LOWER HUTT TENNIS CLUB CROSS COURT JUNE/JULY 2003
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LOWER HUTT TENNIS CLUB CROSS COURT JUNE/JULY 2003 |
......FROM THE EDITOR |
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Well the 75th Jubilee has come & gone
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MIDWEEK MEMO Midweek tennis began quietly in mid-January we could count over 40 active members and several more regular supporters. Tuesdays are the main Club mornings but don't forget that you can also come on Thursdays (from 9,30 am). The 75th Jubilee saw many friendships renewed and we've welcomed Alison Blackwood back to Lower Hutt as a regular midweeker. Other new members are Karen Pietras, Janet Pike and Tereska Zaloumis and we have fare welled Jo Biggs to Australia. A singles league was run prior to midweek club champs. Six teams of two took part and the winners were Jan Edwards and Christine McDavitt. This enthusiasm carried through to 16 singles champ entries and 12 for the doubles. The champs were played in March and April ( this year without my injuries) with the following results: Singles Champion : Paulina Godfrey Singles Runner-up : Christine Archer Singles Plate : Elizabeth Josephson Singles Saucer : Christine McDavitt Doubles Champions : Christine Archer & Victoria Crone Doubles Runners-up : Lynne Pearce & Judy Hicks Doubles Plates : Tricia Lloyd & Jackie Clarke Doubles Saucers : Christine McDavitt & Janet Pike Post Christmas summer interclub results were : Grade 1 - 3rd, Grades 2 & 3 - both 4th & Grades 4 & 5 both 6th . This means 2 Grade 5 teams next summer. Four teams are playing winter interclub with quite different combinations being tried. The Red Cross tournament was played in somewhat soggy conditions on 31 March. No Lower Hutt finalists this year but it was as enjoyable as ever. On the social front we enjoyed another great evening at the movies. This time it was "Very Annie Mary" at the Lighthouse in Petone. We took the opportunity to make a small profit with a view to starting a travel fund. It's a little vague at present but seems to be leaning towards the Melbourne for the Open in 200 ??! The Midweek AGM will be held on 24 June combining a fun tournament from 9.15 am with AGM & award presentations from 10.45am followed by the Midwinter Solstice lunch ( no charge). If wet. the AGM will be held at 10.30 am. See you then! ROS AGM The AGM for the 2002/2003 year will. be held following the prize giving on Tuesday 29 July. The presentation of annual reports & setting of subscriptions will be dealt with & this is the time to put forward any new ideas for consideration. We desperately need parents who will take some responsibilities for running the junior club activities & a new treasurer. If you cannot attend this meeting please telephone Graham Nelson on 569 2914 with your apology or an offer to help. JOVANA MASTILOVIC Our Club policy is to try to provide assistance for our top juniors & we congratulate Jovana on her selection for the NZ national 12's team to play against Australia in July 2003. Jovana played in the NationalS in April & has written about her endeavors. On the 13th Of April I left for Christchurch on the plane for the 14s Nationals. I stayed in a Motel about 5 minutes walk from the courts with my Mum & lots of other people playing the tournament. There were 5 people from Wellington playing & every morning we would have a warm-up with the coach. The weather was freezing but manageable! It went from the 14th Monday till the 17th Thursday. We all drew out the people we were suppose to play in the first round and I unfortunately pulled out a girl from Auckland who in the end - un-seeded - came 5th! I won the Plate in the end which was pretty good, getting a nice reward which I didn't expect but no complaints! It was really tough because it was a restricted 32 draw which means everyone was really good & there were no easy matches. In the doubles Amelia Harris & I got to the quarter finals losing to the 1st seeds which was really good. One night the Wellington people went to a mini putt & driving range which was a crack up!!!!! It was really fun & really good for our tennis to play all these older kids but we all have another year or two in the 14s! **Jovana Mastilovic** INTERCLUB Women's Division First of all , thanks to the captains of these teams - Amanda Crone, Tui Snow/Ros Read, & Jessica Maguren. It is not as easy a job as it should be to get 4 players for each match so I am appreciative of the time the captains put in. This season we had 3 women's teams, up from 1 last year & quite a few juniors came through to play in this grade for the first time & a few players tackled a singles grade for the first time or for the first time in a while. This latter group enjoyed the experience & I hope more are willing to give it a go next season. The juniors will have benefited from the experience of playing against more senior players, but may have had fewer competition matches than in the junior grades . It is important to have regular practice sessions to get continuity of play. Injuries affected the availability of some players, with the result that the Div 1 team used 11 players in the pre Xmas rounds - but still had very good results coming 3rd pre Xmas and 1st in the promotion/relegation round post Xmas. The 2 Division teams also did well, with the Tui Snow / Ros Read team coming 2nd in both the pre and post Xmas rounds & the Jessica Maguren team coming 4th pre Xmas and 3rd post Xmas. REGIONAL Lower Hutt Tennis Club has Regional One "Player of the Year". Read on to find out more....