March Update – Club Championships

March Update – Club Championships

by | Mar 27, 2022 | News

From left – Tom Pope (runner-up), Mr. Glenn Collins (Tournament Director) and Paul Luke (winner, again)

The final of the 2021 men’s Open Championships was held last Sunday with Paul Luke winning in straight sets over Tom Pope (playing his first Club Champ’s final). It was a high quality match and Paul had to play at a very high level to prevail.

Lauren Gellert is our 2021 Ladies’ champion after a walkover in the final. Congratulations to Lauren who will receive our brand new trophy for the Ladies.

Glenn Collins will send out notices for nominating for the 2022 Club Championships this week.

The endless summer has been great for tennis participation.  We have had a lot of people using the courts and participating in social tennis on Saturdays, Ladies tennis on Monday and Wednesday and the Tuesday men’s tennis. 

February was our busiest month ever with the Tennis Australia promotion garnering a lot of bookings from non-members. It really helps a club like ours as we are tucked away and it is a terrific opportunity for people to see the quality of courts.

Welcome to our new members – Luke Harvey, Tina Bianchi, Paul Perry, Jeff Potter, Roch Dargan (our Junior number #1 draft pick) and Ulrika Lowe Zenou. We hope you enjoy playing tennis at Highmoor for many years to come.

Junior Tennis

Our 10 teams are all playing well and we are halfway through the season. Junior coaching participation is very busy with high numbers. Late last year, Damian ran a tennis program at Moorabbin Primary School for the kids in Prep. Moorabbin Primary also use our courts for their tennis program against other schools. We now have a sizeable cohort of Grade 1 kids in junior coaching and this will help maintain our high number of junior teams going forward.

This morning I saw the best smash ever in Juniors, when our superstar Marsha despatched a winning smash that bounced clear over the back net and sent her opponent, the dude with a blonde mullet, off scurrying to collect the ball. Well done, Marsha.

Team Shirts

Due to popular demand, Kylie Morgan has been investigating junior shirt options for our teams. We will go with a blue polo and will email junior parents this week to organise numbers. Our junior teams will look great in Highmoor shirts.

Senior Tennis

Summer season is completed and unfortunately none of our sides made the finals but the Mixed team was right in the race with results of the last match of the season coming into play to determine which team in the section got in.

 

For Winter this year we have entered 2 Men’s teams into TV Pennant and a Mixed team in to MRTA for Winter. Pennant starts last week of April and BRTA starts first week of May.

February update – our biggest week

February update – our biggest week

by | Feb 11, 2022 | News

Last week could turn out to be our busiest tennis week of the whole year. We had the following tennis action:

  • Senior competition tennis resumed on 29th January and then our 10 Junior teams started their new season on February 5th
  • Damian’s coaching classes began for the new school year with a lot of new pupils
  • Basterfield Park TC hired two courts for their midweek Ladies team who need to use our courts intermittently this season
  • Social tennis was very popular mid-week plus we had possibly one of our largest turnouts for Saturday social tennis
  • Senior club tournament resumed on Sunday
  • Court bookings were busy on the back of the Australian Open finals including many external bookings.

A big thank you to Frank Fox for his efforts last week to fix a plumbing leak on the water bore. Without this we would have struggled to get our courts watered and it would have really impacted on all of the tennis we did have.

Sadly, an attendee at Saturday social tennis subsequently testing positive for Covid. We’ve followed the guidance and Darrin Hunt kindly bleached the club rooms. For those of you who are sentimental, the spider web encrusted Christmas lights were taken down from the verandah of the clubhouse. I think I deserve danger pay.

WATER – We are having some fantastic warm February weather. Please water the courts prior to play and before each set. This is critical to maintaining the quality of our courts.

GUEST FEES – Sarah Graham has finalised the membership lists for 2021/22. Members can bring guests to play on the courts, however, you will need to include them as a guest when booking the court for a $5 fee.

GIRL’S CHAMPIONSHIP – In December we concluded our girl’s championship. I’ve attached a  photo are our four semi-finalists Lani Lithgow, Rosa Evans (champion), Tijana Kravic (runner-up) and Abi Bligh.

Please don’t forget to support our sponsors at Terry White Chemmart Cheltenham who provided us with our defibrillator.

Terry White Chemmart Cheltenham sponsor Highmoor Uniting Tennis Club