Many of you have heard of the tragic death of 26 year old Neill and many club members attended his funeral.
For those who didn't here is the tribute paid to Neill at the funeral by his Men's Doubles partner and friend Adam Mumford.
A Tennis Tribute to the late Neill Willemsen:
We couldn't say our final farewells to Neill without mentioning his love and passion for the sport of tennis.
I'm not only here today to represent myself, my wife and my son Joshua who was very close friends with Neill, but I am also representing Lavenham Tennis Club, The Halstead and District Tennis League and the further Tennis community across Suffolk and Essex where Neill has made such a lasting positive impact.
I'll never forget the first time I met Neill it was a beautiful sunny summers day and Neill was having a lesson with his then coach Richard Porter. Neill must have been around 11 years old. Richard had been coaching Neill from the ripe age of 6 years, so he certainly started young.
Margaret was there as always watching from behind the court and fully supported and encouraged Neill with his tennis.
Richard had set up a drill where Neill had to hit the ball between two cones placed between the doubles tram lines (a width of around 3ft apart) which means you also have to hit the ball over the highest part of the net, which isn't easy I can tell you…but Neill made it look easy he hardly missed a shot. It was at that point that I realized this young man had some serious talent about him. He also
had a lovely demeanor about him, calm, cool, focused but extremely disciplined with his approach.
These are traits that are hard to come by, especially at 11 years old! Neill was left-handed, which also made him unique.
Neill continued to have regular lessons with Richard, he represented Lavenham Tennis Club at junior level in The Halstead and District Tennis League and was a very respected Junior Amongst his peers.
He captained the junior teams and traveled around the local tennis clubs making a positive name for himself.
As Neill grew older (and taller) he started to attend schools in the Ipswich area where he attended the Copleston Tennis Centre, Training at the Ben Smith Academy.
He also attended Ipswich School where he represented the school as the 1st boy in the tennis team, winning the singles league on many occasions. Neill also trained at Ipswich Sports Club. Training with high level players really brought his game to the next level and in 2011 won the Bury and West Suffolk under fourteens junior singles title. I've found a snippet from the LTA website which I will
now read:
Lavenham’s Neill Willemsen completed a memorable week in capturing the Boys’ 14U Singles title, his determined 1-6 6-4 (10-5) defeat of Felixstowe’s Robert Johnson again displaying his new-found battling qualities. The much-improved Willemsen has recently been training weekly at the Ipswich Sports Club with Lee Tweed, and if he continues to work hard and make further progress,
he looks a genuine prospect for the future.
The Bury and West Suffolk tennis tournament is a prestigious event on the tennis calendar and Neill’s name will be engraved on the winning trophy forever. The tournament just celebrated it’s 96th year.
It wouldn’t be long until Neill made his debut for the Lavenham Men’s tennis teams, he started off playing for the men's C team at the age of 15, worked his way up through the B team and within two years at the age of 17 made his first appearance for the men’s A team. Juggling his A-Levels and representing the Tennis Club at the same time.
In 2015 at the age of 17 Neill won the Lavenham Men’s Singles title, a great achievement and one which was well deserved. A fantastic reward for all the hard work he had put into training over the years. Most people never get to put their name on the winner’s trophy, but Neill had done it yet again and wasn’t at that point ‘officially’ an adult!
At 18 Neill went off to university and I thought that was it we’ll never see this guy again, that's what usually happens but Neill came back and continued to play for the men's A team throughout his summer breaks. it was the dedication that Neill had for his sport, and we really were very thankful to him for it.
Shortly after Neill had finished University, he decided that he wanted to live up in Scotland and get some hands-on experience of managing a farm, OK I thought this is it we won't see him again but two years later as a more experienced and mature man he came back to Suffolk to work at the family farm and was again playing tennis for the Lavenham men's A team. It really was great to have
him back on board.
Only last year Neill captained the men's A-Team to almost championship success we ended up finishing second in the entire league. Neill really was a fantastic captain who was full of enthusiasm, ideas and positivity that spread amongst the team. Personally, it was great to see him develop and come so far, from the young, quiet, shy young man to captaining the team and being a great leader
at that!
In recent years Neill had also become a member of the LLTC committee! Having his say in how the club was run, bringing new ideas and having some young blood on the committee was exactly what the club needed, again this demonstrated how far Neill had come and matured not only as a tennis player but as a person also.
I had the honor of being Neill’s doubles partner for the last few years. I loved playing with Neill, we certainly won more matches than we lost, and Neill didn’t like losing, although you wouldn’t be able to tell that on the court, his demeanor was always cool calm and collected but he let his tennis do the talking! And was always a great sportsman in the way he conducted himself.
Neill and I also played a lot of regular singles matches against each other. We both really loved the challenge, me more so, I think. . . We’d play most weeks when Neill wasn’t too busy on the farm, the Harvest always dictated his availability throughout the summer months. We’d have some great tussles, play for 2 or 3 hours, Neill usually coming out on top but I did win my fair share of sets also.
Usually, it would end up with Neill always wanting to play ‘one more set’, come one, let’s play one more he’d say. I’d be standing there, dripping with sweat, Neill the other side of the net, bone dry, fresh faced and raring to go but I would always play one more set with Neill, we just bounced off each other.
Neill also enjoyed playing tennis socially, especially with his sisters Marianne and Emma, you’d often see him up at the courts giving his sisters the run around. The Willemsen’s all play tennis at Lavenham and compete in the teams, although, I haven’t seen Margaret on court yet. . .Is there a hidden talent there? Is that where Neill, Marianne and Emma get their abilities from? I’ve always
wondered.
When I heard the news of Neil’s passing and the tragic accident, I couldn’t quite take it in. When David told me it was one of those moments when you see a person’s lips moving but you can’t quite comprehend what’s being said to you. No.. . No.. . No.. . was all that I could say. It didn’t feel real for weeks, I couldn’t sleep, all I could think about was Neill and the Willemsen family, I just couldn’t
come to terms with it. After informing my son, which was also extremely difficult and talking with others, I realized this affect that it had on me was also the same affect it had on others. It’s just not right, that a young man with his entire life ahead of him should be taken away from us. It was only a few days before I heard the news that we were chatting, talking about when Neill comes home, he
already had all of the tactics planned out for the up-coming tennis season and I could tell in his tone he was ready to come home and play for his beloved club, again. . .We were all excited to see him again and I was ready to have my doubles partner back.
As a team we have decided to continue as we were, we considered cancelling the season, playing without Neill is going to leave a huge hole in our team but we will continue, we will strive to win the league and will raise a glass to Neill after every match because, we know, that’s what Neill would have wanted.
So all it leaves me to say is: - Neill, you will be missed, you will be sorely missed, the tennis community will not be the same without you but we know you will be looking down on us, making sure we don’t miss that next volley at the net and I promise, one day we will have ‘one more set’.
Donations in memory of Neill may be made to "Headway, the Brain Injury Association" (Charit No 1025852) Bradbury House, 190 Bagnall Road, Old Basford, Nottingham NG6 8SF or online at www.headwayinmemory.org.uk/tribute/neill-willemsen/