Handicap Finals results 2019

Photo Galleries, Tournaments

Well done to our finalists in the Handicap Finals. This is always a good competition as the handicapping system ensures that everyone has a chance of winning through. Well done especially to Cath Pearson who retained the Mixed Doubles trophy with a new partner and to Wendy Day who competed in all three finals, only just missing out on a clean sweep of the trophies.

Event Winners Runners-up
Ladies Singles Wendy Day Cath Pearson
Mens Singles Harry Bywaters Feredico Ardiles
Ladies Doubles Wendy Day and Zana Fletcher Rachel Grey and Debra Norton
Mens Doubles Mark Hill and Mike Thornley Peter Archer and Nick Ward
Mixed Doubles Cath Pearson and Mark Elliott Wendy Day and Chris Cole

Fun day June 1st

Club News, Photo Galleries, Special Events

We called it our Fun Day and it certainly was fun! We combined special events with a visit from Robyn Moore who has set herself the challenge of hitting 200,000 balls in 30 days, fundraising for the BreakPoint charity with the help of Bright Ideas in Tennis. This was her first day; she had already spent the morning at the Calthorpe Park tennis courts and spent a further 4 hours with us on the hottest day of the year so far. Gosh, that seems like a huge challenge! Good luck to her. Of course, to meet her challenge she needed the help of our ballboys and ballgirls to keep replenishing her ball machine

Around the club, our coaches and Young Leaders were fully occupied running drills such as “hit the bin” challenges. We certainly had at least one winner who was very pleased with his prize of a Bright Ideas in Tennis sports top.


Other parts of the courts were just in use by families having a good time. And of course we had the usual lovely refreshments on sale.

Many thanks to everyone who made this day possible, especially Zana Fletcher (who also ran the Family Tournament in the morning!) and Debra Norton who organised the refreshments and several of the non-tennis competitions such as Guess the Weight of the Cake. Just for the record, the answer was 1250g.

Late May American Tournament : 2019

Tournaments

 

Bank Holidays come thick and fast at this time of year and we had our third of the season on Monday 27th May. Another great turn-out, 10 men and 15 ladies which gave everyone a lot of good tennis. The ladies section had joint winners in Wendy Day (playing an American for the first time) with Gill Stoney. Debra Norton was runner-up. The mens section was won by Andy Cholerton with Mike Thornley and Chris Cole as joint runner-ups. Congratulations to them and especially to Gill and Chris for their third “podium finish” of the season. Many thanks to Cath Pearson and Alison Jameson for providing the lovely tea and a special thanks to Caroline Reid who happened to be the only player sitting out for the round after the tea interval; she quietly got on with all the washing up and clearing away!

Second American Tournament

Tournaments

Public holidays are rather close together at this time of year, so on Monday 6th May we were once again enjoying an American Tournament; 27 people this time, showing how popular they are. Does the photograph of winners look familiar? Gill Stoney was again the best lady with an average of 5.6 from each round of 8 games, just edging out newcomer Sam Rush on 5.5. Cath Pearson was 3rd. Chris Cole was a clear Mens winner with an excellent average of 6. Mark Hill came second on 5.17 with a tie for 3rd place between Steve Dunne and William Carlisle on 5.0. No Andy Cholerton in the winners group this time, for the simple reason that he was the organiser. Thank you Andy for taking that on. Thanks also to Ann Hanson and Joan Jones for supplying a lovely tea.

Spring quiz night

Social Events

A full house for another great evening! Many thanks to Vicky for providing such a good quiz and to all the others who helped run the evening. Special mention to Richard Leversuch who runs the bar and quietly gets on with washing up all the glasses etc, leaving very little for the rest of us to do at the end of the evening. This time, there were also two league matches being held – so over 70 people at the club between quizzers and players! Many thanks to the Mens A and Mixed D team and their visitors who were very obliging and didn’t seem to object to losing access to the main clubhouse room.

For the first time, two teams ended up on the same number of points, but Vicky was prepared for this with a tie-breaker question. Andy Cholerton and Alistair Reid were “volunteered” by their teams to go up and hear the question which was “To the nearest inch, what is the length of da Vinci’s Last Supper mural?” Well done, Andy for being nearest. Spot the photo below where we are waiting for the answer to be announced. Well done also to the Quizzical Quintet who won the prize for the best team name.

Thanks to the generosity of all who came, we will be able to make a donation to Robyn Moore when she visits us on June 1st as part of her Breakpoint fund-raising.

Ball machine

Club News


Our ball machine is now available for use. It is kept in the clubhouse and there have been two briefings about its use. Some members have already received a key to access it; others of us will be receiving a key soon. There is a manual left with it. Please look at this! Spinfire_Pro2_ManualFor your convenience, here are three screenshots about changing the settings eg for elevation (how high over the net the ball is sent). I think that the ball machine will retain the settings last used, so if a player much better than you used it last, then you might need to change things!
(Click to enlarge the image)

Easter Monday American Tournament

Tournaments


This Easter was the warmest for many years and gave us an excellent start to the American Tournaments this season – perfect weather and a perfect number of players : 24, 10 men and 14 ladies – which meant nobody had to sit out; we all played the 6 rounds of 8 games each. Andy Cholerton came out as the best male player, beating Mark Hill and Chris Cole by just one game overall. For the ladies, there was little doubt who would win – Gill Stoney returning to the club after a break of a few years because of injury. She only dropped 7 games out of 48 all afternoon – well done, Gill! Katherine Rogers and Susan Gilchrist were second and third in the Ladies respectively.

Gill’s success was one highlight. The other was, of course, the tea – maybe the reason some of us come. Many thanks to Linda Robson and Jackie Staunton for preparing it and to Ann Hanson and Sally Daniels who came to help set it out and more importantly to clear up afterwards.

It was the first American Tournament that I have organised – and it all seemed to go smoothly. Phew!

Family competition : June 1st

Juniors, Tournaments

We are running our Family Competition on the morning of June 1st. (8.45am for 9.15am start. We hope to finish by 1.00pm.)

There are two types of “family pairings” who can enter :

  • Junior, Senior Junior and Student Members with a family member who must be over the age of 18.
  • Senior/Off Peak Members with a young family member, i.e. under the age of 18.

    • (In neither case is the family member required to be a Member of Avondale.)

    The format of Play will depend on the number of entries and variety of ages. There will be a handicap system of sort put in place to make play fairer.

    Entries can be made by emailing zana.fletcher@virginmedia.com (please submit both players names, junior’s age, contact email and phone number) or sign up in the clubhouse

    Deadline for entry
    Sunday 26 May or when all the 16 spaces have been filled (i.e. 32 individual players).

    Entry Fee: £10.00 per pair.

    We look forward to seeing you on the day

    Smiths Cup 2019

    Tournaments,

    Ladies : This attracted 12 pairs, a full house! – and this included 6 pairs playing in the competition for the first time. The club house was buzzing and there was a great atmosphere throughout the afternoon. Debbie Ryder and Rachel Gray were the winners with Cath Pearson and Katherine Rogers as runners up.

    Mens : 7 pairs contested the Mens’ Smiths Cup one day doubles tournament on Sunday 7th April. The round robin format involved each pair playing a short set against each of the other pairs during the course of the afternoon. Most matches were very evenly contested and in the end countback had to be brought into play to determine the overall winners. Chris Cole/Mark Hill and Steve Dunne/Chris Iles both managed to win 5 of the 6 sets they played, but Chris and Mark were crowned champions, having conceded one less game overall. Mark Hill is to be congratulated on successfully retaining the title he won last year, albeit with a different partner this year.

    Thanks to Suzie Greenwood and William Carlisle for organising their events.