Friday 24th May the Club is having a night to greet new Members and invites all members of the Club to drop in.

The drinks, provided by the Club for the first hour, will start at 5.30pm. At 6.30pm you may buy your own drinks and all profit will go to our Junior Tournament Fund. Pizza will also be served during the evening so come and enjoy your Club and the facilities it provides.

From 6pm -7pm there will be an exhibition match between Graham Hyland and Barry Toates v Al Ramsay and Pete Boyles. You will see the names of all four of these players highlighted on the Honour Boards and Trophies in the Butler Room and should feel free to come and chat to them about the game and their experiences if you wish.  When you consider there are only 46 of these courts in the world we are very lucky to be able to enjoy this unique and fascinating game.

We hope as many members as possible will take this opportunity to welcome new members, see a high standard doubles and enjoy the Club atmosphere.

We will need some idea of numbers to facilitate the food and drinks so please let Barry know if you can make it or fill in the form below.

This same weekend, 25th, 26th we are staging the Australian Amateur Junior Singles and would encourage members to come and support Australia’s rising stars!

All four players have won this event before and all were part of the victorious Percy Finch Team which recently enjoyed a stunning victory against the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club.
It would be great to see as many Members here to watch and support as we had at the singles final a few weeks ago.
During the match, nibbles will be provided by the club and the Friday night ‘BBQ boys’ will be enticing you with BBQ aromas as the match progresses.
So, from 5pm come and watch, support, mingle, learn, get inspired, drink, eat and get your Easter off to a great kick-start.

The ‘A’ Team was represented by Kieran Booth, Hilton Booth, Al Ramsay, Pete Boyles, Graeme Blundstone, Graeme Bradfield and Jeremy Rackham.
The winning margin was 6 matches to 3.

The ‘B’ Team was represented by Graeme Bradfield, Jeremy Rackham, Graeme Holloway, Matty Hayward, Greg Kerin, Justin Legg, Graham Flower, Ron Booth,  Alex Colbert and Patrick Bradfield.
The score was a very healthy 7 matches to 2.

Congratulations also to Kieran and Hilton Booth who defeated Mike Happell and Bret Richardson in the Final of the Australian Amateur Doubles.
In a magnificent match of the highest standard the Booths won in a 5 set thriller, 6/5, 2/6, 6/2, 2/6, 6/3.

All of which was streamed out to the world by Simon Dwyer.  A big thank you to him for bringing tennis onto our computer screens!  (now can they make the ball a bit bigger so we can see it??) 

During the weekend some of our members, marshalled by Christine Stirling, got together to produce a magnificent dinner for 45 people on Sunday night, and acclaimed lunches on Sunday and Monday.
All the visitors were delighted with the atmosphere in the Club and all complemented the food at all events.
Those helping Christine were Avery Patten, Anne Reed and Martine Heilman with others ‘mucking-in’ to help at various stages.

If anyone else is interested in helping out with their culinary skills Christine will be delighted to add your name to the Roster.  Click here to join The Cooking Crew.

Many thanks also to those who Billeted players for the weekend.  John and Di Howard who looked after Ben Boddington for the week he was here helping out in the Pro-shop.  Graeme Holloway and Deb, Ian and Biz Ritchard, Sally and Chris Rackham and Graeme Bradfield and Gaye Mitchell.

A lot of visitors prefer the interaction with Members rather than Hotels and are always most appreciative.
We are maintaining a Billet Roster at the Club , so if you have a spare bed or two and would like to billet occasionally, please let us know.  There isn’t a huge demand but it’s nice to have plenty to call on.  Click here to Host a Billet.

(Photographs provided by Christine Stirling)

L to R
Graeme Blundstone, Graeme Bradfield

L to R
Kieran Booth, Hilton Booth, Graeme Bradfield

L to R
John Hamer, Graeme Bradfield

L to R
Bret Richardon, Graeme Bradfield, Mike Happell

Because of possible conflict with plane schedules, the time of the Doubles Final has been changed from 1.30pm to 12.00 midday tomorrow, Monday 11^th March.

If you were planning to come and watch please come earlier if you can.

The match will be played between our own Kieran and Hilton Booth who are once again taking on Mike Happell and Bret Richardson from Melbourne.

If you have nothing planned tomorrow come and watch doubles at its very best. If you do have something planned tomorrow, CANCEL IT!!

There will be lunch at the Club tomorrow also if you feel like spoiling yourself!!