… Men's Regional Two: Well firstly I must congratulate our Men's Regional 2 team who won the grade for 2002/03. This means we have a regional 1 team next season. Those team members are: Daniel Baxter, Oliver Petri, Thiem Nguyen Gene Ridgeway, Andrew Chuah Tony Pietras (Captain) & a special thanks to Nick Eaden and Kerion Ball for helping out. Mens Regional Three: This team managed to maintain the grade, however their task was put to the test without actually having a number one player. Someone had to do it, so well done Thomas Russell. I must also mention that the award for the "Most improved Player" would have to go to Steve McPhee in more way's than one. He showed so much energy Women's Regional One: I must start with saying well done to Julie Scott who for the 3rd year running has won the Regional One "Best Player of the Year" Hey how do we get to be the Best Player of the Year, Julie won all her singles games at No 2 she lost 10 games ONLY in her 10 Matches , pretty awesome ahh…… This team started the session with 2 new members Tereze Buckley and Lotte Hoffman and succeeded in 2nd play pre Xmas, with Tereze leaving the country and Jovana Radovic away for some of the games we were left in a bit of a dilemma. Our Kathy Coyne fill and successfully won her 1st match, The team finished 4th in the post Xmas. Tania Martin at number 1. Still not a bad effort. Women's Regional Two These ladies won the Pre Xmas session without a challenge, this enabled us a spot in the final. Unfortunately with injuries &Pregnancy we had some trouble trying to field a team. The girls still come in 2nd. Women's Regional Three This team did well considering 2 out of the 4 members had injuries. Amelia Harris did well with a 75% win rate over the session and some of her games were won by zero. The 3 games she lost were not succeeded without a fight as the scores reflex. So hey watch this space. I would like to thank the fill ins who were Bernice Bolland, Barbara Bridger & Amanda Hall. I have all the Regional players statistics for the year, so If you wish to know these results let me know I am currently looking for Regional One players - MEN & WOMEN. If you know of anybody that may be interested let me know. Well that's all from me - Ora Subscriptions A current senior sub is $70 to cover the balance of the year to 31 August. Not a bad deal for 3 months? JUNIORS At the Junior Club awards ceremony, Chester announced his "retirement". to free up his time up for other things, It is important that there is a lot more involvement from parents from the higher grades (junior interclub, senior interclub, etc). Whilst he gave out this message on the Friday night, it was to an audience that wouldn't be able to do much about it (being predominantly youngsters and mainly Sunday morning ones as well). On Friday 11th April, the annual Junior award ceremony was held in the clubhouse. There was a good turnout of Sunday morning players & good to see some come who weren't winners themselves. In consultation with the club coach (Florent Perret), the following awards were made. 10 and Under Singles Boys Luke Leesburg Most Improved Girl C grade Sophie Holmes Most Improved Boy C Grade 2003 Denis Berberic Most Enthusiastic Boy C Grade 2003 Justin Ng Most Enthusiastic Girl C Grade 2003 Julie Cook Sportsmanship C Grade Girl 2003 Alex Hamer Sportsmanship C Grade Boy 2003 Tom Sanders Most Enthusiastic Junior 2003 Maddie Nash Sportsmanship Junior 2003 Jovana Mastilovic Chester took the opportunity to announce that he won't be able to continue performing the role that he had been carrying out in the coming season - this has included - kick starting the ladder; running the Xmas party; organising the club champs & the awards. All of these have involved help from others and none of them have to be done by the same person. There does need to be more involvement at the organisational level from parents who have children in the more advanced stages (e.g. national players or regional players). So if you can lend a hand at some of these jobs, then we can keep the club on a roll for the juniors. Even a small involvement can be very helpful. Contact Chester in the first instance on 938 1606 NORFOLK ISLAND COACHING Life here is a