Club Declares Zinna's Calf Sleeves Legend
Sleeve sits two and a quarter inches below the knee crease, folded once, seam to the rear; 37 members have tried it since June
Twenty-two quit within a week, most citing the fold; four still wear the seam forward and call it comfortable
Win Wharton inspects a pair and pronounces it real; sleeves were drying on the hut screen door at press time
By Anita Bath·Staff Reporter
Jason Zinna at the baseline of the Rowayton court Saturday, in his eleventh-day pair. He has not been asked to explain the fold and has not offered.
“You can't just do the fold, you have to have already been doing the fold.”
ROWAYTON, Conn., Sept. 26 —The calf sleeves worn by Jason Zinna, the club's outgoing league liaison, who plays for Rowayton B and Rowayton C, have become legend at Rowayton, and a review of the methods behind them shows a body of technique that members have studied for seasons without fully mastering.
The sleeve sits two and a quarter inches below the crease at the back of the knee, according to Mr. Zinna, and never higher. It is folded once at the top and never twice. The seam runs down the rear of the calf, and a sleeve worn with the seam forward is, in his phrase, a different garment. Each pair is broken in over eleven days before it is worn to a match, and is washed by hand in cold water and dried flat on the screen door of the hut, where it has been seen by 14 members on a single Saturday.
A member of the paddle committee, who was granted anonymity because the committee has not met on the sleeves and he was not authorised to say that it will, said 37 members have attempted the technique since June. Twenty-two abandoned it within a week, most citing the fold. Four still wear the sleeve with the seam forward and describe the result as comfortable.
Mr. Zinna, reached by telephone, declined to call the arrangement a technique. "It's not a technique, it's more of a setup, and I don't call it that, people call it that," he said. "The liaison stuff was email. This is not email. You can't just do the fold, you have to have already been doing the fold."
Win Wharton, whom the hut regards as the club's most trusted authority on the calf, inspected a pair on Thursday at the request of several members. He turned the sleeve inside out, checked the seam against the light of the propane heater and pronounced it the real thing. "It's honest compression," Mr. Wharton said. "You can tell by the stitching. Nobody fakes the stitching."
A member of the hut then complimented Mr. Wharton's own calves, in what witnesses described as a friendly return of courtesy. Mr. Wharton did not answer. He looked at the whiteboard for what the assistant grounds chair timed at eleven seconds and left for the parking lot. The hut has read the silence as confirmation.
The sleeves have since been raised in the same subcommittee discussion as Mr. Zinna's hair, which the board has already accepted as a medical condition requiring accommodation. The assistant grounds chair said no category exists for a sleeve, and that a category would have to be drawn up before one could be denied.
A person answering the telephone at the league office said Mr. Zinna is no longer the liaison and that the league does not comment on the legs of a former one.
The sleeves were drying on the screen door of the hut at press time, seam facing out.
