He has not said whether he owns a quarter-zip.
Asked at the close of the interview whether the garment was warm, the source wearing the merchandise said it fit well and that he would be wearing it to the hut.
