A new member’s
eye view of…

by Josephine Ghodhbani

 The day began with open play from 10am and those members not running or watching the Marathon came down for a few warm-up matches. Some potential new members also came along and were introduced to the club. It was a great opportunity to play with other people (and to realise just how much more coaching I still needed…).
  The weather was superb. More people arrived for the barbeque at noon. Head chef John Pyndiah warmed up his serve by flipping the burgers and sausages. There was rice salad and chocolate cake and the drinks flowed – professionally dispensed by Kelly Rowland, who also found time to play.
  The serious contenders who had chosen to skip the beer and chocolate cake arrived for ‘hit off’ at 2pm. Just before the tournament began, Ann Allison was presented with her honorary membership by chairman Alan Browne. Ann has been a long-standing member of the club since 1964. She made a lovely speech and, along with her membership, was presented with a special bouquet of flowers.
 So to the tournament. This was orchestrated by Ian Livermore, in between his duties as head barman in the newly-extended members’ bar. Some 25 members had entered. Mixed doubles partners were drawn up for each round and eight games were played each match. Five matches were played simultaneously and only when all of these were over did the next round start. So all eyes on the last to finish the round – no pressure!
 Each player recorded their individual totals and fed them back to Ian. Everyone played four matches and the tournament finished about 5pm.
 Prize-giving followed – and as with most things in life, although taking part is hugely rewarding in itself, there can only be one (or in this case two) winners. For the ladies, Danielle Hayter had the most points.  But in the men’s half David Sawyer and Robbie Watt ended up with equal points at the top and played a championship tiebreak to decide the winner: David. Congratulations Danielle and David both.
  It was a great day and an opportunity to socialise and meet other members. For me, it was a fun introduction to slightly more competitive tennis, and I’ll definitely be back for more. And having been part of a winning pair for half my matches, ‘Two out of Four Ain’t Bad’ as the song goes. Or was it Three…?