December 2014

Morning Teas in January

Update on French IC Visit President Des Shaw [email protected] Wellington IC Function Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] Hon Sec. Pam Sowter [email protected] Golf Weekend Wairakei Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] News of Members

Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Blast from the Past Drop Shots

Morning Teas during the 2 International Tournaments in January 2015.

Those of you who replied asking for tickets for the morning teas and stand or ground passes for either or both Mondays should have received your tickets direct from Tennis Auckland in the last week.

The gatherings will be in the usual place, in the TA Suite, on Level 2 of the NGC building, from 10.30 till 11.30.

Entry is only by Gate 3 after 10.15, as they have special arrangements for us to come in that way before the general admission begins. Please present your ticket and the morning tea voucher for scanning on entry.

A reminder that the Ground Pass entitles you to the grounds and tennis viewing on Courts 2 and 4 . Play will start at noon.

ASB Classic (Women). Monday, January 5th till Saturday January 10th.

Heineken Open (Men). Monday, January 12th till Saturday January 17th

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French Visit in January . Tuesday 13th -Saturday 17th.

Arrangements are well in hand for the French IC team's visit to Auckland . January 13th till 17th. On Wednesday 14th the teams will play at Eden Epsom and all members are welcome to come and watch from around 10.30. Eden Epson Tennis and Squash Club 1 Penrhyn Rd Mt Eden

A Cocktail Party and Dinner have been arranged, as well as a day visit to Waiheke Island.

The French Ambassador is hoping to come from Wellington1 to attend one of the functions. Thanks to those who have indicated their availability to play against France. NZ Players as at 17th December are :

Men: Kevin Woolcott, Des Shaw, Murray Dunn, Greg Long, Russell Tills, Malcolm Elley, Roger Harvey

Women: Pavlina Nola, Deanne Alter, Lynette Duncan, Elaine Stephan & Mara Harvey social. Possibly Angela Hart.

Last month the Wellington group of IC Members and their partners had a really enjoyable evening together at the home of Graeme and Jackie Liddell. I joined them and told them about the 90th anniversary of the founding on the IC Movement on the 26th November 1924. See link here IC Website The Council asked for photos of clubs around the world celebrating the day .....we feature on the montage of photos on the Council website. Thanks for the hospitality, especially to Marion and Doug Law who have hosted these in the past. Cecilie

Outside to start on a lovely Wellington evening.

Philip Seemann arranged for the 2 young NZ Age Group Champions to play on the court. Alex Calder and Kyle Butters showed great form.

Lower right. Brett Hibbert with our hosts, Jackie and Graeme Liddell .

Below : All the local members who came.

2 Proposed Golf Weekend. February 2015

The Wellington members are keen to organise a golf weekend at Wairakei on February 21st-22nd. It is hoped many of the younger members based around the North Island can join in this, making it a family weekend for those with children.

Think about it, more details will be coming from Brett Hibbert [email protected] He would like to hear from you if you are interested.

New Members

David Frank, Gilles de Gouy, Anna Callender and Roly Russell have accepted their recent invitations. Welcome. The committee have been broadening our membership to include active players who satisfy the criteria as set out in our constitution approved at the AGM of 2012.

Last month it was mentioned that Ron Dutton has become an overseas based member. I asked him for an update. Hello Cecilie, My name is Ron Dutton. Growing up New Zealand and playing so much tennis as a young boy was just great in such a beautiful country. At 19 years old I had one of my best Auckland tournaments winning the Auckland men's tennis title with wins over James Dunphy and Paul Smith. Then I travelled to Germany and mixed Interclub tournaments and coaching. Since 1999 I have been in Switzerland working as a Tennis Coach for Tennis clubs, Swiss Tennis . I did travel home to Auckland in the year 2000 and played and won the NZ National masters tournament in singles, finally beating Bruce Derlin I attend many tennis courses here in Switzerland, 3 this year. I am a USPTA Elite Tennis Trainer, and have my Diploma as Swiss tennis Trainer. Next year I hope to finish my final qualification which will enable me to train the highest level juniors in Switzerland. Every year I do at least four 6 day tennis weeks for tennis teams, hobby players and juniors at the Quellenhof resort hotel in South Tirol Italy. Next year Paul Smith will possibly help me with one of these weeks. I have been ranked nr 1 in Swizterland for my age 2 times in Singles. Presently I don't have any time to play matches as I am busy with tennis coaching and spending as much time with my family. I am married to Marcela and we have two lovely children Angelina 7 years old and Michael who turns 5 in December 2014. They both started playing tennis this year Its an honour for me to be a member of the International Club of New Zealand and one day I hope to meet you all. Regards Ron Dutton 3 News of members

Paul Smith You will likely be aware that Paul won the G1 55+ Doubles in Brazil recently and then also won the doubles title in Brazil with Glenn Busby (the Tennis Director at the Kooyong Club in Melbourne ) . He is now the # 1 ranked player in the World 55+ Doubles. Great wins Paul. !! We think this is a first for tennis in NZ, that a NZer has ever been #1 in the World in any Open or Age Group Senior Event.

