TENNIS SENIORS ACT INC SUMMER ISSUE DECEMBER 2015

PREFACE

VETSET is the newsletter of Tennis Sen-

iors ACT Incorporated. However the

views expressed in the newsletter are not

necessarily those of the committee.

Membership fees for 2015/16 were due

on 1 July - only $20. A membership

form can be found on the website.

The 2015/16 Committee comprises:

President

Pat Moloney (6262 3727)

Vice President

Graham Smith (6161 5352)

Secretary

Gail Jones (6254 4240)

Treasurer

Peter Breugelmans (6258 4261)

Asst Secretary

Kerry Scarlett (6291 5233)

Committee

John Greenup (6254 5263)

Colin Lyons (0434 531 449)

Barbara McCluskey (6241 4402)

Warren Muller (6231 0825)

Website: www.tennisseniors.org.au/act

Inside Page

President’s Report 2

Tribute to Norma Crawley 2

Christmas Dinner 2

Shepparton 2016 3

2015 World Super Senior Titles 3

2015 ACT Resident Champs 3

Christmas Round Robin 3

Welcome to New Members 3

OBE Awards 4

Twilight Pennant 5

A Little Bit of History 5

Easter Tournament 5

Membership Fees Due 5

Sunday Round Robin Tournaments 6

Eurobodalla 6

South Australia 6

Senior Tennis Tournaments 7

2015/16 ACT Calendar 8

Country/Interstate Calendar 8

Orange 8

Closing date for March Vetset

Monday 15 February 2016

jgreenup@bigpond.net.au

2015 Tennis ACT

Annual Awards

The 2015 Tennis ACT Annual

Awards were held at The Tradies –

Dickson on Saturday 29 August.

The awards night is held annually,

bringing together the ACT Tennis

community to recognise and thank

the outstanding coaches, players,

clubs, officials and volunteers, who

have continuously contributed to a

successful year of tennis in the

ACT.

Congratulations to Gary Cameron,

Narelle Raftery and Tim Harris on

winning awards. Gary won Volun-

teer of the Year, Narelle won 35+

Tennis Seniors Player of the Year

and Tim won the Adult Club Player

of the Year.

A full list of the award winners, can

be found on the Tennis ACT web-

site.

Our OBE Awards

Christmas Dinner

5 December

Not too late to book

Give Graham Smith a

call

See page 2

fortunately David had to go to

Cowra for family reasons and

couldn't be there.

After a very nice lunch our Presi-

dent Pat Moloney introduced Anne

Haycock and Gail Jones to talk

about Richard and David.. Richard

responded to Anne's kind words

saying it wasn't about what he had

given to tennis but what tennis had

given to him. Richard then cut the

birthday cake. With the formal part

over the chatting continued..

For a more detailed report and more

pictures, go to page 4 and 5.

The 80th Birthdays Lunch was held on

Sunday 27 September at the Southern

Cross Club, Jamison. There was a

good turn out of 35 people to cele-

brate the awarding of OBE's (Over

Bloody Eighty) to Richard Parker

(above) and David Burke (right). Un-

Which Queanbeyan mayor was in a

winning country week team? See page

5 for answer.

Page 2

Welcome to the summer edition of Vet-

set. It is that time again when we can

get rid of our winter woolies and get

back more regularly onto the tennis

court in our summer tennis wear. Sum-

mer seems to have started early with

promises of good, hot weather.

With this onset of better weather the

major tournament season is now under-

way. A number of our players have

travelled to and successfully competed

at the tournaments to date. Results and

reports of all the tournaments are de-

tailed in the ‘Seniors Tennis Tourna-

ments’ section of Vetset.

I wish to offer my congratulations to the

three members who won 2015 Tennis

ACT awards. These being Narelle

Raftery (Senior Player of the Year),

Gary Cameron (Volunteer of the Year)

and Tim Harris (Adult Club Player of

the Year). All very well deserved. I

also wish Narelle and Gary good luck

as they are category finalists in the Aus-

tralian Tennis Awards to be announced

on 23 November at a gala presentation

night in Melbourne.

Recent activities have seen the com-

mencement of the twilight competition

and the ongoing monthly round robins.

The twilight will have 6 teams compet-

ing and a change of time. This season it

is being played on Wednesdays to avoid

other pennant clashes. The round rob-

ins have seen a good turn up of players

who have enjoyed a pleasant mornings

tennis in mostly sunny weather.