Percy Finch A

J.Gould vs G.Blundstone HOBART 6/0 4/6 5/6

G.Bradfield vs W.Cockram HOBART 6/3 6/2

M.Williams vs A.Ramsay HOBART 3/6 4/6

M.Happell/B.Richardson vs K.Booth/H.Booth MELBOURNE 6/3 6/2

Percy Finch B

G.Lee vs P.Bradfield HOBART 0/6 0/6

P.Williams vs J.Legg HOBART 4/6 2/6

W.Cockram/ P.Stanley vs G.Kerin/M.Hayward HOBART 3/6 6/5 2/6

G.Lee/ P. Williams vs R.Booth/A.Colbert HOBART 0/6 0/6

P.Williams vs G.Flower HOBART 3/6 2/6

Australian Amateur Doubles A

J.Gould/B.Boddington vs A.Ramsay/P.Boyles  5/6 6/4 2/6 1/6

Australian Amateur Doubles B

G.Kerin/J.Rackham vs J.Legg/ R.booth 6/0 6/2

W.Cockram/J.Hamer vs P.Williams/ G.Lee 6/0 6/0

J.Drewit/P.Bradfield vs G.Holloway/M.Hayward 0/6 1/6

The Percy Finch and Australian Open Doubles starts TODAY!!

Over the next four days there will be some fantastic matches, if you are in town, please come and watch, be inspired and support the players.

We have two divisions of Percy Finch, Hobart has a chance in both so come and make a lot of noise in support of our teams.

TONIGHT (Friday) from 5pm the Club is supplying some nibbles for Members to enjoy with their drinks while watching matches which will be going on until at least 8pm.

There will also be a BARBEQUE on offer for those who would like to save themselves the joy of cooking and washing up at home.

If you have a favourite meat fish or shrimp, bring it along, otherwise there will be snags, burgers and bacon on tap.

This barbeque is happening every Friday night so feel free to come along any Friday, if it is well patronised it will continue.

This is a great way to enjoy your Club and to get to meet other Members.  We encourage new members to join in, you don’t have to stay long or you can stay all night, just come and introduce yourself.   If you do intend to come and eat, please let us know so we have enough food for you.

However the Hobart Real Tennis Club is proud to say that our very own George Casimaty, President from 1976 – 1978, former consulting Engineer, and all round good guy has achieved this milestone.
George came to the game in the 60s and has remained a dedicated player and Club member. He represented the Club in several Percy Finch teams and was one of the driving forces during the Clubs difficult years as well as serving on the committee for many of those.

The time has come however, for George to take a break from tennis and give someone else a go in the Tuesday night doubles spot.  So I would like to take this opportunity to invite members to join with me and wish George well. We hope that he continues to grace the Club with his good humour and guile – even if only at social occasions or supporting from the Dedans.

Graeme Bradfield, President

Open ‘A’ Singles

Winner           Graeme Bradfield                  Runner-up                   Greg Kerin

Open ‘B’ Singles 

Winner          Sav Cremona                  Runner-up                   Graham Flower

Open ‘C’ Singles

Winner         Rod Tabor                           Runner-up                  John Davis

Handicap Singles

Winner           David Askey-Doran                  Runner-up                   Eryl Raymond

Doubles

Winner          John Davis/Tim Manby-Brown                 Runner-up                   Rod Tabor/Nick Manby-Brown

And a big THANK YOU to Sue Davis, Eryl Raymond and Christine Stirling for the wonderful end of tournament dinner they provided!

John Davies & Tim Manby-Brown

Graeme Bradfield

Eryl Raymond

Sav Cremona

‘A’ Singles

Graeme Bradfield def. Nick Brodie 9/8

Nick Brodie def. Justin Legg 9/5

‘B’ Singles

Ron Booth def. Ian Reed 6/3

Pat Bradfield def. Sav Cremona  6/1

Graham Flower def. Ian Reed 6/2

‘C’ Singles

Rod Tabor def. Tim Manby-Brown7/2

John Davis def. Nick Manby-Brown 7/4

Handicap Singles

Eryl Raymond def. Kevin Stark  8/0

Nick Manby-Brown def. Nick Brodie 8/3

David Askey-Doran def. John Davis 8/7

Ray Brown def. Sav Cremona 8/7

Eryl Raymond def.  Iain Burrows  8/4

Handicap Doubles

John Davis/Tim Manby-Brown def. Robin Mace/Roger Trigell  4/2  4/1