little different than it is at home. To begin with we are now into the winter season & I am sitting in Shorts & a T-Shirt in about 21 degrees. The tennis club that I am working for has six synthetic grass courts, five of which have lights. My job here is to run all of the club tournaments, & the night tennis competitions. That means that we run night tennis competitions on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, each with a slightly different format. On Wednesday nights we have social tennis, where players can just turn up & play. The tennis club is a very social area. We have a small bar, which is also part of my duties to look after. Needless to say it appears as if I am holding it up most of the time…. People here just keep on buying you drinks…and as the locals say: it is rude to say no! We have about 150 members at our club at the moment, & about another 100 or so juniors are playing tennis (a third of the one & only school on the island). Living here is a wonderful learning experience. You learn a lot about yourself when you live on a tiny very isolated island in the middle of nowhere. The weather is lovely most of the time, the beach is beautiful (although even we are not swimming at the moment as it is too cold), there are far too many Australians around, & Australian television is crap! There are little amusing things that happen here that would not happen anywhere else. In the local supermarket products go on special only once they are out of date, & they advertise them as “Out of Date Specials”! People will readily not turn up for work, or not turn up for tennis (which is worse in my opinion) because it is a great day & they have gone out fishing. They will not tell you, they just go! We receive entry forms for all of the Grand-slam events from the ITF eg (Wimbledon & the French Open), but both our secretary (a very funny 42 year old aussie guy), & myself declined to enter this year thought we would give Andre & Leyton a chance to improve a little more. However I am keeping the entry form. It is hard to keep up with what is going on around the world as you really are in your own universe here in Norfolk. There is one local newspaper available called the Norfolk Islander. This paper only deals in local events, & looks like it has been photocopied on the school machine & stapled together! They do not get any NZ newspapers. Tennis wise I am not playing at all. I fill in for some of the night competitions when people do not turn up. Fiona is going strong & is improving steadily. She is play ing a few times a week now, & I am train ing her! I am coaching with the juniors each weekday afternoon, & one or two adults here and there. Not coaching nearly as much as I was in Lower Hutt however. Anyway I think that is about all for now. I hope you are all well, speaking French by now I am sure! We do miss everyone from Lower Hutt, & a few of the city things, but we are enjoying ourselves here in our tiny spot in the pacific. Cheers Gene & Fiona!. ATOMIC TENNIS I can give you some details about Atomic Tennis for the next Term: *I'm going to be in France from the 30 June to the 31 July. *Junior Holiday tennis camp runs by Jovana & Daniel Baxter - dates: Week 1 from 7 July 2003 to 11 July 2003 Week 2 from 14 July 2003 to 18 July 2003 *Total Atomic Tennis (small training squads running week days after school from 4.30 to 6.30 for the juniors beginners to the intermediate players - $55 for 6 one hour lessons). Starts Monday 28 July 2003. *Winter Tennis (Term 2 & Term 3) every Friday night from 5 to 7 pm (Jovana will look after this night when I will be in France). * Contact Atomic Tennis: Florent Perret Tel: 383 5553 Mobile: 025 230 1914 Email: perretflorent@yahoo.fr I am starting to make contact with the schools in our area to arrange free coaching at these schools in August / September. If you have contact with these schools please make them aware of our Club. JOHN DONAGHY Life can be pretty exciting & I am always amazed at how it seems to hit you between the shoulder blades when you least expect it. I have some fantastic news! At the beginning of June I became engaged to Marie Ribeiro, a “young” woman who has lived in NZ for the past 25 years. We have set up home together in Newlands & although she is not a tennis player I hope you will get to meet her soon. You will still see me down at the Club but I expect to be a little distracted for the rest of my life - I hope so. Not so exciting but interesting was my appointment as a JUSTICE OF THE PEACE (JP) in May. If you need a JP the best time to get me is at work - Hartley Print, 13 Raroa Road 566 0247. My home telephone no. is now 477 4600.Please change your records. MONDAY LEAGUE Although this league is not operating during the winter if you are keen then come down on a Monday night at 7pm for a singles. There is a hard core who will be there every Monday PRIZE GIVING The prize giving for the 2002/3 Club Champs will be held at The Club at 7.30 pm on Tuesday 29 July followed by the AGM and a light supper. SO YOU WANT TO BE A GOOD TENNIS PLAYER I watch many of you down at the Club receiving a tennis lesson & some of you are playing great tennis. But when I was in Australia watching the pros practice I realized there was an awful lot you can do for yourself. So let me tell you what your minimum weekly program should be. 1. Everything starts and finishes with warm up and stretching for 15 minutes. 