The 2015 ACT Residents Champion-

ships are to be held 11 to 13 Decem-

ber at Lyneham. The Championships

also include Senior events which over

the last few years has attracted some

good interest. I would encourage

players to enter and show support for

the senior events. Entries can be

made online through the ACT website

or contact Gail Jones for more details.

The next Australian Teams Champi-

onships are being held at Shepparton

in Victoria for which we have entered

five teams. The teams are listed on

page 3 and we wish them all the best.

Shepparton is one of the few centres

which has all natural grass and so will

provide a nice setting. In 2017 the

Championships will be held in Ade-

laide.

In September we celebrated two more

OBE’s (over bloody eighty) Richard

Parker and David Burke. An enjoy-

able lunch celebrating the occasion

was held at the Southern Cross Club

Wests.

Finally I would like to remind mem-

bers of our Christmas Dinner on 5 De-

cember and I hope to see you all

there. I would also like to wish every-

one a Merry Christmas and a Happy

New Year and keep practicing for im-

provement in 2016.

Happy tennising.

PRESIDENT’S REPORT by Pat Moloney

Christmas Dinner

7.00 for 7.30pm

Saturday 5 December

YOWANI COUNTRY

CLUB

455 Northbourne Ave,

Lyneham

Pre-dinner drinks will be

available from 7.00pm

Lucky door prizes

Come and Celebrate

$45 per person

Presentation of

the Frank Thornton Player of

the Year

and

George Henshilwood Award

Get your tables together

(8 per table)

Contact Graham Smith

ph 61615352

or email

bgsmith@grapevine.net.au

Names and any dietary

requests to Graham by

Friday 27 November

Norma Grace Crawley born on 24 No-

vember 1924, passed away on 22 Octo-

ber 2015 aged 90. A celebration of

Norma’s life was held at the Quean-

beyan Uniting Church, Rutledge Street,

Queanbeyan on Monday 2 November.

Norma was an early member playing in

1976 in the ACT 38 years ladies no 2

team with Jean Boag, Josie Butchmann,

E Byron and M Smith. This was the

first year ACT hosted the Teams Carni-

val. In 1977 in Hobart Norma was a

member of the 50 ladies team with Jean

Boag, Josie Butchmann and Jean Man-

ning. The team only lost two sets in 4

matches to win their division.

This was the first win for this team

which played together until 1987

through the 50, 55 and 60 age groups

with two more wins and several run-

ners-up. Norma played her last teams

match in Perth in 1988 as captain of

the 60 team with Josie Butchmann,

Jean Manning and Marg Burrows.

Norma also played in a number of the

Australian Championships having

some success in the doubles. She

played in the ACT Easter Champion-

ships over many years again with suc-

cess in the ladies doubles. She was

also a frequent visitor to the tourna-

ments at Rochdale and Southport as

well as other tournaments. Norma

also travelled in 1981 with a group

from the ACT playing tennis in Japan,

Taipei and Hong Kong.

Norma remained a member of Tennis

Seniors ACT until 1999, a period of

over nearly 25 years.

Our condolences go to Christine, Den-

nis, Mark and the rest of her family.

Tribute to Norma Crawley

Page 3

The team dinner will be held on Mon-

day night (11 January) at the Cellar 47

Restaurant and Bar . The cost will be

$45. Players need to contact Graham

Smith (ph 6161 5352) if they have not

already done so.

The social program is available

through our website and bookings can

b e m a d e o n l i n e t h r o u g h

www.92computing.com.au. Bookings

close on 8 December.

Entries for the Individual Champion-

ships can also be made online through

the same website, Entries close on 30

December.

The 2016 Australian Seniors Teams

Carnival and Individual Championships

will be held in Shepparton from 10-22

January. The Teams Carnival will have

the Opening Ceremony on Sunday 10

January with matches from 11-15 Janu-

ary. The Individual Championships

will run from 17-22 January.

There will 5 ACT teams going - 3 mens

and 2 ladies - listed below. We wish

the teams the best of luck

Note: All players in ACT teams will be

required to wear the latest ACT Seniors

uniform. The uniform contact is Peter

Breugelmans on 6258 4261.

