| To open this report on our activities for the year I
would like to announce that on 5 August 2008 Tennis
Seniors Australia (TSA) formally asked Tennis Seniors
Queensland (TSQ) to HOST the Australian Seniors Tennis
Carnival in 2010. This has happened because our friends
in Tasmania, for a number of reasons, are unable to host
as scheduled. Your Executive have accepted the task, a
Tournament Committee has been formed and the event will
be held on the Gold Coast from 9 to 22 January 2010 with
the Gold Coast Seniors Tennis Club and Miami Grass Club
as Headquarters. I would like to thank Rob Newton, Ray
West and their Committees for allowing TSQ to use their
great centres for the Championships and would ask all
TSQ members to record these dates in your "calendar" now
and get behind the event to try and make it even better
than our very successful effort in 2004!!! Please
consider any request made for your assistance and
volunteer your time for any job you can handle during
the period.
This is my second year as your President and I feel
there has been some progress made by both your
representatives and our players.
All of you who read the Tennis Seniors Newsletter
would have noted the February 2008 issue highlighted the
excellent performances of our 17 teams in the Teams
Event at the Australian Championships in Wodonga. Our
fine band of players managed to pip New Zealand, albeit
by a narrow margin, to WIN the overall average and
reclaim The Australian Teams Trophy. Well done
Queensland!!
The State has won this trophy on a number of other
occasions, ie.1989, 1997, 2000, 2001 and 2003 however it
was a "first" for me and for a number of others too.
Let’s hope we can repeat this result in Adelaide next
year.
The second particularly noteworthy occasion (recorded
on the back page of that newsletter) was the award of
the Australia Day Sports Medal made to our tireless and
hard working Secretary Coral Vickers. The Lord Mayor of
Brisbane announced this richly deserved recognition of
Coral’s contribution to tennis in his 2008 Australia Day
Awards. I am sure all members join me in saying
"Congratulations Coral".
I believe our great game has progressed within the
State this year through our network of Clubs and
Associations, mainly due to the hard work their
Committee's undertake on our member’s behalf and we are
achieving our stated aim of: "Creating a friendly and
sociable atmosphere for any player who is aged 35 or
over through the promotion of Senior’s tennis,"
Highlights of the past Year:-
Australian Tennis Seniors Championships held in
Wodonga, Victoria
My thanks are extended to the 74 men and 30 women who
travelled to Albury / Wodonga to compete in the Teams
Events. We had a total of 17 teams who all performed
very well to achieve the great result mentioned above.
The Team Captains should be thanked for their efforts
too as it is not an easy job to keep everyone in a team
happy. Two Centres, with real grass courts, were the
main venues for matches during the first week while the
Wodonga Centre was Headquarters for the Individual
Events.
The courts were generally very good considering the
severe drought conditions all Australia experienced
leading into the event. Heavy rain, on "practise day"
and more rain on the Monday saw a number of first round
teams matches abandoned, however, the weather after that
was "quite acceptable" with no really hot days. The
courts improved daily and became more firm as the
carnival progressed. Everyone I had spoken to before
Wodonga said the weather "was always hot down there" but
I did not find it unpleasant this year!!! Sadly there
were a number of complaints from players regarding the
teams event. In fairness the Victorian Seniors were
hampered not only by the early wet weather but simply by
the lack of team numbers!! There were only 107 teams
entered (compared with the “usual total” entry of 130 to
150+) which forced them to "combine age groups" and take
other measures which proved to be unpopular!!! Some of
the complaints were aired at the Annual General Meeting,
an unusual venue from my point of view. However, TSA
Secretary Carl Anjou, answered the points raised quite
frankly and quite well too.
Our State Flag Bearer at the opening ceremony was
Coral Vickers, and all those who went along decked out
in their State or Australian uniforms seemed to enjoy
the occasion.
Hearty congratulations are extended to all winners of
individual events as detailed on our website. A special
mention should be made of the efforts of Chris O'Mara
from Toowoomba who won the 40+ singles and doubles and
was runner-up in the 35+ mixed too, Peter Froelich from
the Gold Coast who won the 70+ singles and doubles
(again) and Graham Brown with his partner Alan Hocking
who won both the 75+ doubles and the 150+ combined
doubles.
