Many of you will already have heard the shocking news of Ben Tucker. He was a lovely young man who attended the club as a boy then as an adult, along with his family for many years. He was shot in a random shooting at a convenience store in America on April 24th whilst visiting his family.

Paul Treacy, Chair wrote:-
“I was shocked to hear of the tragic loss of Ben Tucker, aged just 27, in a senseless incident in the USA. Ben was a regular player at the Club for many years, having worked his way up from the Juniors to the Men’s A team and was our Men’s Singles Champion in 2013. Ben was also a valued member of the coaching team as a Coaching Assistant for a number of years. Our thoughts go out to his mother Sarah and all Ben’s family at this sad time.”

Kathy Charles, Director of Coaching wrote:-
“I was utterly heartbroken to receive the sad news about Ben. I had the privilege of coaching Ben, and his brother Mark, for a number of years. Whilst at Avondale Ben became a tennis leader and was an integral part of the coaching team prior to leaving the Club to attend university. He was very popular and well-liked with his peers and all those he coached. Ben was a lovely and extremely talented young man, who had a natural flair for tennis. My thoughts are with his mother Sarah, father Jon and brother Mark at this terribly sad time.”

Tom Van Klaveren wrote an article for HampshireLive where he is a reporter. Tom is also a member at Avondale; he is a similar age to Ben and he knew Ben as they were growing up. What a sad article for Tom to have to write.
Click here to read the article
Ben was an ardent Liverpool fan and the image shows him in front of some Liverpool shirts. It was provided for the HampshireLive article by the family and taken from there for this account.

Please go to our Facebook account if you wish to add your tributes to Ben.

Please be aware that there are supply chain issues with tennis balls and we are waiting to receive an order placed some weeks ago. We are not the only club in this position. This may mean that the balls in the lobby rack cannot be replaced as frequently as usual.

We held a very successful fund-raising event for Ukraine in the club house. Just over £1520 was raised – a truly amazing result! It was very well attended with people contributing cakes and raffle prizes, and clearly being very generous.

Many thanks to everyone who came and contributed something and a huge thank you to Jill Smith who initiated the event.

Here is Jill’s comment : Thank you to the committee for allowing us to use the Clubhouse this morning for the fund raising coffee morning. It was very successful thanks to the brilliant members, their generosity and enthusiasm. We had a terrific turn out and support .

Note: There are a couple of unclaimed raffle prizes: ticket numbers 150 (yellow), 185 (yellow), 358, 447 and 423. Please contact Zana Fletcher if you are the holder of one of these tickets.

We were saddened to hear that Jackie Hinves had passed away at the age of 89. Jackie joined Avondale in the mid 70’s & remained an active Avondale Club playing member up until her move to Whitchurch in 2003. She retained a small residence in Church Crookham which she returned to at regular intervals, until 2009. Jackie would always try to come back for Finals weekend even after her permanent move.

Please click here to read the full tribute to Jackie, written by Dave Adams.

Following a review of the use of courts booked for our mix-in sessions, it has been agreed to stop booking courts for Friday mornings and increase the court bookings for Sunday afternoons. There will now be four courts on Sundays, instead of three. On balance this was considered to be the most effective way of using court space for the benefit of all our members.