Shepparton 2016

Mens Womens

70 + 55-64 (1) David Coutts (C) Helen Holcombe (C)

Peter Breugelmans Leonie Ainsworth

Alan Henderson Ros Balodis

Colin Power Chris Fraser

Robert Read Betty Smith

David Sprott Marilyn Walter

65+ 55-64 (2) Patrick Hanrahan (C) Lynette Robbins (non-playing Captain))

Gary Buchanan Merle Coutts

Anthony Connell Gail Jones (R)

Don Masters Daphne Kennedy

Doug Williamson Karenn Layne

Lynette Sebbens

60+ Thelma Winroe

Graham Smith (C) Lazora Pringle (WA)

Greg George

Greg Holcombe

Patrick Moloney

Kerry Scarlett

Alan Wilmhurst

ACT Teams for Shepparton

2015 World Super

Seniors Titles

The 2015 ITF Super Seniors World

Teams Championships were held from

21-26 September in Umag, Croatia.

There were 121 teams from 30 coun-

tries competing for 8 Cups.

The USA were the most successful

country winning three of the 8 cups. It

won three of the 4 womens cups - the

Kitty Godfree Cup (65 years), the

Queen’s Cup (75 years) and the Doris

Hart Cup (80 years). Germany won

two of the mens cups - the Bitsy Grant

Cup (75 years) and the Gardnar Mulloy

(80 years) Cup. Spain won the Britan-

nia Cup (mens 65), Austria won the

Jack Crawford Cup (mens 70) and

France won the Althea Gibson Cup

(womens 70).

Australian teams won a silver medal in

the Gardnar Mulloy Cup and bronze

medals in the Kitty Godfree Cup and

the Bitsy Grant Cup. Of the remaining

teams, the Queens Cup, the Doris Hart

Cup and Jack Crawford Cup all finished

fifth while the Althea Gibson Cup team

finished sixth and the Britannia Cup

team finished tenth. Not a bad overall

effort by the Australian teams.

There were 477 players competing in

the 2015 Super Seniors World Individ-

ual Championships (35th) held from 27

September to 4 October in Umag, Croa-

tia. Australian players won 5 gold med-

als and 7 silver medals.

Our gold medal winners were Claude

Wenzel/Elena Mikola (Hungary) in the

80 mixed doubles; Adrienne Avis/

Helen Worland in the 65 womens dou-

bles; Adrienne Avis/Bruno Renoult

(France) in the 65 mixed doubles; Jill

Taylor/Peter Pokorney (Austria) in the

75 mixed doubles; and Max Bates/

Ramon Funtera in the 65 mens doubles.

Our silver medal winners were Ann

Fotheringham/Max Byrne in the 80

mixed doubles; Kerry Ballard/Shirley

Fox (Great Britain) in the 65 womens

doubles; Don Biddle/Mick Parslow in

the 75 mens doubles; Adrian Alle/

Vladimir Rubtsov (Russia) in the 85

mens doubles; Nola Collins/Nanda

Fischer (Germany) in the 75 womens

doubles; Helen Worland/Max Bates in

the 65 mixed doubles; Nola Collins/

Don Biddle in the 75 mixed doubles

and, Marj Niccol/Marlies Jennish

(Germany) in the 85 womens doubles.

Tennis Seniors ACT welcomes the

following new members:

Bruce Booth

Peta Hoff

Christmas Round

Robin Tournament

9.15am for 9.30am on

Sunday 13 December

Venue to be advised

Entry fee is $10.00

Entries to Colin Lyons on 0434

531 449 or seejayly-

ons@gmail.com or

Warren Muller on 0407 916 868

or war-ren.muller@internode.on.net.

2015 ACT Resident

Championships

(includes Seniors events)

11-13 December

Mixed doubles (after 4pm 11 Decem-

ber)

All Doubles 12 December

All Singles 13 December

Entries online close on 4 December

Further information and entries

online at

www.tournaments.tennis.com.au

or

Contact Lenka at Tennis ACT on

6160 7800

Page 4

We celebrated the awarding of OBEs

(Over Bloody Eighty) to Richard Parker

and David Burke on Sunday 27 Sep-

tember at the Southern Cross Club,

Jamison. There was a good turn out of

35 people for the lunch. Unfortunately

David had to go to Cowra for family

reasons and couldn't be there.

It was nice to see some new old faces

along to the lunch. Wilma and Brian

Bingley made the trip from Bookham

dragging themselves away from the

shearing. It was also nice to see Dot

and Keith Simm, Lana and Norm

Burmester, Barbara and John Mapley

and Terril Strahan at the lunch. Richard

also brought along Wendy and daughter

Natalie and her husband Anthony to

support him.

Natalie and Anthony

After a very nice lunch our President

Pat Moloney introduced Anne Haycock

and Gail Jones to talk about Richard

and David.. Richard responded to

Anne's kind words saying it wasn't

about what he had given to tennis but

what tennis had given to him. Richard

then cut the birthday cake. With the

formal part over the chatting continued.