Congratulations and best wishes are extended to the
14 Queenslanders who have been selected, following the
Individual Events, to represent Australia in the ITF
World Seniors and Super Seniors Championships, to be
held in Turkey during October 2008:- Jill Taylor (65+)
Joy Rigter (70+) Chris O'Mara (40+) Mike Ford (50+) Max
Bates (55+) Terry McLellan and Lee Taylor (60+) Ian
Macdonald and Kevin Crump (70+) Neville Langford, Alan
Hocking and Graham Brown (75+) Neville Halligan and
Neale Hook (80+) Since these selections were made our
Vice President, Alan Hocking, has had to withdraw for
hip surgery. He is now recovering very well and assures
us he will be ready for more tennis action in Adelaide.
Congratulations are also extended to Michael Russell,
from Brisbane, who has recently been selected to fill a
vacancy in the 40+ Trabert Cup team for Turkey.
For a full summary of the results for the Teams and
Individual Events please check the web sites
www.tennisseniors.org.au/qld and
www.92computing.com.au.
The Queensland State Dinner, held on the first Monday
evening of the Championships was very well attended with
close to 100 people there. The numbers really tested the
catering skills of the Albury Club Staff. It was a good
night and a big thank you must be extended, once again,
to our Secretary, Coral Vickers and her small band of
helpers who organised a great occasion for us. Alan
Hocking used his "family connections" to secure the
Albury Club as a venue. The Club was quite traditional,
close to town, really nice and the Manager and staff
were very helpful too. Coral compiled a list of "new
attendees" which I used and this resulted in several
people renewing old friendships with others they had not
seen for many years. Good food and a very pleasant
evening was enjoyed by all though the late registrants
did cause some minor catering problems. (Lesson:- Would
everyone please register early for the State dinner in
Adelaide next year!!)
Your Executive attended the 39th Annual General
Meeting of Tennis Seniors Australia which was held on 23
January 2008 at the Three Monkeys Tavern. Many matters
of interest were discussed and for those of you who are
interested the full minutes of the meeting are posted on
the Tennis Seniors website,
www.tennisseniors.org.au.
Three Queenslanders were appointed National Selectors
at the AGM and we congratulate Mike Ford, Neville
Langford and Marilyn Davis on their achievements in this
important area.
Recently members would have received notice and an
entry form for the Australian Seniors Championships to
be held in Adelaide from 12 to 23 January 2009. I would
encourage all members, particularly the ladies, to
consider entering as Tennis Seniors South Australia are
making a really big effort to cater for all standards of
players there, especially in the Team Events.
In June 2008 Graham Brown and I attended a one day
"State Presidents and Treasurers Meeting" held in
Melbourne with representatives of Tennis Australia (TA)
in attendance. Many matters of concern were addressed,
especially the current financial position of TSA. As
some members may know TA has recently changed their
supplementary funding of TSA and this has caused quite a
few problems especially for our World Championship Teams
Representatives who now have to fund a far greater
portion (virtually all) of their expenses from their own
pockets. This is not at all satisfactory as it can place
a very real burden on those selected to represent their
Country!! As I write this report this situation for the
Representatives has not improved, however, for the "rank
and file members" some initiatives TA plan to adopt
"within the near future" appear to be very good.
Currently TSQ and TQ are "in discussions" about a
"Memorandum of Understanding" agreement in which TQ will
assist TSQ with a very substantial part of our
administration costs and there should be only one
affiliation fee payable by everyone in Queensland, that
is Tennis Queensland's fee!!!. This will also enable all
affiliated TQ members over 35 years of age to be “made
aware” of all the Seniors events and, subject to some
conditions, they may join in our tournaments and many
other things. Of course full and final details are still
to be worked out, however, I believe, an agreement would
mark a real step forward in the resolution of some
matters which cause our members concern.
