Hobart Real Tennis Club

How much do you know about whisky?

Regardless of how you’ve enjoyed it in the past, the fact is that whisky can be tasted just as wine is, and Hobart Real Tennis Club is pleased to help you take the first steps into a broader whisky flavoured world by hosting our first Whisky Tasting.

Take a journey through whisky history designed to ignite the palate and inform the mind.

Mark Chladil from Cool Wines will start the evening with a palate cleansing Scottish Beer, then progress through 4 single malts from Lowland, Highland, Speyside and Islay.  And he assures us that with a little practice we can soon learn to break flavours down and identify constituent parts and truly appreciate the fine art of whisky drinking!!!

Interested????  Come along to HRTC Butler Room Friday 21st October at 5.30pm for a 6.00pm start.

Cost is $30 and numbers are limited so get in early.

11 players turned out for the Jim Cartledge Doubles Tournament on Sunday 7 August. 15 doubles matches were played with different pairings – each player having six matches. For winning a match the players received a point, with the two highest point scorers winning the tournament. One additional point was available for a winning gallery.

Jeremy Rackham was the co-winner with 6 points, all wins, and Duncan Hamilton also won with 5 points, all wins. The other players were John Davis 3 wins and a winning gallery (4), Iain Burrows the same (4), Brian Maxwell, (4), two Bradfield boys (sadly) rarely seen on the Hobart court these days – Ian (2) and Tony (2 ), Greg Kerin (2), Hans Drielsma (2), Eryl Raymond (1) Graeme Bradfield (0) .

The winners took away some wine for their efforts and Big Jim would have been happy about that.

The Cartledge Dinner will be in the Trophy Room on Saturday 5 November 2011.

A strong RMTC team of 11 Melbourne women travelled to Hobart for the Judith Clarke Tournament on the weekend of 30 and 31 July 2011.

The visiting Melbourne team was Brigitte Claney, Claire Heughan, Rose Snell, Fiona Hewson, Lizzie Brown, Judith Sear, Diane Rennard, Sophie Johnson, Georgie Lewis, Suzanne Mason and Annie Holden, accompanied by a few non playing fans.

Their Hobart hosts and opposition were Janet Thorp, Kate Brown, Ros Pitt, Eryl Raymond, Biz Ritchard, Christine Stirling and Michelle Moores.

24 handicap matches (one nine game set – single and doubles) were played over the two days with Melbourne leading throughout the tournament and eventually winning 16 matches to 8. 14 of the results were 9/6 or above, so the handicapping was successful in producing some well contested matches. Sadly for Hobart all but one of the matches which reached 8 all/advantage/all, resulted in Melbourne winning. Had it been the other way the end result could have been different!

Melbourne certainly eclipsed Hobart in the dress department once again.   Annie Holden wore and made a variety of unusual vintage style dresses and tights for a number of  team members and they looked marvellous.  Lizzie appeared in a pompom decorated maxidress with matching hat and tights one day and in a diaphanous tulle pavlova concoction the next.

Barry Toates as always ran the days with wonderful efficiency and was sometimes assisted in marking by  Andrew Schnaider from Melbourne and Graeme Blundstone of Hobart.

Michelle and Ros catered for lunches & nibbles to feed the hungry hoards!

The Hobart Club Trophy Room was the venue for the tournament dinner with the players joined by guests and Hobart members for a dinner for 36. Graeme Bradfield and Gaye Mitchell provided a fine meal of salmon and Osso Bucco and Biz Ritchard served a wonderful chocolate torte for dessert.

At dinner Barry spoke about Judith Clarke, a Tasmanian who won the Women’s World Championship in Melbourne and then successfully defended her world title in London two years later. Four of the women who played in the original Judith Clarke tournament in 1992 were at the dinner – Rose Snell from Melbourne, and Anne Reed, Merrin McKay and Karen Toates of Hobart.

Wine flowed, with the evening culminating in Cirque de Soleil rivalling acrobatic achievements from the rafters by Lizzie and Georgie and later at the Constitution dock forecourt, captured by Claire on camera for the benefit of those who had retired before midnight.

RMTC celebrated their win on Sunday with some tablecloth abseiling, setting a new standard of behaviour for future winners to emulate.

Most of the Melbourne contingent visited MONA and a number went up the mountain to play in the snow.

Overall, the weekend had a great atmosphere of fun and friendship.

Thanks to Ros Pitt and Christine Stirling for this report.

The Hobart Club has received advice from Chris Cooper and David Pinsett of the establishment of a new real tennis club in Sydney. Both David and Chris were part of the Sydney team that came to play against Hobart in March this year. Chris writes -

“As a player and supporter of real tennis when it was based at Macquarie University, I am sure you will be delighted to hear that the Sydney Real Tennis Club has been reconstituted with the express intention of finding a venue, building a court and re-establishing real tennis in Sydney. The committee and other members of the club are now actively pursuing several options to this end.

You can you help and support this endeavour by joining the new club; for which an application form is attached   Membership costs just $50 per annum (or $20 for interstate, junior and social members – so why not register your kids as well?!)  The more members the club can attract, the more credibility we will have and the better our chances will be of securing a site for the new court.