OBE Awards

Richard Parker

Richard started playing tennis in Syd-

ney’s Eastern Suburbs when he was

14 and was in fact captain of the

Randwick Boys High School 1st

Grade team. He played Badge in

Sydney from 1960 to 1970 and came

to Canberra in 1972 with wife Wendy

and two of his three children. Interest-

ingly, Richard and Wendy have the

same birth date 27 November but 10

years apart.

Richard and Wendy

They joined the Reid Club and Rich-

ard soon became the Vice President, a

position he was to hold for nearly 20

years. In the early days Reid didn’t

have many members and Anne was

told there were occasions when the

Parker family dog Flora made a quo-

rum at the Reid AGMs.

Richard played 1B pennant in Can-

berra for many years and the Parkers

were inaugural members at Kippax

Tennis Club. For many years now

Richard has organised a happy group

of senior men who play socially at

Kippax.

Richard joined the Vets in the late

seventies and played his first Austra-

lian Teams in Melbourne in 1981 in

the Mens 40’s team with Peter Purdy,

Kurt Masur and George Scott. He

then played regularly until 2010 in the

January Teams. In 1997 in a division

three 60’s team he was devastated

when his team lost the final by one

game. All was forgotten in 2010

again at the Gold Coast when his team

won the division two 70’s.

He was a regular Thursday Tourna-

ment and Twilight competitor and

visited Mildura, Merimbula and other

country tournaments regularly. He al-

ways played the Easter Tournament

back in the day.

It should be noted he often played and

travelled with our other birthday boy,

David Burke. Anne was even fortunate

to play a couple of pennants with David

– back in the day!!

Richard served on the Seniors Commit-

tee from 1991 to 1994. He was Direc-

tor of Transport when we held the Aus-

tralian Championships in 1995 and in

2002 he was again on the transport team

as consultant.

In the last 12 months Richard has had

some health issues which we sympa-

thise with and wish you well. It should

also be mentioned Richard had major

heart surgery in 1983 and again three

years back.

Richard, you can hold your head high

with the knowledge you have made a

wonderful contribution and been a great

participant in the Seniors Organisation.

Well done and congratulations on your

OBE.

David Burke

David was born in Canberra 80 years

ago. He played for Barton Tennis Club

in his teenage years with Wilma Bing-

ley, Barb and Gerry McCluskey to

name but a few who remember those

days. Amazing there is not a bad word

about him (no temper tantrums or rac-

quet abuse).

Wilma and Brian Bingley with Barbara

McCluskey and Terril Strahan in back-

ground

David joined the Seniors and served as

a Selector in 1985/86. After attending

so many Australian team events, suc-

cessful in getting a couple of runner- up

he finally got the winner at the Gold

Coast in 2010. It was in Perth in 2012

that he was chosen to be flag bearer as

Page 5

Membership Fees were

due 1 July.

The fee remains at $20.

Membership Form is available

on our website

at

www.tennisseniors.org.au/act

OBE Awards (cont)

he was our oldest participant.

David is a great salesman. After hear-

ing the Bingleys were having trouble

protecting their sheep, he told them he

had a solution. Buy an alpaca from his

sister which they did. It proved to be a

wise investment.

David in action

These days David is known to disap-

pear from Canberra in winter and

plays in the warmer climate of the

Northern Territory. Otherwise you’ll

find him playing at Kippax with a

group of blokes sometimes twice

weekly. I believe many past glories

are remembered at their Thursday

luncheons over a bottle of red.

Well done David on getting to an

OBE.

Twilight Pennant

A new twilight doubles pennant got

underway despite inclement weather on

Wednesday 11 November on the new

claycourts at the Canberra Tennis Cen-

tre at Lyneham. The change to

Wednesday was made to avoid clashes

with other pennants and allow daylight

to determine the length of play.

Six teams will play each other twice

with 5 rounds before Christmas and

another 5 rounds before the final on 9

March.

In the first round Brooker and Ains-

worth had good wins over Marris (6-37

to 2-21) and Hunt (6.5/38 to 1.5/22 -

one set unfinished) respectively. In the

third match sets were even but there

was a clear margin on games. Spain

defeated Reid 4-34 to 4-29.

