Royal Melbourne Tennis Club

The RMTC will host a championship version and a handicap version of this event, 16-18 April. Here is the entry form: Under 26 Entry Form

Brigitte Claney, Andrew Gould and Julia Page

This event, for ladies, attracted a small but elegant entry of 4 pairs. This didn’t result in any lack of tennis for the participants, who each played 3 matches, 1 set to  8, one after the other on Sunday morning.

The winners, unbeaten, were Julia Page & Brigitte Claney; the runners-up Michelle O’Rorke & Kim Dudson.

Julia & Brigitte combined effectively; Julia’s sedulous play from the back of the court allowed Brigitte to express herself fully on the volley nearer the net. They thoroughly deserved their win.

Paul Andrews & Sophie Johnson, tournament organisers, controlled things immaculately and prepared a splendid lunch for players and hangers-on. This was much enjoyed and appreciated by all, accompanied as it was by two bottles of sparkling wine, donated by David Hayne in memory of his mother, after whom the tournament is named.

Wayne Spring, Julian Snow, David Parker and Henry Turnbull

Bret Richardson, Michael Happell and Henry Turnbull

Fifteen pairs entered this event, in two grades, at the week-end, with all three Australian clubs well represented.

Mike Happell & Bret Richardson retained their title with a dominant performance at the RMTC on Labour Day; they beat their familiar rivals and 2007-2008 champions Julian Snow & Chris Sievers. The score was 5/6, 6/4, 6/4, 6/2. Bret seems to have made a full recovery from the back injury that hampered him for the second half of 2009, and was as deadly as ever at close range on the volley. Meanwhile, his evergreen partner displayed immaculate control of the ball onto and around the tambour. As hard as they worked, the losers were increasingly unable to make any inroads into the winners’ armoury. Bret & Mike will surely be very difficult to beat in the Bathurst Cup in New York next month.

In the A Division event, the final was a match up between two pairs from opposite ends of the experience spectrum, neither of whom had been seeded. On the one hand were Wayne Spring & David Parker, representing Ballarat, and integral members of our 50s team in the Ted Cockram Trophy in London next month. On the other side, the 22yo Welch twins, previously from Hobart now at Uni in Melbourne. The youngsters had had a fine tournament already, winning three matches against the head, and indeed recovered well to win the first set of the final from 5-1 down. Thereafter, experience told, and Wayne & David combined increasingly well to gradually gain the ascendancy and come home easy winners in the last two sets 6/1, 6/2.

James Gould, winner of the club’s U21 handicap singles in 2009, added an even more impressive tournament win to his record when he won the Roo Trophy singles today. James began the day by successfully giving rec 30 owe 15 to Paul Andrews, whose own form has recently improved enormously. James then faced Fiona Hewson, the winner of the repechage event, off rec 30 owe 40. Remarkably, after so many close fought matches through the week, this final resulted in an 8-0 win for the youngster. James’ play was immaculate (borderline flawless, even) as he demonstrated not only his much improved court craft but also impressive focus and concentration.

One of the RMTC’s newest members, John Bailey, won the doubles event with Euahna Varigos. Aged 21, and clearly a talented player of other racket sports, John was an obvious target for a pot-hunting doubles specialist. Well drilled by Euahna, John was value for well below his mark of 45 handicap, which he will never see again. A highly motivated Euahna marshalled her young partner and employed a winning strategy that entirely overwhelmed their young opponents Mark Mathias and Daniel Williams, who had won the strongest pool in the round-robin stage of the tournament.

For the nth time in (n+1) years, the Solicitors (Xanthe Ranger, Dan Blue (sub Paul Andrews), Tony Melville, Brendan O’Brien, and Richard Fawcett) defeated the Bar & Bench (Howard Mason, Mark Derham, James Guest, Stewart McNab, and Gavan Griffith). This year the margin was 7 matches to 3.  As per the accompanying evidence of my ongoing humiliation, it was my reluctant duty as non-playing ‘captain’ of the losing team to present the trophy to my counterpart Andrew Schnaider.

The Gold Racket protagonists, with ball-boy Nick Tan

Julian Snow won the RMTC Gold Racket for the fourth time yesterday, beating Mike Happell in five sets, in what was one of the closest matches between these two long-time amateur rivals who first played against each other in Ballarat in 1988. It was a match of two halves. Julian lost the first two games, then won 12 of the next 13 to take a two set lead, dominating the cross-court backhand exchanges. Mike then switched from predominantly serving drag serves to a railroad, and also began to latch on to Julian’s ‘underarm twist’ version, to level the match. At 4-4 in the 5th it was anyone’s game as both players began to show their age: Julian was relieved to be able to find a couple of strong winners to clinch the title by a score of 6/3,6/0,4/6,2/6,6/4.

Amy Hayball won the ladies club championship with an impressively strong victory over the holder, Laura Fowler, by 6/2,6/2. Amy played a very solid and mature game in the classic mould: serving predominantly a side wall then relentlessly probing Laura’s backhand corner when at the hazard end. Amy never let up for a moment and in the end was clearly dominant.

Simon Carr was equally impressive in winning the U21 championship, 6/2, 6/0 over Paul Rosedale. Simon played fast and well, banging down an old-fashioned railroad and also concentrating on extracting errors out of his opponent’s backhand corner from the hazard end.

(It was a pleasure for me to watch these young men and women not only playing so correctly, but also in a fine spirit).

Charlie Mackinnon and Peter Stanley survived from 86 original entries to contest the club’s handicap singles final. Peter has had many epic victories on his way to the final this year, but his wife Anne & I both agreed that he didn’t quite show his best form yesterday; indeed Anne commented that Peter played ‘as if in a dwaal’ (a state of befuddlement, for non-Afrikaans speakers). Charlie, on the other hand, looking very fit, played several points ahead of his mark of nearly 47 handicap, and coasted to a 9/3 victory.

The most exciting match of the day was the Medallists’ final between Sophie Jonhnson and Nick Shelton, off a massive handicap difference. Nick very nearly overcame huge odds, saving countless match points before being only two points away from victory himself. Sophie, on good terms with herself these days, kept the ball in play as much as she could and finally extracted an error from Nick to claim a well deserved win.

I thank all those who helped make the tennis aspect of the day run well: the players, spectators, markers, referees, and ball-boy. This (nearly) concludes another successful year of tennis at the RMTC.

Mike Happell defeated Kieran Booth last night, by a score of 5/6, 6/5, 6/3, 6/2.

In the end Mike won well, and for the final portion of the match all his many qualities of precision and control, not to mentioned his unrivalled understanding of the RMTC court, were on display.

Yet it was nearly a very different story. Kieran recovered from 3/5 down in the first set to win it 6/5, stepping up a level with some very aggressive play from the service end. In the second set, Kieran again recovered from 1/5 down to lead 40-15 in the 5 all game, poised to take a two set to love lead. He was attacking chase better than two, and played an awkward cross-court floor shot. Mike, however, resolute under pressure, judged precisely where it would fall and at the last instant withheld his stroke, as the ball narrowly lost the chase; he then went on to win the next three points to level the match.

Having escaped that particularly tight spot, Mike’s confidence and shot-making improved markedly and he thereafter played beautifully to set up yet another encounter with his perennial rival, Julian Snow, on Sunday.

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.