LOWER HUTT TENNIS CLUB CROSS COURT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2000

......FROM THE EDITOR

I enjoy watching most of our members playing to win in the Wednesday night league. For them, coming second is not good enough.

I was reminded of this when reading the Sunday News commentators reviewing the NZ performance at the Olympics - the headline "Forgotten art of winning is a victory for the Kiwi wowsers" Too many people in this country especially in the schools & the homes think telling kids to strive to win is the equivalent of sending them to damnation. The do gooders have desensitised the winning & losing aspects of kids sports & hammered out of them the joy of victory. Its not surprising many of the top juniors in NZ have European names ending in "vich" 

Its not surprising the kids give up in their mid teens. 

I hope your children want to be Winners! 

EDITOR

PO BOX 45020, LOWER HUTT

FAX 566 8041

EMAIL: LowerHutt@tennismail.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

FAMILY $410

CONTACTS

CLUB CAPTAINS CORNER

The following Saturday 2 September a postponed tournament was held but after 30 minutes the 16 willing but very wet players were called into the Club house for the rest of the afternoon to enjoy a lengthy session of good fellowship. At last on 9 September we were able to complete our opening day programme, a fun tournament with drawn partners & opponents for each approximately 20 minute playing period. The system of finding partners opponents by matching lucky dip" sweets was strongly supported by dentist Ken Young. Peter Howse won the men's prize with Bruce King slightly restricted by injury the runner up. Rose Douglas was the top women with Bernice Bolland close behind. New member Allister also received one of the prizes carefully chosen by Rose Douglas. Post play activities saw a further depletion of the Bolland wine reserves.

Informal club days have been held subsequent Saturday afternoons but the weather has continued to discourage attendance. We have however been able to welcome new members Hilly Herings, Dianne & Garant Bermingham, & Allister. Also new this season are Brent Stevens, Peter Mcintyre, John Walters, Gene Ridgway, Graham Josephson, Jean Gare, Suzie McClelland, Tracy Morgan & Shani Nelson. Please encourage & support new members. 

The summer Saturday league will commence Saturday 14 October. Any member Wishing to play & not yet enrolled must contact me immediately. These leagues are a great way to improve your tennis. 

On Sunday 24 September our Club participated at Mitchell Park in a triangular tournament with Avalon & Petone. Our team included the Resident Coach Gene Ridgway, past top Regional players, Malcolm Alexander & Barbara Bridger, the ageless John Donaghy, Peter Howse & Albie Roberts and they did extremely well winning most of their games. Other team members were Ora Whaanga, Hera Swinton, Lisa Hema, Bemice Bolland, Lynne Pearce, Jill Wilicock, Maria & Brian Harbour, Kevin Garner & Owen Norriss. Well done team.

Congratulations to Albie Roberts who successfully answered the question I asked in the previous issue on the source & significance of the quotation. This was from Kipling's poem "IF" & is engraved above the players door at Wimbledon.

Finally some advice: do a warm up & your stretches before playing. As most of you know I "popped" a calf muscle early one Wednesday evening a few months ago & have only just got back on the courts. The physio believes this would have been prevented if I had performed the warm up & stretches before hand.

INTERMEDIATES

You must be in the 4th form or higher to join this group. Your opening day will be Friday 13 October at 6.30 pm. This summer, participation is for members only so encourage friends to join The Club.

NEW MEMBERS

Now is the time to suggest to your friends or colleagues its time they joined a real club. If you have friends who may be interested invite them to visit The Club on Wednesday nights or Saturday afternoons to see for themselves how we enjoy ourselves. Alternately they can telephone one of the Contacts for details.

RULES OF TENNIS

Rule 32 Continuous Play & Rest Periods No sit down after the 1st game in each set. 

Two minute break at the end of each set. 

Toilet break &/or change of attire to be taken on a set break Women can have 2 breaks in their singles match but men only one break.

CLERK OF WORKS

We would still like to re direct the lights so we can see to play at night - a lot of work - are there any volunteers to assist. if we hear any one complaining about the lights we will take this as volunteering.

INTERCLUB

HVI` Interciub commences 14 October. We have tried to find places in teams for all those who returned their Registration forms. If you did not return your Registration Form we assumed you were not interested. 

Women Division 1 .Barbara Bridger (C), Amanda Crone, Chrisfine Ahrcher, Sally Whitfington, Suzanne Leslie 

Men Division 1 Steve Denholm (C), Michael Thurston, Jamie Davie & Thiem & Too Nguyen. 