The winning 2010 ACT 70’s team at the Australian Teams Carnival on the Gold

Coast - from left to right Ralph Peters, Robert Read, Graham Hedgecoe, Colin

Power, Richard Parker and David Burke

Easter 2016 is early so

make a note of the dates

46th ACT Seniors

Tennis Tournament with

Championship Events

(ITF2) - IPIN required and

Non-IPIN Round Robin

Events

Singles, Doubles and Mixed

Double Events at both levels

Canberra Tennis Centre,

Lyneham

25-28 March 2016

Entry forms and entries online avail-

able closer to the event

Enquiries Pat Moloney 6262 3727

(h)/0499 218 821(m)

email patmol1@bigpond.com In Gang Gang from the Canberra Times

of 8 September 2015, mention was

made of a William Burn Freebody or

WB as he was known.

WB was an early motorbike enthusiast

who with his wife Ena owned a motor

garage and petrol station and the Tri-

umph Picture Theatre. WB served 4

terms as mayor of Queanbeyan in the

1920s and 1930s. He was a keen tennis

player. He and his wife used to play in

Country Week at White City.

Coincidently the following extract was

found in the November 1982 Vetset.

The standard of Canberra tennis has

always been good and much credit for

that fact devolves from Queanbeyan

players who constitute the FCT’s

(Federal Capital Territory) no 1 team

of J and N Ridley, W Freebody and M

Crowe and which won the NSW

country week championships in 1927.

Queanbeyan Park Club dominated A

and B Grade pennants and the Ladies’

midweek pennants from 1923 to

1930.

A Little Bit of History

Page 6

Sunday Round Robins by Warren Muller

The September round robin was held in

beautiful spring weather at Weston

Creek on Sunday 13 September. With

the regular correspondent away in Af-

rica and Europe the standard of report-

ing will be dropping considerably, but

you will just have to bear with me.

There were 14 players, which meant

that there were two byes each round and

players had 4 or 5 sets over the morn-

ing, with averages per set determining

the winners. With 10 men and 4

women, there was a men’s group of 7

and a mixed group of 7, resulting in sets

with 2, 1 or 0 women. But everyone

figured out who swapped with whom

after 4 games in the set, so the final

results stand as a valid indication of

performance.

Greg Hunt ran away with the first prize,

with a clear lead over the runner-up, Pat

Moloney. Wine and chocolates were

presented to these gentlemen during a

great morning tea organised by Leonie

Southwell. It was great to see John

Mapley at the event after quite some

time since his previous appearance in

the round robins.

We can’t let the report conclude with-

out giving a special mention to Val

Gavin for consistency. Val managed

to win the same number of games in

all 4 sets she played, something I

haven’t seen before. With all this

happening, your humble correspon-

dent must have been overcome with

the responsibility of organising the

draws alone and managed to win less

games than all the other competitors.

We returned to Weston Creek for the

round robin tournament held on 16

October. It was a disappointing turn-

up of only 9 players but everyone had

4 or 5 enjoyable sets of tennis in fine

but mostly cloudy conditions. Maybe

others are waiting for Colin Lyons to

return from overseas before showing

their faces again, and maybe some

people had enough tennis at Merimbula

the previous week and are saving their

strength for November.

With 9 players there were two parts of

the draw with 5 and 4 players, so those

in the 5 part had one bye during the

morning. Consequently final placings

were determined on averages. It was

close at the top with five players obtain-

ing averages between 5.0 and 4.2.

However there has to be a winner and

runner-up, which were shared by Doug

Williamson and Warren Muller both

with averages of 5.0.

We also learned that diplomats are on

call seven days a week. Miroslav Pisa

couldn’t play because he had a work

engagement in the middle of Sunday

morning. However his wife Kamila did

play and Miroslav was there to see the

start then again at the end for the morn-

ing tea and presentation. We hope that

work doesn’t intervene next month.

For the November round robin held on

15 November we tried out the new Ly-

neham facilities for the first time. Ten

players enjoyed a great morning’s ten-

nis on the artificial grass courts, which

have settled down well since they were

first laid and are playing really well.

The rain of the previous few days had

gone away in time for the courts to dry;

in fact you wouldn’t have known it had

been raining judging from the courts.

With ten players everyone had four sets

and one bye. After the five rounds

there was a runaway winner, Greg Bur-

gess, on 26 games, winning at least 6

games in every set. Runner-up on 20

games was Wayne O’Connell closely

followed by Max Lack on 19 games and

May Howard on 18 games. The others

ranged from 15 down to 11 games, with

no-one being disgraced.

A large contingent of Canberra players

went down to Moruya for the Eurobo-

dalla Seniors Tennis Tournament.

