INTERNATIONAL CLUB SOUTH AFRICA www.ictennis.net NEWSLETTER OCTOBER 2015

Honorary President: „NEW” COURT AT VOSLOORUS Doug Hillen [email protected]

Chairperson: Leonie Grondel [email protected]

Lorna: [email protected] Marco: [email protected] Wonderful news is that one court at the Vosloorus Tennis Club, home to our Development project, has been beautifully resurfaced by Rene: [email protected] Trevor Long of Barretts Courts. This is courtesy of a grant from the Rosanne: [email protected] Gauteng Sports Council after a motivation from the Gauteng Terrey: [email protected] Provincial Committee. Senior players at the Club were so excited that Carlos: [email protected] they insisted the court be turned into a show court by painting it a different colour!

Exciting Calendar for 2016!!

2016 is full of opportunities for members wishing to participate in overseas events! You should definitely contact your fellow IC members to get a team together for one or other tournament. We will assist once we have an indication that enough members are interested and will also assist with entry fees where applicable. Usually the host countries fund most of the extras such as meals and event costs, so that only airfares and accommodation (at preferential rates) need to be paid.

January : 60th Anniversary Celebratory Event New Zealand TBA: 10th Anniversary Celebratory Event Barbados 29 May-2 June: Potter Cup (Men) Max 9 in team (5 singles + 2 doubles) Spain TBA: Potter Cup (Ladies) Max 9 in team Spain TBA: 4 Nations Social Event (any no of payers) Czech Rep 2-6 Nov : Columbus Cup (Men) 2 x 55+ and 2 x 65+ India

In addition, we are hoping that our Junior team will once again be victorious in the Southern Africa Junior Challenge to be played from 16-18 October at the German Club. In this case, we will be organizing a supporters’ trip to cheer them on in the World Finals to be played in Monte Carlo from 5th to 9th September next year. The trip will include 2 matches against European IC’s, probably Monaco and France. 2017 starts off in mid January with the Bahamas Doubles event which is a wonderful fun event. Sometime in the next few months the La Carreta Week will follow in Bulgaria (2 ladies, 1 x 50+ and 1 x 60+). 20th August 2017 sees the start of the Windmill Cup and the Mercelis Trophy in Berlin, Germany. Windmill (Men) 2 x 45+, 1 u/45. Mercelis (Ladies) 2 x 40+, 1 u/40. For those who have been asking about forthcoming events, this should be over enough to satisfy intrepid enthusiasts - let’s have some indication of potential participation forthwith! Keep tabs on all events on the website : www.ictennis.net

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A BIG HELLO TO RUSSELL SEYMOUR

He and his wife Jeannie decided in December to make a final trip "home" to visit their remaining family members and old friends. They set off from their home in Tyler, Texas at 4.30am on January 7th, flying from Dallas to Atlanta, and eventually to Johannesburg.

Russell tells of his very old friend, Stan Dugmore (also an IC member), “the kindest and friendliest person one could ever meet”, who offered us his home in Dunkeld as a "base" and lent us a car to visit whomever we wished to see. The first connection they made was with a Parktown High Schoolmate, Stan Davidson (an IC member, too). He and Russell were doubles partners, and helped their school win the S.Transvaal High Schools’ Russell and Gaetan Koenig Team competition. Furthermore, they won the S. Transvaal under 18 doubles title 3 years in a row!! They had not seen each other in at least 60 years.

Jeannie obviously has to be a very understanding wife as they also stayed with his first "girlfriend" (name censored for fear of repercussions). She and Russell reached the final Russell and Jeannie Seymour of the S.Transvaal under 18 mixed. Lengthy phone conversations followed with Bryan Lidgey and Ian Vermaak, (IC members), he lunched with Abe Segal, Peter Waters and family and Gaetan Koenig and wife, Barbara. Rauty and Lorna Krog and Gordon and Veronica Talbot joined the Seymours at Stan Dugmore’s home for tea. This all is no mean feat when one considers that Russell and Jeannie also had to find time to spend with family.