Our State Championships held in July 2008 at the Gold
Coast Seniors Tennis Club were sadly interrupted by
"inclement weather conditions". This is a polite way of
saying it poured with rain on Saturday and part of
Sunday which forced the cancellation of a number of
doubles events on these days. Gail Bates, our Tournament
Director, did a great job in managing the event and
working out ways to complete all the singles events
disrupted by the bad weather. The players are to be
thanked too for their co-operation. We had record
entries again this year with 350+ which is more than
there were in the individual events at Wodonga. See our
website for a full report on the event and the complete
results. Congratulations are extended to all the winners
and my thanks go to all those who entered. Please come
again next year the weather is bound to be better!!
This year's Senior of the Year was Mr Alan Searle
from Bundaberg, a very worthy winner. The presentation
to Alan was made in October 2007 following our AGM in
Toowoomba and everyone agreed he thoroughly deserves
this recognition. His contribution to tennis in the
Bundaberg area is widely recognised and he is a great
character both on and off the court. Sadly the Bundaberg
Tournament in 2008 experienced wet weather again for the
third year in succession. Alan's comment attached to my
refund cheque was "so much for global warming and the
drought!!"
At the Tennis Queensland Presentation Dinner, held in
November 2007, Max Bates was awarded the Senior “Player
of the Year” trophy for the second year in a row. Max is
a fine player who has represented Queensland and
Australia with great distinction at the Australian and
World Seniors Championships for many years and he has
won the World Teams event in his age group on many
occasions as well. Well done Max.
At the same event our Vice President, Alan Hocking,
received Tennis Queensland’s “Geoffrey E. Griffith Order
of Merit”, again a reward richly deserved.
Congratulations to you both.
In September 2008 TSQ will conduct the “Sunshine
Coast Seniors Championships” an ITF Seniors Circuit
Grade 4 event at the Tewantin Tennis Club, McKinnon
Drive, Tewantin. This is a new event on our calendar,
with Gail Bates the Tournament Director, and we would
ask all players to support the tournament if at all
possible. We thank the Tewantin Tennis Club for making
their facilities available for the event which is
expected to become a regular fixture in future.
It is sad to report the passing of four stalwarts of
the Queensland tennis community during the year namely,
Ted Grigson, one of the founders of Gold Coast Seniors
Tennis Club and its first President, Bernard Pinto, a
Queensland and Australian representative player formerly
from Sri Lanka and was a Brisbane resident, John Byrne,
a well respected coach and player also from Brisbane and
Harold Whillans originally from Brisbane who was
resident in Hong Kong when he died. Tributes to these
people have been or will be included in the newsletters
or published on the web in due course and I extend my
sincere sympathy to their families.
Our financial position is sound and Graham Brown will
make appropriate comments on this at the Annual General
Meeting. During the year we, as an Executive, have
provided financial support and assistance to all clubs
organising tournaments, we have continued our
contribution towards travel expenses for tournament
competitors from distant places and we have maintained
our financial contribution to our Australian
representative players who leave soon for Turkey. (For
the information of those players considering nominating
for selection in Australian teams to travel to the World
Titles next year there could be a more favourable and
substantial contribution towards their travel expenses
available from TSA!!!)
On behalf of the Executive I wish to thank our
Queensland Selectors for their work during the year.
This is a difficult and time consuming job and the panel
of Ladies:- Ros Hand ,Joy Rigter and Donna Walker and
Men:- Neil Higgins, Lee Taylor and Wally Teis are to be
congratulated for their efforts.
Ian Somers, our web master, has maintained TSQ’s site
very efficiently throughout the year. The site is the
envy of all other States and it is regarded as “The
Best” by all who use it. Ian has been helping TSA with
their site too and his work and skills are appreciated
by all.
I would like to thank the members of our Executive
for the guidance they have given me during the year and
for all the hard work they have undertaken on our
member’s behalf. Graham Brown has carefully watched our
finances, Coral Vickers has attended to everything as
our Secretary, Alan Hocking has handled most of the
procedural duties and Gail Bates has worked very hard as
Tournament Director for our State ITF tournaments and on
all sorts of other ranking lists for our State and for
Tennis Seniors Australia as well. Thank you to Hazel,
Neville, Helen and Max for helping out too and
supporting your husbands and wives while they do so much
for our Members.
In conclusion I would like to extend my sympathy to
all those members who have lost parents, husbands,
wives, partners, relatives or children in the past year
JOHN S WALKER
President |
