We now have a new website https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/AvondaleTennisClub.
All news items will be posted there. It also where bookings and coaching classes are available.
We now have a new website https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/AvondaleTennisClub.
All news items will be posted there. It also where bookings and coaching classes are available.
The Smiths Cups (one for Ladies and one for Men) are our first tournaments of the summer season. They are played as a round robin format of one set in each tie, with the winner decided by the most sets won.
There were 8 pairs in the Men’s Smith’s Cup and 5 pairs in the Ladies’ Smith’s Cup.
The winners were Tom Blake with Richard Longworth and Sam Rush with Jane Baldwin.
The winners can choose to go through to the local round of “Play your Way to Wimbledon”
You may have heard the sad news that Barbara Billinge passed away suddenly on 10th February 2025.
Barbara was an active member of Avondale for over 30 years and loved her tennis; she only recently, reluctantly, gave up due to arthritis in her wrists. Barbara took part in competitive tennis at the club and played very well.
Barbara was a very sociable person and so had many friends at the club. She enjoyed being part of events such as the quiz, and still kept in touch with everyone on a regular basis.
Barbara will be sorely missed by all her friends at Avondale.
The summer of 2024 was very successful for our Junior teams and individuals. We won four ADLTA Junior tournaments : U16 boys, U14 boys, U12 boys and U16 girls. There was a squad of 8 – 10 players for each of these teams with 3 playing in each match.
It has also been great to see junior players being picked for the adult teams, even getting into our Mens A team. Well done to Michael Palmer, Jacob Diskin and Oliver Casselton.
There has been individual success too at Hampshire level. Oliver Casselton won the U16 trophy, Noah Neeves U10 and Isaac Blake U8.
All of this reflects very well on the coaching team especially Jamie Cheetham who has taken on more responsibility as Kathy Charles recovers from an injury
A neighbour of the Club whose house in Ewshot Lane backs on to the triangle of spare land adjacent to court one got in touch a few months ago to ask for some old tennis balls for an event at Aldershot Lido. We were happy to supply her with some, the dogs being less fussy about the quality of tennis balls than our players.
Here is the thank you note from one of the organisers :
“Just wanted to email to say a HUGE Thank You for the tennis balls for our Lido event! It was a great weekend with sold out sessions (all that money went to the Lido) … but we did also manage to raise just shy of £1100 on our event stands and preloved merchandise stall – which all helps continue sending aid to Ukraine.
The tennis balls went down a treat and SOOO many people bought them, for a small donation, for their dogs to play and we had great fun shooting them into the pool for dogs to jump and fetch. It was a really good weekend and we even made the evening news!”
We had two very different days of weather for our Finals weekend. Saturday was decidedly autumnal : quite chilly and blustery. Sunday felt more like one of the warmest days of the summer. The one thing which was the same was the high standard of the tennis!
Saturday’s highlight was the Men’s Final won by David Jones with a stunningly impressive performance. Almost as good was the U18 Boys Final where the hitting was nearly as powerful as David’s with many long fiercely-contested rallies.
Sunday’s highlight was without doubt the U10 Boys final played with junior green balls. The only other concessions to their age were having the net slightly lowered and allowing a sit-down after each game rather than just at the change of ends, very necessary on this hot day. There were plenty of long rallies with deep controlled shots from both players. They got a very warm and well-deserved round of applause from all the veteran finalists when they finished.