In the near future we will have an active web site, and as a member of the club you will be kept informed of the progress of our search for a new court. You will also be informed of events and activities of the club as well as details of real tennis tours and competitions both here in Australia and overseas.  You may be interested to know that we still have continued to hold annual interclub matches against Melbourne and Hobart (the next of which is in September), so please let us know if you are interested in representing SRTC at a future match.

I know that there is tremendous enthusiasm amongst the real tennis fraternity around the world to bring back real tennis to Sydney and as a lover of the game I hope you will join the club and help make it happen.”

Membership application forms will be available to Hobart members soon. This is great news for Australian real tennis.

August

7th in Hobart – The Cartledge Tournament

20th & 21st in Melbourne – The President’s Cup

September

1st-3rd in Melbourne – Hobart v. Melbourne Cricket Club

October

9th in Hobart – Friend Rose Bowl (Handicap 50+)

21st-23rd in Hobart – Tasmanian Men’s Open Singles & Doubles

29th & 30th in Ballarat – Cone Trophy

30th in Hobart – Parent & Offspring Doubles

November

11th & 12th in Hobart – Jesters v Hobart

19th & 20th in Hobart – National D Grade

26th & 27th ? in Hobart – Hobart v Ballarat (Women)

December

3rd in Hobart – Annual Dinner Tasmanian Club

29th& 30th in Melbourne – George Limb Trophy – Australia v UK

A handicap Mixed Doubles Round Robin was held on Sunday 24 July and 6 pairs braved the cold of the day and the court.

The pairs were Janet Thorp and Ray Lowenthal, Cas Pitt and Ros Pitt, Michelle Moores and John Moores, Kate Brown and Ian Ritchard, John Davis and Ellen Davis and Christine Stirling and Andrew Stirling.

The Pitts, Stirlings, Ray Lowenthal and Ian Ritchard were all able to get in some mixed doubles practice for their forthcoming tennis trip to Pau, Bayonne and La Bastide Clairence in south west France for the Tournoi des Trois Tripots.

After 15 matches in the round robin the leading combinations were the Moores (5 matches and 30 games), Stirlings’ (3 & 25), Kate Brown and Ian Ritchard (2 & 23) and the Davis’ (2 & 23). Michelle and John Moores and Andrew and Chris Stirling made it through to the final in which John and Michelle had a convincing 6/1 handicap win.

With a self catered lunch, the pairs enjoyed the warmth of the gas fire in the Butler Room and some well earned refreshments at the end of play. Unfortunately there was no Trophy to be presented as the trophy engraver has a broken collar bone !!!

The Butler Room warmed by the gas fire was the ideal place to be on a cold Friday evening especially as what was on offer was 9 interesting wines to taste.

Tim Goddard of Cool Wines presented the following wines for the pleasure of the assembled 15 keen members and guests.

1. Loius Bouillot Cremante de Bourgogne – Burgundy, France

2. 2009 Lalla Gully Pinot Gris – NE Tasmania

3. 2009 Dom Lafage Cuvee Centinierre (grenache blanc) Cotes du Roussillon – France

4. 2008 Velo chardonnay – Tamar Valley, Tasmania

5. 2008 Third Child pinot noir – Tea Tree, Tasmania

6. 2009 Georges duboeuf merlot Vin de Pays doc – Southern France

7. 2007 Longview Devil’s Elbow cabernet sauvignon – Adelaide Hills, SA

8. 2009 Teusner ‘The Independant’ shiraz mataro (mouvedre) – Tanunda, SA

9. 2003 Zema ‘Cluny’ cab sav/merlot/cab franc/malbec – Coonawarra, SA

Accompanied by some bread and cheese, the group tasted its way through all 9 wines, with the benefit of Tim Goddard’s vast knowledge of Tasmanian, Australian and overseas wines. And Tim informatively responded to questions from the group throughout the session.

With Tim departed, the group of course had to finish the wines and more, and enjoyed a light meal of pate, rare beef, chicken and salmon and other snacks prepared by Nikki Millard.

Thanks to Nikki for arranging the evening. All those who were present are ready to do it again.

Sunday 3pm:

Percy Finch:
Going into the final singles of the Percy, Melbourne have a slender 4/2 lead.

Happell and Richardson have also beaten the Booths in the only doubles played so far.

Bradfield vs Allen is on at the moment with the other 2 doubles matches to be played tomorrow.

Percy B:
2/2 in the singles, and the only doubles game played so far falling to Hobart

Aus Am Doubles:
Semi finals to be played later on today – Happell/Richardson vs Guest/Hince ; Boyles/Ramsay vs Booth/Booth

Aus Am B:
Macauley/Hurburgh vs Holloway/Brunhuber -next on court; the winner to meet Kerin/Legg in the final tomorrow

Lots of exciting tennis still to come….

Australia won the Bathurst Cup when it secured the doubles match to take

a 3/0 lead against the UK in New York.  When Julian Snow and Kieran

Booth defeated Medlow and Wright 6/1 6/5 5/6 6/5 this became the first

Australian team to win away from home.  The team, captained by Mike

Happell and including Snow and Booth clearly didn’t have it all their own

way as most matches were completed in either 4 or 5 sets.  In the long

history of this event, this is only the 3rd time Australia has won and

the first since 2006 when it was won at the RMTC.

Info courtesy of RMTC