2. For aerobic fitness you need a 5 km run (not a jog) once a week including some sprinting plus 30 minutes of continuous skipping at least 2 times a week. 3. If you do not use a gym you should be spending 30 minutes 3 days a week hitting a ball with ALL your strength - forehand, backhand, serve.. You can do this against the volley board or with a friend throwing balls for you. 4. How fast can you get from the baseline to the net or return or with skip steps from sideline to sideline. Practice with someone timing you to see an improvement and include this in your warm up routine. 5. Have a friend hit balls to you from the net into the corners or serve to your from the service line so you speed up your reaction time 6. Read the ITF Rules of Tennis and have a copy to refer to whenever you have a doubt. Read other books about tennis or tennis players. 7. all of the above you can do yourself without paying for a coach. So what do you need a coach for??? Are you getting the coaching you need?? He should make sure you can hit top spin, slice or flat shots and that you know when to choose the alternatives for attack or defence. He should show you how to hit the ball so it lands within 500 mm of the sidelines and the baseline. He should show you the strokes you need to finish off a rally when you get a short ball. Can you serve with accuracy and consistency into the corners or into the body. You can practice this one by yourself. Has your Coach showed you the different serves to choose from. When did your Coach last sit down and spend an hour talking with you about strategy & angles on the tennis court. Finally in addition to all the above practice, practice, practice. WEDNESDAY LEAGUE The Wednesday night league is still very popular with 13 teams (could have had 15 if we had more lights) & goes until 18th December. There are a lot of new players in this league with everyone enjoying it. Also we have new club members who would like to play & their names and contact numbers are on the reserve list on the board, please give them a call if needing a reserve. The mini round between the Winter & Summer leagues was popular with lots of very close games.The weather so far has been good & we hope it continues. Stewart 75th JUBILEE Our list of past members reads like a “WHO'S WHO” of NZ with doctors, lawyers, vineyard owners, dentists, company directors, secretaries to Ministers ,tennis coaches & others too numerous to mention. They will be coming from Remuera, St Heliers, Tauranga, Raumati, Nelson, Waikanae, Austrlalia & perhaps even the USA & will include a couple of millionaires. It is quite amazing when you talk with a past member about the people they knew & frequently they have remained in contact after many years & have many stories to relate. Lets have a small competition!!!!!! Send me a memory of your time at the Club. If we get enough we could publlsh them for everyone to share. I have received a letter from Jeannette Bayliss (Stratmore) who remembers going in 1936 to a Kindergarten in the Club house when she was 3 & she learnt very early it was not a good idea to poke a hair clip into a 3 pin socket. First it was right in front of her and the next moment 5 feet away. She remembers the teacher spanking a series of bottoms as they leant out of the windows in the rain & refused to come inside. Her parents used to tether her to the grass roller on the side of the courts by way of a “baby sitter' while they enjoyed a game. Please also look out your old photos taken at the Club & send for us all to share. We need your registration ASAP please come. John Donaghy, PO Box 44095, Lower Hutt, Tel 5669051, Email: john.donaghy@tennismail.com FISCHER We have just arranged a fantastic sponsorship deal with Fischer - the Austrian sports manufacturer. We will become the first Fischer tennis club in NZ. Jason Grace their NZ Manager has agreed to supply full uniforms for our Regional 1 ladies & men's teams plus tennis bags & caps & when our team goes on court the impact will be tremendous. You may have also seen we have begun using the Gamma tennis balls which they are also supplying. We have a bag of Fischer demo racquets at the Club & we hope you will support our sponsor so this deal provides them with the incentive to continue in subsequent years. They hope to offer special deals to members on Fischer products. |
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