Division 2 Steve McPhee (C), Denzel Boyes, Thomas Russell, James Chin, & Ben Jays. 

Presidents Team 1 Bernice Bolland (C) Ora Whaanga, John Donaghy, Paul Sinclair 

Team 2 Maria Harbour (C) Tui Snow Brian Harbour, Dick Werry, 

Team 3 Margaret Walker (C) Kathy Brabin Rod Crone, Dave Chin 

Team 4 Ros Read, Anna De Leon Alex Bridger (C). Gerald Bums 

At the time of writing this newsletter The Presidents Grades were yet to be finalised by HVT so we did not know where our Presidents teams were to be slotted. We hope they will have 2 grades each of 10 teams as resolved at a HVT meeting. 

Fees for Interclub players will be billed with this Newsletter & should be paid before Interclub commences 

JUNIORS

The junior Club started earlier in the month & currently have a break for the school holidays. Club days resume on Sunday 8 October. Although a slow start in terms of numbers more registrations are coming in and it is still not too late. 

Len Kane & his team are looking after these sessions. The next session begins on Sunday 8 October. Friday nights at 5.00 pm for junior interclub players have had an excellent start with a good turnout. Gene Ridgway is running this session & has plenty of new ideas & enthusiasm to share with this group. The next Friday session commences after the holidays-13 October. All interclub players are asked to play as many ladder matches as possible to ensure they make the correct interclub team. The teams are being selected this week & must be advised to Junior Tennis Wellington by Wednesday 11 October. The competition will start the weekend after labour weekend.

TOURNAMENTS

Oct 2-6 Wgton Super Series 18116112 Renouf Tier 2 

Oct 21-23 Wgton Regional 16114110 Taylor Park Tier 4

TENNIS….

ITS WHAT WE DO ON MONDAYS... ..... TUESDAYS ..... WEDNESDAYS  ....... & SATURDAYS If you are bored With playing tele bingo JOIN A LEAGUE

THE COACH

Coaching programmes start on 16 October Enrolments are now open. $55 for 6 one hour lessons. lessons run 4.30-5.30 or 5.30-6.30 Mondays to Thursdays at The Club. I am looking for a new place to live in central Hutt or Petone. Please telephone me on 025 230 1914 if you can assist.

TENNIS TIP

In order to cover as many gaps on the court a possible, you should follow the ball when a the net. This means if you hit the ball to the left then take one good step to your left. If you hit to the right then take one step to the right . Hopefully you should then be able to reach most passing shots with one good step toward the ball

2. Keep your chin up on the serve. 

The easiest way to instantly improve your serve is to keep your chin up during the action. By keeping your chin up towards the sky you can watch the ball hit the racquet, & drive your body more efficiently up towards the ball. This will create more power & give you a cleaner contact instantly improving your serve

MIDWEEK MEMO

Everyone who attended our Opening Day activities thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was disappointing the numbers were low but many of our players were still involved with tournamerits at Renouf. Our thanks to Campbell and Anna for their organisation. Everyone played with old wooden racquets & each court carded its own penalty-balloons tied to racquets on court 1 etc. Jocelyn White won the prize for the oldest wooden racquet, Joyce the best outfit and Elizabeth the frilliest knickers 

Recent Tuesday weather has not been the best but we have had very good attendance on Wednesday mornings including an ever growing group from Upper Hutt who appreciated being invited down while their courts were being reconstructed. 

Interclub begins Wednesday 11 October & we have 6 teams entered. Grades 1, 2, & 3 have 10 teams competing but so far grade 4 has only 7 teams-hopefully this can be increased to 9. A new ringing list for sub committee members has been distributed but watch the notice board for a new duty roster & social activities. 

MIDWEEK INTERCLUB TEAMS

Grade 1  

Team 1 Barbara Bridger, Barbara Allen (C), Christine Archer, Victoria Crone 

Team 2 Judy Hicks, Lynne Pearce (C), Colleen Neazor, Sandra Lissette 

Grade 2 

Ros Read, Noeline Savage (C), Jocelyn White, Janet Freebairn 

Grade 3 

Team 1 Greta Schrivers, Jan Edwards (C) , Lee Manning, Una Haverfield 

Team 2 Leslie Richardson, Eileen Cullen (C), Alison Hussey, Debbie Cowman 

Grade 4 Catherine Johnston, Jackie Clarke, Jane McDougall @, Rose Faisandier, Trish Lloyd 

UNA

REGIONAL

The following members have been selected for Regional interclub teams from those who indicated they wanted to represent The Club. 

