November 2014

Morning Teas in January President Des Shaw [email protected] Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] Update on French IC Visit Hon Sec. Pam Sowter [email protected] Obituary Ray Keenan Editor Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] News of Members

Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Drop Shots

Morning Teas during the 2 International Tournaments in January 2015.

Just a reminder about the dates. Tickets and passes you ordered will be sent from Auckland in mid December. Our morning teas are held on the Mondays of both tournaments.

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

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

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

Pam recently emailed IC Members re playing against the French Team and associated activities. Please discuss with Lynette, Kevin Long or John Mills fi you would like to play on Wednesday 14th.

Although it is during the Heineken Open, all members and friends will be welcome to come to the Harcourts Eden Epson Tennis and Squash Club 1 Penrhyn Rd Mt Eden during the day. Thanks to Betty Kayfor offering to help Jill and Lynette with the lunches etc.

Bev Billington has sent 2 photos taken many years apart with French player Gail Benedetti (Sheriff) who is now the Vice President of the French International Club and will be part of their team. Although born in Australia Gail is a former No 1 player in France and a Fed Cup team member. She won the doubles at the and more recently has won the 65+ Worlds Singles in 2011, 2012 and 2013.

Photos taken at the Auckland International tournament in 1970 and Croatia in 2012 at the World 65+ Champs.

1 Obituary. Ray Keenan

Ray Keenan began his tennis at Parnell Lawn Tennis club where he won a number of club championships and played Caro Bowl. His involvement with ICNZ began in 1974 where he and friend Jack Gunn represented NZ at the International Veterans tournament in Great Britain. Ray and Jack reached the quarter-finals losing to Spain the eventual winners.

In 1965 with the help of Bobby Wong and volunteers Ray formed Pompallier Tennis Club.

This was to be his focus for the next 50 years. This period saw Ray organise numerous fund raising events to raise money and build the facilities that are standing today. Ray won 24 club championships and held a number of positions including president, club captain, manager and coach until his retirement in 2008 at the age of 81.

Ray won 3 Auckland Hard court titles and 5 NZ Veterans titles .He was a member of the administration team for the Benson and Hedges (now Heineken Open) for a number of years. He was appointed President of Auckland Tennis in 1990-91.

Ray received the Benemerenti medal from Pope John Paul II in 1989 for his services to the Catholic community and tennis, in particular juniors.

The last IC function Ray and his wife Margaret were able to attend was our Annual Dinner in 2012. He is pictured here with Helen Croskery.

Sadly Ray Keenan passed away on September the 10th 2014 at the age of 86.

Message from Barry Weatherill, past Chairman of the IC Council.

Cecilie,

Always happy to read your excellent newsletter and very sorry to hear of the death of Mark Otway. I never knew him personally but when I played in the pre-Wimbledon round of tournaments that existed in the late 50's early 60's his name was always in the draw and he was usually in contention to win. His is a name that I associate with the fading years of amateur tennis but very much a competitor to be reckoned with. Please accept condolences to his family from me and IC of GB It's always sad to hear of the death of a contemporary tennis player.

Best wishes,

Barry Weatherill

Golf Day .

Tennis Auckland & ICNZ held their Annual Golf Day at the Whitford Park Country Club recently.

The course was in splendid condition and great golf was enjoyed by IC Members Des Shaw, Kevin & Greg Long, Mark Lewis, Troy Turnbull and James Greenhalgh as well as around 14 others.

Many thanks to James for organising the day which he has offered to do for the next few years.

2 Blast from the Past

Onny Parun has sent some interesting photos which were sent to him by Tony Rivers.

Tony was Cliff Richard's backing singer. The photos were taken in 1982 at the Remuera Tennis Club when Onny and Chris Lewis played with Elton John and Cliff and their bands.

He says they played all day as both stars loved watching and playing tennis. As you will notice Brenda Perry is in one of the photos with Cliff.

These were the days of grass courts, now long gone ...and the background walls have had a coat of paint or two!

Top: Elton John, Onny, Tony Rivers , Chris. Below: Cliff Richard, Brenda, Tony, Onny.

