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Canterbury Tennis magazine published

September 1, 2010: Canterbury Tennis has again produced a tennis publication that will reach 45,000 Christchurch homes. There have been two major changes to this years publication. Firstly the publication has taken on a whole mew look and has evolved from a Newspaper to a magazine and secondly for the next six months this publication will be able to be viewed online, by clicking on the photo, left, orthis link »

Wilson new official ball of Canterbury Tennis

August 13, 2010: After much consideration the Wilson Australian Open ball has been chosen to be the official ball of Canterbury Tennis for the next five years.

Wilson is one of the biggest sports goods companies in the world and their ball is the ball used at the Australian Open, the US Open and at many other major events around the world.

It is also used at the two international New Zealand tournaments, the ASB Classic and the Heineken Open.

Canterbury Tennis will be using the ball for all its events at Wilding Park, ASB Inter-club, Tournaments, Midweek Ladies and Business House competitions.

Ellen Barry makes Commonwealth Games team

August 12, 2010: Canterbury's Ellen Barry will proudly represent her region & country at this years Commonwealth Games in India, Barry was named along with Marina Erakovic to play singles and doubles for New Zealand along with their male counterparts, Rubin Statham and Marcus Daniell.

Tennis will be played for the first time at a Commonwealth Games this October. New Zealand Olympic Committee secretary general and team selector Barry Maister says he is looking forward to seeing tennis feature at the Commonwealth Games and says the Kiwi doubles have a unique opportunity.

"Doubles tennis in the Commonwealth Games environment is new and their performances are going to be hard to predict," he said. "Instead of competing with their usual partners from countries such as Yugoslavia, or Rumania, the doubles combinations will be all Kiwi."

Barry is currently at the quarter final stage of a US$10,000 tournament in Istanbul, Turkey where she is 4th seed.

Canterbury people win Tennis New Zealand awards

August 6, 2010: Canterbury Tennis is delighted to announce the Canterbury people who received National Awards at the recent TNZ Awards evening. Jane Glentworth (pictured receiving her award) was this year’s recipient of the Tennis New Zealand Administration Award.

Jane has been an extremely hard working Treasurer and Board member of Canterbury Tennis for the past 10 years putting in thousands of voluntary hours. She has also been a manager of Canterbury teams.

The Tennis New Zealand Male Player of the Year was Dan King-Turner who played for Canterbury for many years and is now playing on the international circuit.

Another Canterbury recipient was James McLeod who was the Wheelchair Player of the Year. The Teams Event – Region of the Year was awarded to Canterbury Tennis marking their overall success throughout the year.

Canterbury Assistant Junior Coach course underway

July 23, 2010: Nine aspiring coaches commenced the Assistant Junior Coach course in Christchurch today. The course is a compulsory three-day course followed by, within a six week period, a two-day workshop combining theoretical and practical learning as well as online units and practical units in preparation for a final assessment.

The course is being led by Burnside Park's Gareth Robb and Waimairi's Stu Chalmers, who themselves are developing their "coaching the coaches" skills to assist Canterbury Tennis to deliver a comprehensive range of coach education to upskill coaches in our region.

This course follows on the heels of the latest Community Coaches course which attracted 18 attendees from all over the region.

For details of upcoming coch education oportunities contact Hamish Cain at Canterbury Tennis.

Winter tournament roundup

July 23, 2010: The recently completed Canterbury Winter tournaments provided some great out of season competition for juniors from all over the South Island and one North Island visitor who enjoy a different range of opponents.

The 12's Boys title was won by Ellesmere's Sean Howson after a countback on sets over 10 year old Liam Stoica. Other divisional winners in the 12's Boys were Miki Nobuzawa and Peter Hartono, both from the Southern region. The Girls 12's title was won by Chanistha Ampornachariya who met 2nd seed Natasha Dickison in the the final. Both girls are ranked inside the top 5 for their age nationally and both are building well towards 2011.