Here are the full list of winners and runners-up
EVENT | WINNER | RUNNER-UP |
U10 Boys | Austin Jarrett-Kerr | Isaac Blake |
U10 Girls | India Gillett | Saskia Ellison |
U12 Boys | Calder McFee | Joshua Reid |
U14 Boys | George Dunhill | Luke Glennon |
U14 Girls | Isla Gillett | Melissa Cox |
U16 Boys | Oliver Casselton | Aleksander Mach |
U18 Boys | Oliver Casselton | Michael Palmer |
EVENT | WINNER | RUNNER-UP |
Mens Singles | David Jones | Peter Grant |
Mens Vets Singles | Peter Grant | Stuart Lamb |
Mens Doubles | Alistair Jones and David Jones | Ben Martin and Harry Bywaters |
Mens Vets Doubles | David Pharo and Peter Grant | David Alston and Mike Thornley |
EVENT | WINNER | RUNNER-UP |
Ladies Singles | Sam Rush | Chloe Tarling |
Ladies Doubles | Debbie Ryder and Jane Vincent | Jane Baldwin and Sam Rush |
Ladies Vets Doubles | Debbie Ryder and Jane Vincent | Elaine Leitch and Sam Williamson |
EVENT | WINNER | RUNNER-UP |
Mixed Doubles | Peter Grant and Jane Vincent | Mark Elliott and Gill Stoney |
Mixed Vets Doubles (Over 50s) | Peter Grant and Jane Vincent | Stuart Lamb and Debbie Ryder |
Super Vets Doubles (Over 60s) | Cliff Church and Sue White | David Alston and Ailsa Fraser |
Platinum Trophy (Over 70s) | Roger Barnacle and Val Talbot | Derek Carder and Sue White |
Our American Tournaments continue to be popular. Maybe it is the mix and match format where pairings are decided at random each round, or maybe it is the lovely teas, or maybe just an opportunity to play some competitive tennis in a more relaxed social setting. This year, we only held three of them as the one scheduled for the early May public holiday was a total wash-out.
Here are the results
Mens
1st | 2nd | 3rd | |
April 1st | Cliff Church | Chris Cole | James Carlisle Mark Hill Mike Thornley Paul Tippins |
May 27th | James Carlisle Jonty Maston | Ed Long Mark Hill | Paul Tippins |
August 26th | Chris Cole | Mike Thornley | Geoff Day Pete Archer |
Ladies
1st | 2nd | 3rd | |
April 1st | Sam Rush | Kim Field | Gill Stoney |
May 27th | Sam Rush | Fran Jones | Pat Cutting |
August 26th | Diane Doyle | Cath Pearson | Wendy Day |
Our August tournament runs on slightly different rules and players are competing for the Albany Trophy.
Well done to Diane Doyle, playing an American for the first time, and Chris Cole as winners.
You may remember the summer of 2024 – it rained and then it rained again. Alison Jameson, our fixtures secretary, had a huge job fitting in all the re-arrangements, with the season extending well into August. Thank you Alison!
It had been decided at the ADLTA AGM to run the Summer league in the same format as the Winter league, namely having teams of 4 playing the best of 3 sets in each match rather than teams of 6 playing just one set.
We only had the one division winner this season : Mixed B in Division 1. We did though also have second places for Mens A , Ladies A and Mixed A all in their respective Premier divisions.
The club has some excellent Juniors and they were given the opportunity to play in the Mens B team. Year 12 student, Jacob Diskin, was third placed in the players standings. Well done Jacob.
Click here for all the results
Our Finals for the handicap tournament was, as always, full of great tennis. It was particularly good to see some new names for the winners’ trophies : Rob Bozier, Guillaume Kaczmar, Verna DuFon and Jill Wilbraham. Indeed Verna and Jill had entered the event for the first time. Well done to them and all the other finalists. A special mention too for Tom Van Klaveren who repeated his win last year in the Mixed Doubles.
Winner | Runner-up | |
Mens Singles | Rob Bozier | Andy McElliogott |
Ladies Singles | Sam Rush | Jill Wilbraham |
Mens Doubles | Graham Friel and Guillaume Kaczmar | Mark Hill and Mike Santtu Asp |
Ladies Doubles | Verna DuFon and Jill Wilbraham | Fran Jones and Alison Jameson |
Mixed Doubles | Tom Van Klaveren and Alison Jameson | Mike Thornley and Sam Rush |
Congratulations to Isaac who was part of team Hampshire who won the U8 County Cup this weekend.
Comment from a proud Dad : It was a hard fought battle between the 4 teams from Dorset, Wiltshire, South Wales and Hampshire!
Vicky put on one her great quizzes for us. These events are always sell-outs!
Here is some feedback which sums up our quiz night
“Thank you Vicky and Katherine so much for last night . It was a great success as ever . The questions were really good and lots of fun . The fish and chips were excellent and really hot which was really good . It all seemed very seamless .
Thank you to Bob and Richard for serving the wine . All brilliant as usual .”