Davis Cup

All the players who performed very well in Christchurch last weekend when they defeated Chinese Taipei 4/1 are members of ICNZ. Congratulations to the Captain Alistair Hunt, and players, Rubin Statham, Michael Venus, Marcus Daniell and Artem Sitak.

The Tie was held indoors at Wilding Park, the first played there since the earthquake. Next year the team will play China in the Asia / Oceania Zone Group 1 in March.

3

Some of you involved with the Worldwide Junior Challenge Final held in Auckland in 2008 will remember Julian Tatum from the IC Council.

Julian has written an excellent booklet covering the first 10 years of the event, and it is now available in PDF format to read on your computers.

He credits Athol Tills who gave him the inspiration to involve teams from around the world after the success of the Trans Tasman events which Athol and Frank Sedgman got started.

This year's final was played at Wimbledon on the Championship grass courts 3 weeks after the tournament.

The booklet has excellent photos and reviews of the Regional Challenges as well as the Worldwide finals played each alternate year.

We hope NZ can assemble an Under 16 boys and girls team to play in the 2015 regional playoffs in Singapore, with the winners to go to the 2016 Worldwide Final to be played on the beautiful courts at the Monte Carlo Country Club.

The Story of the Worldwide IC Junior Challenge

Two more photos from Onny.

Left : Taken at Queens Club during the 1987 Aspinal Pro Tournament with Tony, Onny’s former wife Caroline and Mike. Right . Catching up with band members years later in Germany.

4 Elaine Stephan has just finished playing in the World Super Seniors Championships in Antalya, Turkey where she won a bronze medal with Jean Stevens(Otago) in the Women’s 80+ Doubles losing to the eventual winners. In the 80+ Sin- gles she lost in the second round to the two time 80+ World Champion Muffie Grieve from Canada. In the Teams Event playing in the W80 Doris Hart Cup the team of Elaine, Jean Stevens, Jean Murray and Margaret Bur- gess came 5th out of 8 teams. In pool play they were weakened at the start by No 1 player Jean Stevens ending up in hos- pital on a drip. When she came right they had an outstanding win against France who were the runners up but unfortunate- ly ended up in the Play Offs Pool for 5-8.

The Eden Epsom courts where ICNZ and IC France will stage a friendly battle on Wednesday 14th .January.

Recent acceptances of invitations to join ICNZ .

We are pleased to report that Ron Dutton and Jake Olsen have become members. Ron is living and coaching in Switzerland and Jake is in Auckland.

5 Drop Shots

The Davis Cup’s stature in the world game is set to be called fur- ther into question, with the Association of Tennis Professionals poised to stop awarding ranking points for matches. The move would mean top players have even less incentive to take part in the historic competition. Rewarding players who take part in the Davis Cup with ranking points has been one way of trying to keep the leading men onside, but the ATP has been concerned about the system’s fairness. Points are given only for matches played by those countries in the elite World Group or in World Group play- offs, which is seen as unfair on those players from smaller and less successful nations. The system also counts against many players from countries with a large number of world-class men. France, for example, has 10 men ranked in the world’s top 100, which means that a top player such as Jérémy Chardy, who is the world No 32 but has five of his fellow countrymen ranked above him, has only ever played two Davis Cup rubbers.

33 year old Russian player Nikolay Davydenko has retired from tennis. He reached No 3 in the rank- ings and won 21 ATP World Tour events, but injuries have caused him to accept his body can no long- er allow him to play at the top level. He plans a career in business now.

In a new move the WTA Tour is to provide the top tennis players with stats during the "in-matches coaching time" now allowed. They will benefit from a new mobile App which has been developed. On court coaching time has been allowed since 2008 to give fans watching on TV a better insight into tactics and strategy. It is not allowed on the ATP Tour or during tournaments

Tony Roche will be helping Novak Djokovic and his to train the new generation wife Jelana have of Indian Davis Cup players welcomed a baby son in a special week long ses- Stefan. sion in Kolkata in early December.

We have been able to arrange billets for most of the French but any other offers will be gratefully received. Those billeting will be invited at no charge to the functions.

Thanks to those who have contributed this month. It’s really good to receive old photos such as these sent by Onny and Bev. Please find the time to click the link to the Junior Challenge booklet on Page 4. Please send any news or photos to [email protected]

For the committee , Cecilie McIntyre 6