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Tennis was the winner this year. A fantastic summer meant almost uninterrupted interclub games, great Wednesday nights, and a Tennis Club Champs crescendo! Grant Waller deserves special mention for his outstanding on-court performances and stamina. Our thanks to Monica Doyle and Christine Greaney for their tennis leadership throughout the season, and of course our congratulations to our club champions pictured below.
The most popular winning colours on finals day were pink and blue ....
LADIES' DOUBLES: Winners Lynette Duncan and Monica Doyle pictured with runners-up Helen Barlev and Julie Bishop
MEN'S DOUBLES: Upset winners Ian Pogson and John Walker
MEN'S SINGLES: Winner Grant Waller with runner-up Ian Brookie
MIXED DOUBLES: Winners Lynette Duncan and Grant Waller
Lynette also won LADIES SINGLES.
Congratulations are in order to all of our juniors who competed in last weekend's 2012 National Junior Championships. The results are really quite amazing ... record-setting really.
From left to right: Anna Hughes (U15 girls runner-up), Elle Epke (U19 girls champion), Ishaan Bhide (U11 boys 3rd place), Hayley Hughes (U17 girls champion), Coach Carol Owens, Anthony Lepper (U13 boys champion), Juhee Bhide (U17 runner-up). Sam Sayes (not pictured) is U15 boys champion.
This group has shown remarkable commitment to improving their squash and clearly were on top of their game at Palmerston North in the weekend. Congratulations to Carol too ... that must be a junior coaching record as well!
Anthony, Elle and Hayley all received support from Harcourts Eden Epsom Junior Scholarships, provided by our principal partner, earlier in the year.
"First held by Henderson in 1969, last held by Mangakahia in 1969, and now held by the wall-driving earth shaking ... now held by the nick getting butt kicking ... now held by the mighty mighty mighty 2012 Herne Bay Women's team." And so it was ... Herne Bay took out the Women's C Grade, and SquashGym Palmerston North the Men's.
This tournament was all about good squash, and about our club providing the same great hospitality that so many of our Superchamps teams have experienced throughout the country over the years.
From the bottom left going clockwise ... the victorious Herne Bay Women's team after a tight battle with SquashGym Palmerston North ... the Proshop was turned into a party and valuable resources centre ... Carol presented the new Black Knight Limited Edition Martin Knight racket, generously donated as a raffle prize ... the changing rooms were packed to the gunnels with gear bags ...
... Jamie Auld and Euan Crowe volunteered appreciated hours in the kitchen ... the dazzling Mangakahia women turning up to party ... SquashGym Palmerston North won the Men's C grade and rocked up to the party dressed in theme, "Simply Silver"
One of the standout games of the tournament was the finals day game between Whakatane's Ari-Wilson Porter and SquashGym PN's Daniel Foster, a classic 3-2 (69-68 point!) battle with Ari the victor on the day... Squash New Zealand's Jim O'Grady presents Whakatane's Dean Cole with the runner-up flag ... thanks Pat McHugh and Terry Manuatu for refereeing the finals ... and the Whakatane boys getting behind their team ...
... The Silver Bullets' performance was superb, everyone dancing from go to whoa ... SquashGym PN women ready to party after a great tournament ... Mark Sayes really pulled many aspects of the tournament together ... after a couple of hours on day one Herne Bay's mascot Tito mysteriously went missing, but he was caught here partying hard with Te Rapa on finals night ...
... Stephanie Sayes and Jo McKeown planned and delivered over 450 lunches and 300 dinners and want to thank all the other helpers who pitched in ... Chris von Biel, party time ... and Whangarei's Ross Vickers spoke about the excellent tournament sportsmanship at prizegiving.
It was a great event for our club, and we want to thank all the visiting teams, with special acknowledgement to those who traveled a long way to be here.
The visiting teams were:
Women - Squash City, Te Rapa, SquashGym Palmerston North, Henderson, Surf City, Herne Bay, Tawa, Managakahia, Te Puke and Timaru
Men - Timaru, Cromwell, SquashGym Palmerston North, Mitchell Park, Hawke's Bay Lawn Tennis & Squash Club, Whakatane, Squashways, Hamilton, Herne Bay and Whangarei.
