IC NZ November Newsletter
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November 2019 President Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] Page 2-4 Report on match ICNZ v IC Australia Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Page 5-6 Report on French IC Week team Vice President Russell Tills [email protected] Page 7 –8 Obituaries. Heather Robson and Paul Thomson Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Page 8 New Life Member of Tennis Auckland. Have a look through this website and click the Page 9-10 News of members flags to see news of the other countries. Page 11-12 Dropshots, more on Frank & Ken. AGM date 2020. Greetings to our IC members in NZ and around the world. It is a couple of months since our last newsletter and we have a mixture of very good and sad news. We have lost two of our best known and long standing Members. Our Hon Treasurer for over 25 years Paul Thomson died after a sudden illness and Heather Robson MNZM, wife of our Patron Jeff Robson, but a member in her own right, died recently after being unwell for the past year. There will be more news about these two members in the newsletter. The better news is that although we have enjoyed visits to our country by teams from France, Luxembourg and the Czech Republic in the last few years, we have travelled ourselves with 2 teams representing ICNZ playing overseas in the last 2 months. It always takes many months to organise teams, especially when we entered a men’s team in the IC France Week to help celebrate their 90th anniversary. Our thanks go to Paul White and Russell Tills here and our very valuable UK liaison man Mark Hadley who was organising the European side. Our other team match was just last week when our team of 11 players and 13 supporters were made so welcome by the IC Australia when we visited the Gold Coast of Queensland , based at the Royal Pines Resort . The chance to play golf as well as tennis was an added attraction and we were really honoured to be able to meet TWO LEGENDS of Australian and World Tennis. Frank Sedgman has been the President of ICA and the IC Council and Ken Rosewall is known for his interest in the ICA and assistance with their philanthropy programme. More about these men and the Sedgman-Tills Trophy match later in the newsletter. We are very grateful to the ICA led by President Kerryn Pratt, Treasurer Noel Jensen and the locally based member Dianne Evers who organised an excellent weekend for us. Our players, pictured here are: Angela Swinkels, Janine Perkinson, John Lawrence, Peter Stokes, Don Turner, Quentin Maisey, Paul White, Helen Litt, Greg Long, Mark Lewis , Julia Sim. 1 A team of 11 players plus 4 other members and 9 supporters crossed the Tasman to the Gold Coast where the ICNZ team played IC Australia. We stayed at the Royal Pines Resort which was ideal with three 9 hole golf courses to challenge many of our members and supporters. On the Saturday there were practice games on the covered courts, mixing the players from both teams for a couple of hours. That night we had a BBQ where the teams were introduced and the 2 legends of tennis Frank Sedgman and Ken Rosewall both spoke along with President of ICA Kerryn Pratt and Treasurer Noel Jensen. The NZ players and other IC Members were also introduced. The Australian IC was very generous and our large group was all catered for that night and lunch the next day. It was heartening to see how keen our younger members were to join in a photo with Frank and Ken as well as the older ones who grew up knowing about these players. Ken was not an Honorary member of our club although Frank has been since 1989 ...so we rectified that and invited him to become an Honorary Overseas member. The following evening we made the Australian IC President Kerryn Pratt an Honorary Overseas Member and I was very pleased to have the same invitation given to me by IC Australia. On the Sunday the match was held at the nearby KDV Sports Centre which has around 20 hard or clay tennis courts as well as a double layer golf driving range. Our men singles players were very strong, winning their singles and doubles, we won the 2 ladies doubles, lost the other men’s doubles and the mixed was quite close with all of the 4 matches having close sets before we won 3 of these. So the final score was a win to NZ 8/3. It was great to have Frank there to present our match captain Paul White with the Sedgman- Tills Trophy. We are hoping to play a return match somewhere in NZ in February or March 2021. The Presentation Dinner on the Sunday evening was an excellent meal at a restaurant on the 21st floor of the Royal Pines Resort. It was a shame it was dark by 6.30 as the view to the beaches along the coast was very nice. Thanks to the players and their partners, Colin, Gary, Ann Maree, Kerry and Jik. Supporters were Jim & Ann Martin, Russell Tills, Pam & Norm Sowter and Cecilie & Ken McIntyre. We had players and supporters from around NZ ...Christchurch, Hawkes Bay, Tauranga, Waikato and Auckland. The team spirit was wonderful, so the future of IC matches is in good hands. Cecilie 2 3 . Frank Sedgman presenting the Sedgman-Tills Trophy to NZ Match Captain Paul White. Presidents of ICNZ and Australia Cecilie and Kerryn . If you would like to see more photos please access our ICNZ Cluster site. It has photos from previous IC events over the last year. Many of you have already joined but if not please just click https://cluster.co/i/XVX3DXDD You don’t have to be a member of our IC to see these. It is not public, but we invite our tennis friends to look, or comment under any photo if you wish, or add your own photos..it is very easy. Players and supporters from both countries. Thanks to ICA from ICNZ 4 REPORT FROM FRENCH IC WEEK Organising a team to play on the other side of the world in 2 different age groups was a year long challenge ! It was first discussed this time last year and the IC Week to celebrate the 90th anniversary of IC France was held at Le Touquet in September. Our team Captain was Mark Hadley, with Gilles de Gouy and Andrew Turner playing the 45+ matches and Martin Colenbrander and Anton Bettink in the under 45 part. They were unfortunate to draw the eventual winners, France in the first round, but did beat Luxembourg 4/2 before losing to Mexico. Mark reports : “Firstly, I would like to say that WE PULLED IT OFF ! Thanks to all of you for your hard work in organising team NZ. The event was extremely well run and the French team couldn't have been more friendly. Superb club, great entertainment, lunches, dinners and competitiveness. The team camaraderie was exceptional and it was great to meet Martin for the first time as well as getting to know Gilles much better. They are two top men and exceptional ambassadors to NZ tennis. It was superb having Gilles on the team to help us translate and give the team some va va voom ! “ Anton won his 3 singles matches and after Andrew Turner won his match against the Luxembourg No 1 Mark thought he still has the best volleys in NZ tennis !! 5 Thierry Pham and Henri Reiter have both toured NZ with their IC teams in the last few years ...with Mark. Mark says this is an example of the IC Motto. Hands across the net , friendship across the ocean . Anne Kremer was in the Luxembourg team. She won the NZ Open final in 2000 and Martin was her ball boy !! He is now a hitting partner for the top women players each year. Andrew, Mark, Anne, Martin and Anton. 6 Obituaries Heather Robson MNZM 1928 to 2019 It is with great sadness that we remember a stalwart of our club, Heather Robson. Heather became a member of the ICNZ in the early nineties when the rules were changed to invite ladies to join. Her playing record in tennis was outstanding, having been a NZ representative and winner of numerous NZ titles in women's doubles and mixed doubles. She competed at Wimbledon twice, in 1954 and 1957. In 1954 she reached the second round of the singles, the quarter final of the doubles, playing with Judy Tinnock and fourth round of the mixed doubles with her husband Jeff. Three years later she progressed to the second round of the singles, the third round of the doubles with Ruia Morrison and third round of the mixed doubles again with Jeff. As a badminton player she won seven New Zealand singles championships, and also won nine national women's doubles and three mixed doubles titles, again playing with Jeff. In 1954 she reached the semi-finals of the singles at All England Badminton Championships and won the Irish singles title. She was a long time representative in NZ's Uber Cup and Whyte Trophy teams. At various times, Heather served as president of Auckland Tennis, Auckland Badminton, Badminton New Zealand and Badminton Oceania. In 1988 she received a meritorious service award from the Badminton World Federation. She was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to racquet sports in the 2001 New Year Honours.