Finals results

Tournaments

Congratulations to everyone who won through to the finals and especially to the eventual winners in each category. William Jones had the remarkable achievement of winning the U16 Boys Singles AND the Mens singles. Then he added to his Senior success by winning the Mixed Doubles where he was partnered by Issie Barfoot. Sam Cawood is another very promising junior. He won the U10 Boys Singles and the U14s.

For all the results, please click here or if you wish to download a copy, click here

Photos coming soon!

Our thanks as always to Zana Fletcher who co-ordinated all the events.

(Note : you’ll notice there were Junior events for 10.1-10.2 players. This is referring to a tennis rating not an age group.)

American Tournament August 28th

Tournaments
24 players (16 men and 8 ladies) turned out for the Albany Trophy, the last American Tournament of the summer, so all six courts were in action throughout the afternoon. Glorious weather conditions, good tennis and a fabulous tea, with Joan Jones’s raspberry pavlova deserving of special mention (the raspberries were homegrown and freshly-picked). The handicap format had the desired effect of keeping most matches fairly even. Ailsa Fraser emerged as winner of the ladies’ section and Johnny Rowland won the mens’ section, both amassing a total of 32 games in the course of their six matches. Johnny Rowland also won this event last year, so well done to him for successfully defending.

You’re never too old to play tennis

Club News, Social Events

It has been a long-held ambition of Ken Civil to play tennis on his 90th birthday and this Monday (7th August) he achieved this goal. Not only did he join in the regular Monday social tennis session, but he also enjoyed a surprise gathering of his fellow players to celebrate with a special 90th birthday cake. His wife Marion accompanied him on the day to join in the birthday celebrations. Regular player Gerry Morgan gave a short presentation to talk about Ken’s 90th birthday ambition. “Would that we all could play at 90,” he said.

Ken has been a member of Avondale for over ten years, having played at several clubs throughout the South East. Indeed, in the 1960s, he once played at friendly game at Wimbledon, when he was a member at Woking. “I looked over onto the adjoining courts and saw John Newcombe and Rod Laver playing,” he said.

He has been enjoying playing tennis since he was 25 and celebrated his 80th birthday at Avondale too, when a cake was baked for him then. “I’ve played at a lot of clubs but this one if the friendliest and the best,” he said. He plans to keep playing on Mondays for as long as he can.

In one of the pictures below, he is seen cutting his special cake with his wife Marion. Many thanks to Linda Robson for all the arrangements to make Ken’s day special.

Changes to British Tennis Membership

Club News

British Tennis Membership has changed this year and there are now two tiers of membership:

Lite Membership (FREE) – Available to any Club Member free of charge. Members can obtain LTA Ratings and enter the Club Wimbledon Ballot.
Team Membership – Available to Club Members for a small annual charge (Adults £20, Under 18’s £10). As well as the above benefits, Team membership also includes priority access to Davis Cup tickets, discounted prices for tickets to the ATP Finals, discounted entry to Wimbledon Museum tours, and other special offers and competitions.

All existing registered BTMs have been automatically transferred to Lite Membership. If you wish to up-grade to Team membership or would like further information please visit www.lta.org.uk/member/benefits

Praise for a holiday camp!

Coaching, Juniors

A satisfied parent posted this message on Facebook about her two daughters :

“They are absolutely loving their week of tennis and fitness at Avondale and Fit Body In 6. Big thanks to Kathy Charles and team at both Avondale and FBI6 for such a great holiday camp.”

Good to hear it is such a success.

What’s on for Juniors update : Summer 2017

Coaching, Juniors

We have now added to the events we are running for Juniors during the school holidays. As described in an earlier post there are holiday camps throughout August. There will also be cluster tennis and tactical play sessions. For most of the activities, we ask you to register in advance. The exception is Mini Red on Wednesdays from 4:00 during August. Just turn up, Pay and Play.

Please remember that we are having a Teen Tennis event on Friday September 8th which is free and non-members will be welcome. Please spread the word amongst your friends and encourage them to come along. It won’t just be “normal” tennis games – there will be Cardio Tennis, Touch Tennis and other tennis related games and activities.

For all the details, please follow this link Summer courses 2017 to the Holiday Courses Page (on the Coaching menu).

She Rallies

Juniors

Kathy Charles, Sarah Rutherford and Georgie Charles enjoyed a fun day at a recent She Rallies event with Judy Murray as the star guest. She Rallies is a new initiative aimed at coaching the next generation of coaches with the over-arching aim of creating opportunities in tennis for women and girls from the grassroots through to international level. Sarah is the Ambassador for Hampshire, and was one of the main coaches in charge of the day, and Kathy was helping out. Having attended the day with us, Georgie is now a trained Activator.
There is a whole range of activities running at Avondale over the school holidays, with some of the great ideas being put into use.