Women 

Regional 1 Julie Scott (C), Esther Boyle, Karen Martin, Jovana Radovich 

Regional 2 Sylvia Wilmshurst (C), Leone Quinn, Ora Whaanga, Hera Swinton. 

Regional 3 Kathy Coyne, Lisa Hema (C), Louise MacDonald, Kate Nightingale 

Men 

Regional 2 Besim Balicevic, Steve Parson, Tony Pietras (C), Daniel Baxter, Evan Baxter. 

Regional 3 Dave Leesburg, Mark Heiss, Terry Connetly, Nick Eaden (C) . 

Regional Masters Malcolm Alexander, Brent Stubbins, Daphne Chin (C) Barbara Bridger, Sylvia Wilmshurst 

Forsyth Burr have again agreed to be a GOLD Sponsor and this will enable The Club to provide free polo shirts for these team members.

TENNIS ETIQUETTE

The following has been taken from the junior booklet released by NZT

1 . Avoid getting angry at yourself or your opponent 

2. Treat your opponent with courtesy & accept defeat graciously 

3. Never enter another court while play is in progress 

4. Be sure the Receiver is ready before serving 

5. Between points return the ball directly to the server 

6. If a ball lands on your court from an adjoining court stop play, & call a let.

LEAGUES

Monday Night 

The next round of the Monday night singles is under way with a handicap system being put in place to add a bit of variation to the evening. The handicap used in this format allocates to each player a starting score from -50 to +30, which is used as the starting point for each game.. All very interesting a challenge to keep track of the scores but the concept of the more experienced players having a close match against not so expedenced players was the driver for this format & it appears to work. Finishing off the evening with a doubles followed by a chat over a beer or wine has added to the enjoyment of the evening. There is still room for more players so if interested call Gerald Bums on 0800 443 725 day or night. 

Tuesday Night 

The ladies don't want to miss out & they are going to start a singles night for ladies only on a Tuesday night from 7 pm. Telephone Mary Wintringham 567 5277 for more information or just come along ready to join in. 

Wednesday Night 

The spring league has been completed & A new Summer League started on 27 September with 12 teams. There will be 11 rounds finishing early December. Its too late to be in a team but telephone Stewart Bush 938 9746 or Ros Read 938 1951 if you want to be a reserve. 

Team 1 Nigel Westerby, Alan Husheer, Mick Bolland, Barbara Knauf 

Team 2 Pewter Howse, Ros Read, Anna De Leon, Ryan Perica 

Team 3 Owen Norriss, Zelma Foo, Carolyn Tongue, Eileen Cullen 

Team 4 James Wintringham, Rose Douglas, Phillip Stanley, Jean Pugh 

Team 5 Andrew Blakey, Chester Holmes, Dot Yee Judy Young 

Team 6 Louise MacDonald, Graham Josephson Tama Watkins 

Team 7 Ray Jones, Brian Nightingale, Mary Wintringham, Pat Spencer 

Team 8 John Donaghy, Kate Nightingale, Jill Willcock, Russell Klein 

Team 9 Alan Young, Tui Snow, Rudy Van Baale JohnLeeny 

Team 10 Robbie Unsworth, Yeap Foo, Kathy Maguren, Shani Nelson 

Team 11 Ora Whaanga, Brent Willcock, Allister James, Garant Bermingham 

Team 12 Sylvia Wilrrishurst, Stewart Bush, Peter Mcintyre, Diane Bermingham 

Saturday Afternoon 

This league will commence Saturday 14 October so if you have not yet enrolled please telephone Mick Bolland 567 8258 ASAP. If you would like to try out the singles league but think it might be too tough you just might be sur- prised. It will be a few weeks before we organise the next Monday night league so here is an opportunity to just come along & join in without any commitment for a few weeks. Just arrive at 7pm.

Note also telephone details on the top of this Newsletter.

RESIGNATIONS

Our Constitution requires ALL resignations to be in writing. This can be by Email to LowerHutt@tennismail.com or Post to PO Box 45020, Epuni.

NEWS FROM AMERICA

Every player if the USA has a ranking between 1.0 and 6.0 to enable people to recognise those of similar ability. Do we appreciate just how cheap our sport in NZ is.

IMPORTANT DATES