P.H.T.C. SENDS STRONG
REPRESENTATION TO MELBOURNE’S BOOMERANG CUP
November 2006
So popular is the Boomerang Cup that P.H.T.C. has
managed to construct two teams of players. The Boomerang
Cup is an international doubles event, played every
other January on the two courts of the Royal Melbourne
Tennis Club, in which teams of players from Real/Court
Tennis clubs from around the world compete against
each other. An analysis of the entries discloses
that the draw contains teams representing 14 clubs
from England, 5 clubs from Australia, but only 2
clubs from the U.S.A. It is amazing to see how keen
the English entries are.
The teams from Petworth are styled “The Puffers” and “The
Panters”, and if these names look strange,
you should see some of the other team names! Representing
Petworth in alphabetical order are Carolyn Armstrong-Smith
(captain of The Panters), Alan Chalmers, Chris Clarke,
Paul Diggens, Brian Ellis, Oliver Harris, Charlie
Kearl, Alastair MacKeown, Harvey Rawlings, Robert
Weir (captain of The Puffers), and Gordon Woodman.
The teams are a good mix of Boomerang Cup old hands
and new boys. We have been holding regular and quite
exhausting practice nights for several weeks, in
order to ring the changes of partners, and gradually
it looks as though established partnerships are being
built, all of course entirely subject to the final
word of the two captains.
In addition to competing in the Boomerang Cup, all
the P.H.T.C. players have entered the R.M.T.C. Handicap
Doubles event. This is not a team event, rather it
is for established doubles partnerships, so it looks
as though most of us will come back somewhat slimmed
down owing to the combination of the extreme heat
of the Australian summer and non-stop tennis! (For
this author, the loss of weight is a good prospect)
Most of the players are travelling out with their
partners and we will be staying in a block of service
apartments in Melbourne, which is so they say within
20 minutes’ walk from the R.M.T.C. The playing
schedule discloses that matches are timed from as
early in the morning as 8.00 a.m. to as late in the
evening as 8.00 p.m.
Some of the players are travelling out after Christmas
to watch the big Test Match, whilst others will be
stopping off for a few days in Singapore or Hong
Kong. Other sporting attractions include large opportunities
for the golfer and the Australian Open tennis championships.
P.H.T.C. team members and their partners will also
be looking forward to a wide range of social engagements,
which has been planned by the organisers, and there
will be plenty of opportunity for tourism.
We will try to send occasional bulletins on the
progress made by P.H.T.C. members.
ALAN CHALMERS 23 November 2006
|