Matches were at the Moruya Courts on

Friday and Saturday with the courts at

Tuross also being used on Sunday.

Despite the gloomy forecast of rain on

Sunday all matches were played in

good weather and completed before the

rain arrived. Jodie and Scott Colbourne

again did a wonderful job organising

the tournament.

Isabelle’s Gourmet Lunch was awaiting

players on Sunday, but they had no

trouble disposing of the delicious pies,

lasagne, cous-cous, salads and desserts

(to “die for”). The “free” lunch has

been a tradition at Moruya, and was

absolutely delightful.

Judy Logan and Daphne Kennedy were

presented with the Shield for the eldest

lady “winners” by Libby Ives.

As can be seen from the results below,

Canberra players were well represented

in the winner list.

Winners

Mens singles

35 - Zoltan Lukacs

55 - Greg Hunt

Doubles

50 mixed - Pauline Downes/Grant

Woodbridge

55 mixed - Leonie & Graeme Ains-

worth

40-55(2) mens - Don Masters/Alfredo

Verdejo

50-65(1) mens - Anthony Connell/

Aurelio Fischetti

50-65(2) mens - Wayne O’Connell/

Graham Smith

35-45 womens - Julie Howe/Sandra

Roughton

40-50 womens - Pauline Downes/Kim

McCauley

50-60(1) womens - Leonie Ains-

worth/Robyn Castle (Sydney)

55-65 womens - Judy Logan Wagga)/

Daphne Kennedy

Combined aged doubles

100 mens - Greg Hunt/Neil Birks

110 mens - Grant Woodbridge/

Gordon Elliott

125 mens - Don Masters/Chris

Nissink

100 womens - Pauline Downes/Kim

McCauley

120 womens - Leonie Ainsworth/Judy

Logan (Wagga)

95mixed - Wayne O’Connell/Bev

Roberts

110 mixed.-.Gordon Elliott/Kim

McCauley

Eurobodalla (Moruya)

South Australia

Narelle Raftery and Neville Rodwell

flew the flag for Canberra travelling to

Adelaide to play in the 2015 West

Beach Community Bank Tennis SA

Championships (ITF3) held from 8-11

November. There were 108 players

entered.

Narelle defended her singles title win-

ning the womens 45 singles. Neville

won the mens 65 doubles with Allen

Hooper from Queensland and made the

semi finals of the mens 65 singles. The

hot weather tested all players.

Page 7

Senior Tennis Tournament Results

Merimbula

The Merimbula Senior Tennis Cham-

pionships were held from 12-15 Octo-

ber 2015. This was the 34th tourna-

ment. There were 121 players entered

- a number similar to the last two

years. Players again came from the

Canberra region, Victoria, Sydney

and the South Coast. This report was

put together with the assistance of

Robyn Castle.

Although two hailstorms interrupted

play in Monday’s mixed events, play

continued under sunny skies for the

rest of the week. Players returned on

Thursday morning to complete the

“unfinished business” from Monday,

so results were achieved in every

event.

Singles play kicked off at 8am and

9am, followed by each of the doubles

events at both Merimbula and Pam-

bula, at 11am. Most events were

completed by 5pm, allowing some

time for “happy hour” at the club – a

most enjoyable part of the day.

There was again a very successful

trivia night held at the Club House on

Tuesday night but with the questions

skewed towards the youngsters, the

oldies didn’t stand a chance. Not to

worry, the pizzas were popular, and

good fun was had by all. A great job

by coach James Poso, Michael Quin-

lan and Trent!

The Canberra region featured strongly

in the winners’ list. May Howard had

a great win over Victoria’s Judy

Buzza, surprising herself to win the

55/60 womens singles. Phil Higgs

won the 70 mens singles and also won

doubles events with Pat Moloney and

Graham Smith. Pat also won a mixed

doubles with Leonie Southwell.

Frank Marris and David Coutts “faced

off” with the Victorian pair of Rob

Hughes and John Mansfield in two

events and shared the spoils!

Leonie Ainsworth also won two dou-

bles events with Judy Buzza. Miro-

slav Pisa won two doubles events as

did Grant Woodbridge. Daphne Ken-

nedy and her daughter, Pauline Dow-

nes also featured on the winner's

board but could only finish second

playing together.

The full list of Canberra region win-

ners follows.