G D Jones is taking the place of Brett Steven on the TNZ board in order to ensure internation- al tennis expertise is maintained among the directors. GD recently completed several years playing and coaching on the professional circuit including a successful stint with world top 20 ranked Kevin Anderson. Under Jones, pro player Kevin Anderson’s ATP ranking of 39 at the beginning of 2013 jumped to 20 one year later in a year that included 3 ATP finals and 4 grand slam - round of 16 appearances. A former NZ Champion and Davis Club player, GD Jones is one of the most experienced and successful coaches in the country. "I look forward to taking the knowledge and contacts that I have developed through my experiences overseas and contributing to the game in NZ.. While at Illinois University GD earned an MBA.

3 of the 4 singles finalists at the recent Pascoes NZ Championships are ICNZ Members. Congratulations to Michael Venus who beat Rubin Statham in a delayed final 4/6 6/1 6/4 . A great tussle with the prize of a wildcard into the main draw of the Heineken Open as an addi- tional incentive. Sacha Jones defended her title to earn an entry into the ASB qualifying, even though she has retired from the circuit and is playing local interclub in Auckland.

Blast from the Past

Following very good reaction to the photos Onny sent of himself, Cliff Richard , Elton John, Chris Lewis and Brenda Perry playing at Remuera in 1982 , Kevin Woolcott has contributed this photo from a coaching school in Auckland in 1962. Many of you would have been involved with similar August holiday ‘live in’ weeks. The coaches, PT instructors etc. in the centre front include Peter Nicholls, Colin Pascoe, Eric White, Jim Fergusson .

4 Drop Shots

On a break at home recently Marina Erakovic visited Christchurch for a Player Development Programme followed by a Q&A session. She also had an open forum with local coaches run by coordinator Adam

Gardner and helped deliver the Tennis Hot Shots Schools Programme at Banks Ave School with Andrew Falck. Marina also visited Shirley Tennis Club and donated her Wilson 100 year anniversary tennis bag to the club for them to auction off with proceeds to go towards helping with the cost of redeveloping their courts and club house facilities. She is now in Barcelona for a month long training camp before heading back to Auckland for Christmas and start her preparation for the ASB Classic. She is aiming to regather the form that saw her reach a career high WTA singles rank of 39 in 2012. Tennis Canterbury

Free-to-air sports channel Sommet Sports has ceased transmission after 18 months of operation. Financial problems have weighed down the company which pulled the plug at midday on Friday . Sommet was born from a dream to deliver free sports to all Kiwis. Sadly this dream is not to be." Sommet Sports delivered live and pre-recorded sports on Freeview chan- nel as well as on Sky TV. We mentioned during the year that many live WTA matches were being shown this way where- as the ATP has been on ESPN.

Pat Rafter's appointment as Tennis Australia's director of performance will inevitably fuel expectations on Lleyton Hewittto take over as Davis Cup captain. Rafter, though, won't be pressuring Hewitt into taking on any such role despite endorsing the veteran baseline warrior as a worthy captain-in-waiting after accepting his own new position of responsibility recently. "I haven't discussed that with Lleyton. Lleyton plays his cards pretty close to his chest," Rafter told AAP. After five years as Cup captain and twice guiding Australia back into the 16-nation World Group, Rafter will take on the newly created role as director of performance on February 1 and also remain as skipper in what TA termed "business as usual". But amid specu- lation that father-of-three Hewitt - who turns 34 on February 24 - will wind down his playing career after enjoying one last crack at leading Australia to Cup glory in 2015, the captaincy succession planning already appears in place. "That could be right, but I don't want to push any of that," Rafter said.

Some years ago the IC of NZ played against the IC of Australia at Royal Pines in Queens-

land (where the Australian PGA Championship was played last weekend). Paul Thom- son, our top player, played against John O'Brien who was the 82 year old first hostage to escape during the Sydney Siege on Monday evening. He has said he is struggling to come to terms with what happened, but is playing tennis and trying to get some sleep.

Traditionally we receive Christmas Greetings from

Martina Navratilova is the latest tennis many IC’s around the world. legend to dip her toes in coaching, as she Here is the South African announced this week that she would be sketch. We hope Santa working with world No. 6 Agnieszka Rad- landed safely on the court wanska during the coming season. behind and opened the gate!!

Thanks to those who have contributed this month,

we wish you all a happy and healthy 2015.

Please send any news or photos to [email protected]

For the committee , Cecilie McIntyre

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