The Girls 10's title was contested between Holly Matson (left) and Victoria Hartland after both girls won all their other round robin matches. Both girls played some great tennis with Holly prevailing, backing up her win in the Rod Laver Girls 10's in Brisbane earlier in the month.

Last years winner in the 10's Boys Liam Stoica repeated his effort going unbeaten through the Div 1 of the Boys event ahead of Dylan Heap and a competitive group of 4 other boys.

Winners in the other 10's Boys divsions were Zin South (Div 2) and Jamie Garbett (Div 3). One of the highlights of the day was a marathon 115 minute match between Dylan Heap and Dominic Brettkelly which ended 9-4 to Dylan.

The 16's events were held prior to the 16's Winter Nationals to assist players in their build-up to that event with Brogan Maoate and Finbar Argus taking out the titles over Jessica Ottowa and Corbin Ashby respectively. The next major local tournament will be held in the 2nd week of the next school holidays.

Winter Nationals success for Canterbury juniors

July 21, 2010: The momentum developed over the last season has been maintained with 3 players claiming National Winter singles titles over the last school holidays.

Elliot Darling repeated his Champs victory in April by taking the 14's Boys title in Dunedin.

Olivia Smith (pictured) claimed her first National singles title with a win over fellow Cantab Chanistha Ampornachariya in the Girls 12's final the following week in the same city. In Albany Joe Bray took out his first singles title by winning the Boys 16's as 4th seed decisively winning the final 6-1,6-3.

Bray and his partner narrowly failed to take the Boys 16's doubles title going down in a super tie-break 3rd set 11-9. Jessica Ottowa and her partner also went down in her doubles final. Elliot Darling added to his haul in Dunedin taking the Boys doubles final in a walkover victory over Ben Johnston and his partner after they were unable to take the court for the final.

Gabby Coates and her South Canterbury partner Annabel Ellis continued their good form after winning the Girls 12's in April taking the Girls Winter 14's Doubles.

The Girls 12's doubles final was an all Canterbury final with Alice Batt and Natasha Dicksion claiming the title 10-7 in the super tie-break over Smith and Ampornachariya. This was Dickisons first National title but the 2nd in a row at Winter Nationals for Batt after triumping last year in Christchurch with Ampornachariya.

Fourteen Canterbury juniors with World rankings

June 30, 2010: Following the latest Junior ITF event in New Caledonia there are 14 Canterbury region players, with junior world rankings, New Zealand has a total of 63 ranked juniors.

Heading the boys list is Barrett Franks (110) who was beaten in the first round of qualifying at Wimbledon last week after some good results at the Roehamptoan lead-in event with Katherine Westbury (113) heading the Canterbury girls list.

Cashmere's Brogan Maoate is the latest Canterbury junior to gain a ranking after New Caledonia with a ranking making it easier to gain entry into the now extensive Junior ITF circuits in Australasia.

The best result from New Caledonia came from Elmwood's Tuscany Hamel (pictured, right) who reached the semi finals and has risen to a careeer high 809 in the world rankings.

Appointment to Board of Canterbury Tennis

June 2, 2010: As set out in the constitution four members of the Board of Canterbury Tennis (Tennis Canterbury Region Incorporated trading as Canterbury Tennis) are appointed by the Board Appointments Panel.

Board members serve for a term of three years and retire on a rotation system. This year one member retires by rotation. That member is the Chairman, Mr David Munro, who has advised that he will be offering himself for re-election.

Any nomination for the position should be received by the CEO of Canterbury Tennis not later than June 12 with a covering letter and a relevant CV.

Few changes for Junior Interclub for next season

May 20, 2010: Following the debrief of the 2009/10 season with Club Junior Administrators there are only a few proposed changes for junior interclub next season.

A new 9's grade will be offered on the Friday evening and Saturday morning playing full court with a green ball; also clubs will be permitted to enter mixed senior satellite (16-20 year olds) teams on a Saturday for the first time. These teams will be placed in their own grade or be added to the bottom boys division depending on entries.

