1 September 2018 President Cecilie McIntyre [email protected] January Internatonals P 1 Wellington get together P 2 Hon Treasurer Paul Thomson [email protected] Future IC Events P 3 Mark Lewis Hall of Fame P 4 Questonnaire Coming P 5 IC Sportsmanship Award P 6 Hon Sec. Angela Hart [email protected] Auckland Tennis changes P 6 Wimbledon P 7 Vice President Russell Tills [email protected] US Open P 8-9 Laver Cup P 10. Link to IC Council website www.ictennis.net Angela Hart P 11 2019 ICNZ AGM DATE P 11. January International Tournaments There have been delays this year in confirming the playing times of the Women’s ASB Classic. It will now stretch into the Sunday finals with that twilight session starting at 5pm Sunday 6th. The Men’s ASB Classic will be as in previous years. With play from Monday to Saturday. Therefore in 2018/9 the first get together will be AFTERNOON Tea at 1.30pm on Monday 31st December . Play will start on centre court at 3 pm and the outside courts at 2 pm The MORNING tea during the Men’s week will be 10.30 am Monday 7th January. Angela has now sent all members the invitations to attend these. If you are based overseas but intend being back in Auckland then please let us know asap so we can ask for gate passes for you to come in to either or both Mondays. The email contained details of how to reserve your FREE ticket and gate passes to the morning / afternoon teas and the stand ticket to the relevant session. We must stress that although there is no charge for the teas and entry and you can ask for a ground pass for a partner to come with you to either or both occasions, if they want to sit in the stand with you, you must pay for those tickets. The cut off date for requests is Friday 5th October and forms, with or without extra ticket payments MUST be returned to Angela before then IF you intend coming. Every year since we have been doing this there have been last minute requests….but no late applications will be accepted this year. In the past the return forms have gone to Tennis Auckland but now, although payment is still made out to Tennis Auckland they need to be sent to Angela. [email protected] DON’T leave it till the last days. Work out now whether you will be able to join us for one or both days and any ground passes needed. 2 IC Get together in Wellington September 16th The Wellington area IC members and partners held a wonderful friendly get together on Sunday 16 th at the home of Graeme and Jacquie Liddell. 2 new members were introduced and given their ties, former Tennis NZ chair David Howman and Marc Paulik a former top 20 ranked player who is coaching in Hutt Valley. David has since spent 13 years as director general of WADA, the World Anti Drugs Agency and after returning to live in NZ was appointed chair of the Athletics Integrity Unit last year, believing it is time the fight against drugs in sport was taken into the court room. President Cecilie McIntyre and Committee members Greg Long and Kevin Woolcott all spoke to update local members. Among others present were Marion Law, Sir Tom Eichelbaum , Colin Frampton, Guy Callen- der, Peter Osborne, Rodney Callender, Philip Seemann, Pat Guiney, Betty Knight, and David Patterson, Unfortunately Barrie Shute who helped to organise the event was overseas, David Patterson missed the main photo but was able to join us to catch up. Many thanks again to Graeme and Jacquie who welcomed everyone to their Khandallah home and organised delicious finger food. Our hosts were Graeme, the tall man at the back right, and Jacquie kneeling front lef. Our sincere thanks go to them. New members David and Marc with Cecilie . Greg, David P and Guy. 3 Future IC events overseas 2019 For members to think about! IC France will be celebrating their 90th Anniversary in September next year Le Touquet with a special IC Week at Le Touquet. This will be the 25th IC Week which is always a very special event to be part of. Paris Details are on the IC Council website. On the home page click IC Week France. The Windmill Trophy is the men’s event , with the Orsini Trophy played as a plate event. The women play for the Mercelis Trophy with the Winnie Wooldridge Plate ( which was won by the NZ team at Wimbledon in 1999!) The Windmill Trophy teams comprise 4 men, two Under 45 and two 45 +. The Mercelis Trophy teams have 2 women, one Under 40 and one 40+ . The Captain can be Playing or Non Playing in both teams so you can have an extra person. ITF rankings are taken into consideration for seeding. Supporters are welcome and will be able to join in the Dinners etc on payment of the fees which are all listed on the website. The other IC event we have been asked to join in is closer to home. This will be in October / November 2019 with dates to be confirmed. The Australian IC has invited NZ to send a team plus supporters to the get together they hold annually on the Gold Coast. The last 2 have been at the Royal Pines Resort where they have special accommodation arrangements. They envisage 2 days of activities, an official match and dinner and golf for those interested. The Gold Coast is easy for all NZ members to get to. 4 The IC of Barbados has also an IC Event planned. 8th 12th April 2019 This is a doubles week, for 6 players . 2 ladies with a combined age of 100+ , 2 men with combined ages of 105+ and another team of 120+. Two mixed doubles will also be played with combined ages of 105+ and 110. Check the IC Council website for more details for this and other IC events planned. It may be possible for NZ players to combine with another IC to make up a team. In the next Newsletter the Philanthropy sub committee will have a report. They have been working steadily doing an amazing amount of background planning including lesson plans to develop “character” as well as tennis skills to get this worthwhile initiative underway early next year. We are really pleased that several of our members who are now involved on the coaching side have offered their help. The team is well lead by our Vice President Russell Tills who made a special trip from London to the Canon Hill Park Tennis Club in Birmingham to meet with Felipe Buster from the IC of Chile, to view the ICGB Philanthropy programme. One of those involved with the Philanthropy planning is Mark Lewis . He has just had a wonderful “once in a lifetime experience “ which was just the opposite to helping disadvantaged children and his longtime work in Auckland schools developing the Tennis Hot Shots programme. I asked him to let us know about this. Recently I was very fortunate to have been given the honour to introduce my great friend Michael Stch at his inducton into the Internatonal Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island. Many of you will recall that I worked with Michael for six years and during that tme he won the Wimbledon Men’s Singles and Doubles ttles along with numerous other tournaments which took him as high as number two in the world rankings behind Pete Sampras. The inducton ceremony, on a beautful day in Newport in front of a large centre court crowd, was televised live in the States on the Tennis Channel. Thirteen Hall of Famers were present on the stage including Jim Courier, Stan Smith, Kim Clijsters and Rosie Casals and I can honestly say it was one on the proudest moments in my life when I stood before them to introduce Michael. Even though it was rather surreal at the tme, I felt very comfortable talking about Michael, describing him as a person and as a player. By all accounts I did a prety decent job of it - several women came up to me aferwards and remarked that they had been moved to tears. Michael’s speech was outstanding. He talked for twenty minutes of the cuf and in his second language without faltering once. He told a couple of great stories which drew laughter from the audience but also spoke from the heart about how he missed the players on tour afer his retrement. I’d like to share a couple of brief excerpts from my introducton and I hope that I did the ICNZ Club and NZ proud with what I had to say. For me it was a once in a lifetme experience and a memory I will cherish forever. Here are a couple of excerpts and photos : 5 “As a young child in New Zealand, I grew up with my tennis playing brothers pretending to be Rod Laver or Ken Rosewall in a Wimbledon Final. How that Kiwi kid connected with a German across the other side of the world is testament to the truly internatonal favour of tennis. I remember sitng with my brother Chris, a former Wimbledon singles fnalist, watching Michael tear apart a Swedish pro - ranked 70 in the world. Chris suggested Michael played a bit like Kevin Curren and I replied – only beter. He then said Michael would be tough on grass and I replied – he’s tough on any surface.