There was a huge turnout for the big draw, an exciting night when the din of conversation and laughter couldn't be stopped until the moment MC Matt Kenealy had the winning ticket butt in his hand ..... "and the first prize winners are ...drumroll... the Collins family." Monica Doyle and Julie Bishop are pictured below.
Prizewinning tickets were
1st Prize $10,000 - #236 - The Collins Family
Ten Prizes of $200
#259 Ken and Carol Watkins, #327 C Ronayne, #341 Karim Hussona
#387 Karyn Hardley, #337 Kevin Strachan,#202 Fleur Tisdale
#204 Carmel Cournane, #413 Amanda and Jenny, #45 Production Syndicate
#497 Ryan Healey
A huge thanks to everyone who bought tickets and help produce a great result for club fundraising, provisionally over $25,000.
To all you folk who made a big effort helping sell tickets, hats off to you, and a really huge thanks to Stephanie Sayes and Jo McKeown for collecting and collating all the tickets, making hundreds of phone calls, and organising the Saturday night function ... and to your helpers Andrea McKeown, Norida Perry, Karen McMurtry, Christine Greaney, Gayle Barclay, Judy Cattley, Kelila Perry and Anthony Lepper who made and delivered those wonderful canapes and ham rolls. Thanks too to our tennis professionals Paul Bell and Paul Arnott for serving cocktails and helping with the clean-up, and to Detective Richard Trushell of the New Zealand Police for giving up his evening to supervise the draw ... tremendous guys.
So, along with the generous $10,000 kickstart from our principal partner Harcourts Eden Epsom, renovation fundraising is now at $35,000. Great effort.
All of our Superchamps teams and their managers can take credit for their competitive participation in Auckland Superchamps this year. There were plenty of close games, with Men's F grade and Women's B grade bringing home the bacon.
The Men's F grade team are Harris Tong, James Rutter, Roddy Walter, Michael Soffe, Ishaan Bhide and Ben O'Brien, and manager Sunita Bhide. Their Nationals are in Invercargill.
The Women's B grade are off to Christchurch. Pictured above are Rhonda Lepper, Anna Hughes, Bev Hughes, Hayley Hughes, Juhee Bhide and Norida Perry.
A packed gallery enjoyed superb squash at our Open finals on Sunday. Campbell Grayson, Chris Llyod, Ellie Epke and Jo Shanks are pictured here in action. Campbell and Ellie took out the silverware (two wonderful cups donated by Doug Flint). Tournament director Michael Duncan acknowledged HEAD's generosity supporting the tournament and the players.
Anthony Lepper has won the Harcourts Junior Sports Scholarship, awarded once a year to a deserving junior tennis or squash player at our club. Anthony has been NZ Under 11 champion, is climbing up the grades, and will receive ten advanced lessons from former World Squash Champion Carol Owens, made possible with support from Harcourts. A number of talented juniors were mentioned at the AGM, and president Greg McKeown said that there would a couple a extra acknowledgements at the Open prizegiving.
Joanne Rae and Carol Owens were at the AGM to congratulate Anthony Lepper on being the first winner of the Harcourts Junior Sports Scholarship.
The Annual Report provides old and new members with a lot of news and information about what makes our club tick. It's worth a read. Many thanks to Mark Sayes and the ESA team for producing it. To download, click here.
At our 2012 AGM Treasurer Andrew Christie reported on the value of volunteers' contributions to our club and Kirsty Walker and Jo McKeown received special recognition for the extra miles they go.
Celebrate the opening of our new bar and lounge. May 18th, only $20pp includes light dinner and dancing and a chance to win a magnum of champagne. Tickets from the office or bar.
Thinking of selling? Call clubmember Joanne Rae on 632 1298 or click here.
For red hot broadband deals, wireless broadband, tolls and more call 0800 384956 or click here.
For better commercial insurance service, call Geoff Manks on 950 4902 or click here.
Our club has benefited from grants from these funding organisations
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