Challenger finals will be played on a Sunday instead of on the afternoon of all the other Junior Interclub finals and teams that default 3 times in a competition will be automatically withdrawn from the competition.

It was proposed that the Top Dog grading system should be expanded to all grades of junior interclub with the only sticking point being the increased team entry costs required to cover the administration of the increased inputting and set up costs. The proposed increase was to be $5 per team for the season.

Parents and players should ensure their views on whether Top Dog should be opted for all 61 grades of junior interclub and this small per player increase be accepted via their Club Junior Administrator. Contact your Club Junior Administrator here »

Big win for Barry in Japan

May 6, 2010: Ellen Barry (pictured right) has scored a big win in Japan as part of her comeback from injury. In Fukuoka yesterday she defeated 1.84cm tall Czech player Karolina Pliskova 6-3 7-6 in the second round. Pliskova is ranked 186. Last week Pliskova won a $US50,000 event in Gifu. Today Ellen plays Great Britain's Naomi Broady in the quarter-finals. Barry has a current ranking of around 600 and is making good progress towards her pre-injury ranking of just over 200.

Another Title for Leela

April 21, 2010: Top seed Leela Beattie proved too strong for the field in the Girls 16's National Champs completed in Auckland on Friday. Her straight sets victory over Marcia Tere-Apisah gave her a final full 16's National Championships with her age rivals happy to see her turn 17 in February next year. Full details »

Roundup of National titles tournament

April 21, 2010: Canterbury has three National singles champions and one doubles champions after the completion of the age group nationals throughout New Zealand recently. Elliot Darling took out the 14's National boys title with a gritty 3-set victory over Cameron Norrie in Wellington.

Last week on home turf Connor Heap won his first individual national title with another come from behind 3-set victory over Auckland's Arash Hafezi in the Boys 12's event and in Auckland top seeded Leela Beattie was unstoppable at the Girls 16's Event.

Elliot Darling

Leela Beattie

Connor Heap and Gabby Coates

Heap also made the boys doubles final with Kai Lee but found Liam Wilby and Arash Hafezi too tough in the super tie-break.

Gabby Coates (pictured above with Connor) made the final of 12's girls singles and had a set point against the highly regarded Rosie Cheng, who had a week earlier finished 2nd in the 14's before going down in 2 sets. The day before Coates had paired up with longtime sparring partner Timaru's Annabel Ellis to take the Girls 12's doubles title ahead of the local pairing of Jessica Shaw and Chanistha (CT) Ampornachariya.

Shaw had made the final the previous year with Chezle Phillips and had to settle for silver again losing in a super tie-break. Ampornachariya also had a good doubles year after combining with Alice Batt to win the Winter 12's last July - to make another final was good reflection on how doubles in our younger players has continued to develop.

The 16's in Auckland was a tough tournament for our players with highlights including Artem Vassiliev finishing runner up in the boys doubles but bowing out at the quarter final stage of the singles. Canterbury 16's rep for the last 2 years Alex Hunt - Nelson (14th seed) provided one of the upsets of the tournament by knocking out 3rd seeded Jamie Yates in the round of 16. Apart from Beattie, no girls made it to semis in either singles or doubles.

Rachel Swindell

Darling's win the 14's had been a while coming against Norrie but he'd learnt from his previous close matches against the Aucklander and got home. No other boys featured in the quarters for the boys or the semis for doubles.

Rachel Swindell was the top Canterbury performing girl, making the semi of the 14's girls before going down to eventual winner Paige Hourigan, and combining with Shaani Te Mata-Frost to make the doubles finals as top seeds. However they went down to the Auckland combination of Drew and Young 4 and 4 in the final.
 

12s National semi-finalists Boys

12s National semi-finalists Girls

The depth of the good performances in the 12's event was a real highlight for the region as a whole. Apart from Heap and Coates' successes already detailed, Kai Lee, Lawrence Darling and Olivia Smith all made semis singles, Jessica Shaw and CT Ampornachariya made quarters, Hamish Rae finished 9th after losing the first of his 13 games during the week, and Natasha Dickison (like Rae) laid some good groundwork for next year by finishing 10th. In summary 4 boys in the top 9 and 5 girls in the top 10 was an outstanding result.