NSW

May Howard, Narelle Raftery, Kamila

Pisova, Dale Brooker, Phil Higgs, Colin

Holgate, Neville Rodwell, Greg Hunt,

and Miroslav Pisa carried the banner for

the ACT amongst the 272 players (up

25 on 2014) entered for the NSW State

Championships (ITF2) held at Pennant

Hills over the October long weekend (2

-5 October). Again the weather was

good although perhaps on the hot side

at times.

Narelle was the only singles winner

retaining her 50 ladies singles title. Phil

reached the semi finals of the 70 mens

singles and Colin and Neville reached

the quarter finals of the 60 and 65 mens

singles respectively. Dale lost a 3 setter

in his singles while May although hav-

ing some close sets found the 60 ladies

singles tough going. Miroslav had a

tough first round match in the 50 mens

singles.

All the doubles events were round robin

and played in one afternoon. Narelle

won the 45/50 mixed doubles with the

help of Martin Warwick from Victoria.

May won the 120 combined womens

doubles with Kim Blackburn from

NSW.

Presentations were made on Thursday.

It was decided to give cash prizes this

year instead of vouchers, which proved

quite a popular change

Anthea Parker did a fantastic job keep-

ing the players “fed and watered” with

help from some locals and Yvonne Bry-

ant. Anthea was also new to the scene,

so a job well done! She even managed

to cater for the players heading to Pam-

bula – making sandwiches and sending

them off in lunch bags – it was all good.

Myrtle Boate once again popped into

Merimbula to catch up with players.

She is 97 and still playing tennis twice a

week in Cooma.

Arthur Olsen and Robyn Castle enjoyed

running the tournament stepping into

the breach as John Rheinberger had

“flitted off overseas” to represent Aus-

tralia in Croatia, and then take Gae on a

world trip afterwards. Thank you Ar-

thur and Robyn.

Robyn reports there were very few

complaints, so it must have run

smoothly. They received good support

from the new local committee. The

committee is keen to have the tourna-

ment continue, and would like to

“tweak it” to make improvements for

the future. Next year’s dates are from

Friday 14 October to Monday 17 Octo-

ber.

Winners

Singles Mens 70 - Phil Higgs

Womens 55/60 - May Howard

Doubles Mixed 80/100/110 - Pauline Downes/Grant

Woodbridge

Mixed 130 - Pat Moloney/Leonie Southwell

Mens 35/45/55 - Miroslav Pisa/Len Little

(Vic)

Womens 65/75 - Daphne Kennedy/Judy

Logan (Wagga)

Mens 40/50 - Grant Woodbridge/D Good-

ridge

Mens 60 - David Coutts/Frank Marris

Mens 70 - Phil Higgs/Pat Moloney

Womens 40/50 - Leonie Ainsworth/Judy

Buzza (Vic)

Combined Aged Doubles Mens 100/110 - Miroslav Pisa/F Ofati

Mens 120 - Phil Higgs/Graham Smith

Mens 140 - David Coutts/Frank Marris

Womens 110/120 - Leonie Ainsworth/Judy

Buzza (Vic)

Tewantin

Colin Holgate and Neville Rodwell

decided it was time to get away from

Canberra's weather and head up to Te-

wantin for the Tennis Seniors Queen-

sland Tournament (ITF3) held from 18-

21 September. They joined players

from Victoria and NSW as well as those

from the home state. The singles were

ITF events while the doubles were just

round robin events.

Neville, although seeded one in the

mens 65 singles faced a very even but

strong field. He had a good win over

Serge Vatovey, a Queenslander who

Neville had previously lost to, before

losing his semi-final to Graeme Sticka

from Sydney.

Colin combined with Quentin Maisey

from new Zealand to win the mens 60

doubles after Quentin had beaten Colin

in their first match in the mens 60 sin-

gles. It was amazing how many players

had to play their doubles partners in the

singles events.

Merimbula (cont)

Page 8

TENNIS SENIORS ACT CALENDAR 2015/16

DINNERS AND

SPECIAL FUNCTIONS

Christmas Dinner - 5 December - see

page 2

Members booking for the dinners

should be aware that if they cancel after

the closing date they may be required to

pay the cost if the caterer charges Ten-

nis Seniors ACT.

Contact Graham Smith (6161 5352)

SUNDAY ROUND

ROBIN

TOURNAMENTS

Tournaments are scheduled for a

9.30am start on 13 December 2015,

14 February, 20 March, 10 April, 15

May, 19 June, 24 July, 14 August, 11

September, 23 October, 13 November

and 11 December 2016.

Dates and venue may change, so

please check the website.

If you put your name down and find

you cannot play on the day, please

notify one of the organisers so that the

other players are not inconvenienced.

