Royal Melbourne Tennis Club

The sign up sheet for all grades of Night Pennant 2010 has been posted at the club.

Members who would like to participate should add their name without delay (or call the Pros to ask them do so), as places are necessarily limited.

Australia’s first world champion, Wayne Davies, absent from the real tennis scene for many years, made a welcome return visit to Melbourne recently.

He kindly gave two master classes – firstly to Chris Chapman and Mark Mathias, then secondly to 5 of our aspiring younger members: Ed Welch, Hamish Welch, Paul Rosedale, Daniel Williams, & Simon Carr. All the boys were inspired by Wayne’s uniquely enthusiastic approach to the game.

Eric and Charles played a very steady and determined game to defeat the highest handicapped pair of the day, Brigitte Claney & Kim Dudson, in the final. Despite the large odds given by the men, the result was never really in doubt – 6/2, in the end. The winners had previously scored an epic and highly meritorious win over Carr father & son, this time getting plenty of handicap, coming back from well behind to win 6/5. Kim & Brigitte had beaten Quentin Clark and Alice Wheeler in their semi-final, with the losers’ intensive recent preparation together in the end proving insufficient.

Daniel Williams, from Ballarat, won the Cup sweepstake ($500), paused long enough to ensure that a cheque was made out to himself rather than the money being credited to his (father’s) club account, then fled the scene without buying any of us a drink…

On October 17th RMTC members had their last chance to qualify for Finals Day by completing a pool victory in the Quarterly Medal. Thanks to vigorous marketing by the pros, we had a complete set of 4 pools (20 players), who all enjoyed a solid half-day’s tennis. Winners were:

• AM Limb Court: Vince Scopelitti
• AM Hamer Court: Michael Williams
• PM Limb Court: Doug Grant
• PM Hamer Court: Mark Miller

Making the day particularly interesting was the wide range of handicaps and ages, which meant that tactics were just as important as technique.

RMTC sent teams up to Ballarat to compete in the Larwood (ladies) and Eureka (gents) Cups. As the current holders of both cups, expectations were high.

Pictured left are Gerald O’Byrne and Nick Brodie doing their bit for the RMTC Eureka team. Unfortunately, at the end of the day RMTC just missed out: with matches level, the result was determined on games, with the difference being just a single game.

Meanwhile, the ladies (including Stephanie Williams and Fiona Hewson, pictured below with Ballarat’s Cathie Faull and Annie Strange) only managed to win one of their matches, against a most impressive Ballarat team. 

Next year the cups will be played at RMTC, where we hope with local knowledge and support they will be returned to Melbourne! Many thanks to Paul Williams for the photos. There are photos of every player in action, and each match’s post-game picture, in this online gallery.

James Gould won the Jim Bailey Cup for the second time on Saturday. In a tournament of wholly round-robin format, he won all 4 of his matches. The other competitors – Tom Cross, Jacob Davey, Michael Williams, & Paul Rosedale – all played well, but were unable to stop James, who maintained a positive and purposeful style of play throughout. Tom showed decent form for one who is very new to the game. Jacob, newly with us in Melbourne from Hobart, has a very mature game for a youngster and volleyed especially well. Michael, recently cut to 26 handicap, hit some powerful winners as ever, but also gave up rather more errors than usual. Paul has a game better suited to receiving odds rather than giving a big start as he often had to, but has sufficient class to be able to win 2 matches nonetheless. But they all succumbed to James’ assertive play, which combined an encouraging mix of forehand forces and floor shots off both wings.

In the level event for the Ford Strachan Trophy, Paul Rosedale, freed from the shackles of giving big odds, qualified to play Simon Carr on Finals Day.

Ruaraidh Gunn, world championship challenger in 2010, won an unprecedented 5th consecutive Victorian Open Singles title on Sunday. He beat Chris Chapman in the final, 6/1 6/1; I compliment both of them by remarking that, notwithstanding the scoreline, Chris played really well. Ruaraidh looked supremely fit and strong, and displayed top notch form throughout the final. He appeared to be in full control of all aspects of his game, playing a perfect blend of controlled agression allied with remarkable retrieving. He even managed to successfully defend most of Chris’s thunderbolt forces (though he did wear one, deflected off the net cord, on his hip). Who knows what Ruaraidh’s rival challengers are up to at the moment, but I’d be suprised if any were in better form.
On the following day, Ruaraidh & Chris failed by only the narrowest margin to wrest the doubles title from the holders Julian Snow & Chris Sievers. It was a spectacular, if uneven, match which entertained the Monday evening crowd. All players had patches of good play: Chris Sievers, as ever, showed remarkable form considering how little he plays, the younger Chris more than held his own amongst much more experienced company, Ruaraidh’s attack on the grille was as deft as usual, and I was relieved to see one or two of my backhand drives get past the pros into the dedans at crucial times.
After a 6/5, 1/6, 6/5 win to the amateurs, Ali Limb presented them with the George Limb Trophy.

The RMTC has just expanded its range of club polo shirts. The new shirt has a new look logo (designed by Josef Brunhuber) and is made from new technology “Dri-Sporte” material. Come in and inspect the new range. All short-sleeve polos, new and old, can be purchased with just one easy $45 debit on your bill.