Pimm’s and Wooden Racquets Tournament

Our annual Pimm’s and Wooden Racquets Tournament took place on Saturday 3rd July, with 20 players divided into 2 sections under the guidance of the able organiser, Tom Perry. After hard fought matches, the top pairs in each section competed in the final. It was a very close contest between Angela and Kevin Eastaugh on one side of the net and David Simpson and Paul Gloc on the other, with David and Paul managing to win the all-important final point. Many thanks should go to all the players, to Tom for his organisation and to the catering staff for the very enjoyable food.

Fun Tournaments

Since the last newsletter we have had two remarkably successful Fun Tournaments and the committee would like to thank everyone who has played and helped.

The first one on the 1st May attracted 16 players and after the usual hard-fought competition, Mark and Mariline emerged as the players with the most points, with Ann and David close behind.

Mark obviously enjoyed his win!

At the Club Fund-Raising Tournament on 5th June, we had a full complement of 24 players, so every court was full and £130 was raised. Top-scoring lady was Angela with Birte and Mariline close behind. For the gentlemen, Roni just edged Kevin, with David and Tom Thatcher one point further back. The Shot of the Day was awarded to Jo Thomas and the Special Player prize went to Chris Liddamore.

Special “Thank You”s go to Ikuko, Lisa and Tom for their sterling help and to Ray for presenting the prizes.

Player Profile – Birte Ditchburn

Birte first came to England in 1957 to learn English at a summer school in London. As she liked London, she returned after a year in Denmark to work in the Strand in London in a small office.

While there, she met her husband Andrew. They married in December 1960 in Denmark and then moved into a small bungalow in Chelmsford. They were there for two years then came to Stanway to a bigger house, remaining there with their two sons for 10 years and then moving to Lexden where they remained until 1998. After retiring from work, they moved to West Mersea. Birte started teachers training college in Clacton in 1971 and became a teacher of Home Economics. She worked at Stanway School for 17 years.

 In 1979 she met Joy Harman and fell in love with tennis. They played with a small group of ladies every week at Spring Lane. Birte joined the Westphelians tennis club and entered various leagues and tournaments with considerable success. She also became a tennis coach and taught a few youngsters at the school and the club. She took part in tennis exchanges with our twin town of Wetzlar in Germany on four occasions. She also played squash and she and Doreen Friedlander went all over Essex playing in the leagues. Bridge has also been a major interest and she helped to start the Friday afternoon officers duplicate club in the mid-nineties.

Birte stopped playing competitive tennis after moving to Mersea and only plays socially now. She says, “We are lucky to have a lot of OLD GIRLS at the Officers Club who have played together for years and have become good friends. We play every Friday and managed to play even when the fire destroyed the club. We hope we will be able to play for a few more years.” I am sure all members echo Birte’s wishes.

Club Sessions

The committee would like to remind players of the following weekly club sessions. Everyone is welcome, so do come down if you haven’t been for a while:

• Tuesday morning 9:30-11:30am
• Wednesday evening 7-9pm
• Saturday 9:30-11:30am

Club Championships

It was great to see so many of you signing up to the Club Championships this year. Here is a reminder of when matches need to be played by:

• Last 16                  by 1st August           
• Quarter-finals  by 29th August         
• Semi-finals          by 12th September  
• Finals Day           Sunday 19th September 

Results Corner

Now the leagues have begun, here is a roundup of the results to date:

ClubSpark

If you are reading this newsletter, you will have successfully activated your ClubSpark account! You will be aware we are now using the system for booking courts, and we will also be using it for registering for tournaments in the future. ClubSpark can be accessed via the website or there is an app if you prefer that can be downloaded from your usual app store. If you type in ClubSpark it will come up, however it is actually called Booker just to confuse you! The committee would like to remind everyone to please cancel bookings if you are no longer using a court. You can easily do this via the ‘bookings’ section on ClubSpark.

Charity tournament – July 31st

Our annual Charity Fun Tournament was held on 31st July in aid of the Huntington’s Disease Association (HDA). Before play started, we met together to listen to a Zoom call from Jack Simpson who has raised a great deal of money for HDA in support of his friend Matt, whom we were delighted to welcome to the club with his mother. After Jack’s presentation, one of our members, Dr. Graham Parker, gave us some more information on Huntington’s Disease and its history.

24 players took part, so all our courts were full for two hours. It was great so see a wonderful mix of ages and such enthusiasm in such a friendly atmosphere. At the end of play, the prize for the top-scoring lady went to Angela Eastaugh with Caroline Hogan as the runner-up, one point behind. When scores were checked later, however, it was found that Birte Ditchburn had equalled Caroline’s score, so the runner-up prizes were shared.  The top scorer in the men’s event was Dr. Graham with David Simpson and Chris Davies the runners-up. The prize for Shot of the Day went to Alfie Went and Mariline Cooke won the Style award.

Many thanks to all our members who played and to all our members who donated so generously to the charity. The event was sponsored by D. and D. Simpson Ltd and Robert Hobson Wealth Management, so a special “thank you” to them. At the time of writing, the event has raised £695, which when added to the £200 raised by Jo Thomas’s raffle means that the club has donated nearly £900 to the HDA this year. If any other members would like to donate, an easy way to do so and to claim Gift Aid if eligible would be through our JustGiving page at:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/cgochda

Polite Notice

The tennis committee would like to politely ask that you do not disturb Tom while he is coaching other members. People have paid for his service during this time, so please do choose another time if you need to speak to him. Many thanks.