Russell comments that he was amazed at the progress that has been made in the construction of new houses and businesses since their last visit in 2007. In fact it was quite scary driving on the left side of the road amongst seemingly thousands of Taxis and other cars and trucks…..Luckily no incidents to report! For many years Russell has been delighted to meet the South African Veterans teams at the ITF World team events and individual Championships. He continues, saying that at age 84 it should not be a surprise, only sad, that many of his old friends have passed on or are in very poor health. He, however, is determined to keep Lorna Krog (right) and Anita Summers playing in the 85 division this year, before he tries his hand (centre) met up with Ilana Kloss at Indian Wells at golf! Way to go, Russell! earlier this year

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A WELCOME RETURN HOME by Ricky Buwalda

It has been such a pleasure for us to reconnect with Bernie Mitton recently – he was last in South Africa over 30 years ago and decided to recall his past by spending nearly two months in South Africa visiting his family and tennis friends in (Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and KZN. He spent an entire week with us here at Hilton in the KZN. Many of Bernie’s friends took time and trouble to reconnect with him and shared past stories and the various roads that life has taken us all on. In KZN Bernie met again with John Yuill, Dale Michau, Lynton Bernie with Byron Bertram at Byron’s home in the Cape Cousins, Jeff Player, Maree Wessels and myself. Telephonically he contacted Terry Rosenberg, Kevin Curren, Derek Hayes, and received good wishes from Howard Saul, now coaching at Glen Ashley in Durban.

Many keen South African tennis followers will remember Bernie as an unbelievably talented player, who followed his dream onto the International tennis circuit with some excellent results along the way. It was only after suffering severe injuries in the mid-1980s that he curtailed playing International tennis and got involved with professional coaching in the USA. In 1985 he assumed the position of Director of Tennis Coaching at the Newport Beach Bernie and Rauty Krog take time out Club in California, USA. What follows is a brief resume of Bernie’s tennis career:

 Born Vryburg 1954 and attended Pretoria Boys’ High School – where Byron Bertram also briefly attended.  Played Orange Bowl in the USA in 1970 (with David Schneider) and 1971 (with Deon Joubert), where he won this prestigious Junior doubles title.  From 1972 spent time playing in Austria followed by the International Tennis Circuit.  Played Davis Cup tennis for South African between 1973 and 1977 – started at age 19!  Successful World Team tennis in Pittsburg, USA, with Yvonne Goolagong, Mark Cox and Vitas Gerulitus as fellow team members.  Married in 1980, father of three children, set up home in California, USA.

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 Gained USA citizenship in 1984, left tennis circuit because of serious injuries.  Director of Tennis, Newport Tennis Club, California between 1985 and 1999.  Director of Tennis, Irvine Racket Club, California 1999 onwards.  To date he has been coaching professionally at Newport Beach. An interesting statistic is that Bernie won 11 international doubles titles around the world, each one with a different partner! John Yuill makes the point that on their day, the talented Bernie, together with the very gifted Byron Bertram (won Junior Wimbledon in 1969 and 1970), could beat any top doubles John Yuill, Bernie and Ricky Buwalda combination in the world but could also lose to any unknown doubles team!!! (Sorry Bernie!) A further amazing statistic in Bernie’s wonderful tennis career is that at his peak he had singles victories over 18 of the top 20 players in the world including John Newcombe (three times Wimbledon singles champion), Arthur Ashe (Wimbledon champion), Tom Gorman and many others on the official ranking list. The reason we don’t include players 19 and 20 is that Bernie never got to play those two!!!

In recent years Bernie’s health has taken a bad knock, including managing serious shoulder and ankle replacements and chronic knee problems, largely as a result of intense, ongoing, high level tennis competition on various unforgiving surfaces around the world. More recently, he has had both major heart and colon surgery, which has limited his mobility and forces him to be very careful with his lifestyle as lack of mobility is an ongoing issue with him at present. It has been my privilege to know Bernie as a pupil of mine at Pretoria Boys’ High School in the early ‘70s, where he, together with Johann Kriek across the railway line at Afrikaans Seuns’ Hoerskool and Byron Bertram were destined to set the tennis world alight –all three certainly had rare and special potential. As a pupil at school Bernie was always extremely polite, well mannered, and friendly with an inherent modesty that remains with him until today. I had the privilege of playing both with and against Bernie on many occasions and he was certainly a dream doubles partner with his relaxed, fluent style, together with potent top spin control on the forearm side. All my singles matches against him resulted in losses with my toughest being a defeat on Centre court at Westridge Park in Durban in 1971, where as a school boy, no less, he humbled me in a very tough match in soaring Durban temperatures – I still haven’t forgiven him for this tennis hiding!

We all wish Bernie everything of the best as he returns to California shortly and moves forward with his life into new tennis challenges, including possibly a strategic, marketing role at a tennis centre in California. Keep strong and look after yourself.

We have had confirmation that our prestige junior event, The Southern Africa Junior Challenge will be going ahead from 16-18 October at The German Club in Johannesburg. The winning team will represent the African Region of the IC in Monte Carlo next September where 6 Regions worldwide will do battle to become Champions of the International Club.

Please join us for coffee and good tennis!

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