Contact: Colin Lyons (0434 531

449) or Warren Muller (0407 916

868)

TOURNAMENTS

AND PENNANTS

11 Nov 2015-9 Mar 2016 Twilight

Doubles Pennant

10-22 January 2016 Australian Ten-

nis Seniors Championships, Sheppar-

ton, Victoria

25-28 March, ACT Open Seniors

Tennis Championships (ITF2)

26 Oct 2016-15 March 2017 Twi-

light Doubles Competition - closing

date 5 October 2016

Twilight: Contact Graham Smith

(6161 5352)

Australian Seniors Championships:

Contact Gail Jones (6254 4240)

ACT Open Seniors Tournament:

Contact Pat Moloney (6262 3727)

MIDWEEK TENNIS Canberra Tennis Centre,

Lyneham

Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays

Contact: Tennis ACT (6160 7800)

Country and Interstate Tournament Calendar

2015/16

Some of the dates for tournaments are

yet to be confirmed. You will need to

check the relevant State’s website.

2015

23-27 Nov Victorian Seniors Grass

court Champs (ITF2),

Yarrawonga

4-6 Dec Nelson Bay Seniors

2016

6-7 Feb Southern Districts, Lumeah

19-21 Feb Ulladulla Summer Games

4-6 Mar Walcha Seniors R/Robin

4-7 Mar 2016 Oceania Regional

Champs, Kooyong (tbc)

11-13 Mar Gosford Seniors

12-13 Mar Narooma Round Robin

15-18 Apr Tennis Seniors Qld Tenny

son TF4) (tbc)

16-17 Apr Howe Park Grasscourt

Singleton

23-25 Apr Gloucester Seniors

29 Apr-1 May Gold Coast Seniors

(tbc)

29 Apr-1 May Inverell Seniors R/

Robin

29 Apr-1 May Wagga Wagga

13-15 May Picton Seniors R/Robin

13-15 May T’s Tennis Resort Port

Macquarie R/Robin

14-16 May Berri Seniors Teams

Carnival (SA) (tbc)

28-29 May West Tamworth Seniors

28-29 May Cowra Open Teams (tbc)

10-13 Jun Victorian Seniors Clay-

court Champs (ITF2) (tbc)

11-13 Jun Newcastle Mixed Teams

18-19 Jun Lake Macquarie Seniors )

25-26 Jun Cowra Seniors R/R (tbc)

1-4 Jul Tennis Seniors Qld

State Champs (ITF2) (tbc)

1-3 Jul Cessnock Seniors

16-17 Jul Manning River, Taree

29 Jul-1 Aug Forster Seniors R/R

7-8 Aug Forbes Open Teams (tbc)

12-14 Aug Muswellbrook Park

19-21 Aug Eurobodalla (Moruya)

9-11 Sep West Port Macquarie

17-18 Sep Orange Ex-Services R/R

17-18 Sep Gunnedah Seniors

16-19 Sep Tennis Seniors Qld Sun

shine Coast (ITF3), Tewantin

(tbc)

30 Sep-3 Oct Tennis Seniors NSW

State Championships (ITF2)

14-17 Oct Merimbula Seniors

22-23 Oct Dubbo Paramount Seniors

5-6 Nov Raworth, Hunter Tennis

Resort

6-9 Nov Tennis Seniors SA State

Championships (ITF3) (tbc)

12-13 Nov Bathurst Carillion City

Teams

2-4 Dec Nelson Bay Seniors

Orange

The Orange Ex-Services Tennis Club

successfully held its inaugural Seniors

Tennis Tournament from 29-30 August.

Eight Canberra players were among the

78 players from Sydney, Bathurst

Dubbo, West Wyalong, Cowra,

Narooma and some other country places

to join local players in this tournament.

A great frosty morning on the Saturday

was followed by a sunny although cool

day for the American round robin dou-

bles. The Sunday was similar for the

ladies and mens doubles in the morning

and the mixed doubles in the afternoon.

The tournament was well organised and

all the players enjoyed the tasty morn-

ing teas and delicious lunches prepared

by the fantastic kitchen crew and the

Barbecue man.

Canberra players featured in the win-

ner’s list.

Winners

Saturday American Doubles B Grade Mens(1) - Greg Hunt

Sunday Mens Doubles Division 2 - Tim Harris/John Greenup

Division 4 - Ross Findlay/Peter Boyle

(Narooma)

Sunday Mixed Division 1 - Joanne Adams/Adrian

Blackeby