Jessica Shaw and CT Ampornachariya

Another title for Leela

April 21, 2010: Top seed Leela Beattie proved too strong for the field in the Girls 16's National Champs completed in Auckland on Friday - her straight sets victory over Marcia Tere-Apisah gave her a final full 16's National Championships with her age rivals happy to see her turn 17 in February next year.

Beattie dropped just 8 games in her 5 matches and will now link up with Emily Fanning who was defeated in the final of the Australian International ITF event in Queensland at the weekend and Monica Chen who Beattie defeated enroute to her 16's title at the Junior Fed Cup in Malaysia starting next Monday.

Darling and Heap National Champions

April 16, 2010: Canterbury has two National singles champions after the completion of the age group nationals throughout New Zealand today. Last week Elliot Darling took out the 14's National boys title with a gritty 3-set victory over Cameron Norrie.

And today on home turf Connor Heap won his first individual national title with another come from behind 3-set victory over Auckland's Arash Hafezi in the Boys 12's event. Canterbury Tennis congratulates both boys and all those who represented the region in national events.

Connor Heap

Elliot Darling

Club Administrator of the Year

April 14, 2010: This year's Club Administrator of the Year winner has been involved with tennis for many years and has had the responsibility of organising her club's interclub teams, arranging practices and all the other tasks that pop up in the running of the teams. She co-ordinates weekend coaching sessions and is also involved in her club's senior activities, fundraising ventures and club events.

Barbara Ayers

Her efforts have been instrumental in the growth of the Opawa Tennis Club into the friendly, professional club that it is today. This year's Club Administrator of the Year went to Barbara Ayers from the Opawa Tennis Club. Barbara is a representative of the huge band of enthusiastic volunteers who collectively put in many thousands of hours each year at our clubs to create opportunities for all of those young people that play our great sport. Congratulations to Barbara Ayers on her award.

Personality of the Year - Judy Davidson

This year's Personality of the Year has an extensive tennis background which began at 10 years of age when she played in her first tournament.

She went on to become the New Zealand Secondary Schools Champion for three consecutive years and the New Zealand Junior Singles and Mixed Doubles Champion. She represented New Zealand in the women's team touring England, Europe and Asia in 1962 and during this trip she played at Wimbledon and the French Open. She has also been the New Zealand Open Champion in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. She retired from tennis at the age of 25 and returned to veteran's tennis for about 10 years before taking up bowls.

During the past 12 months she has spent a huge number of hours researching Anthony Wilding and has compiled an outstanding booklet which chronicles the life and achievements of Wilding and his family.

This year's Canterbury Tennis Personality of the Year is Judy Davidson.

Player of the Year - Barrett Franks

This year's player of the year, Barrett Franks, has had an excellent season with some outstanding results and is making his mark on the international circuit. The past 12 months have seen him travelling extensively to tournaments in locations such as Japan, Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Korea and the USA. Barrett was the winner of both the singles and doubles titles at the South Pacific Open Junior Champs in Fiji in 2009 and has had great results internationally including competing in the main draw at the Australian Open Junior Championships in January this year where he put up a real fight against the world's top junior player in the second round. He was also selected to play an 'internationals' doubles exhibition match at the Australian Open where he partnered up with Swedish legend Anders Jarryd against top Australian junior Luke Saville and Pat Rafter.

Barrett was a member of the winning Elmwood Senior Men's team this past season and has just completed a one-month tour to four Grade 1 ITF junior events in Asia. He has just confirmed that he will be attending the University of Michigan in September on a tennis scholarship.

Congratulations to our Player of the Year - Barrett Franks.

Cashmere & Elmwood ASB Interclub Winners

March 30, 2010: The final of the 2010 ASB senior women's Inter-Club was between Cashmere and Hagley Park tennis clubs. Cashmere, who were the reigning champs started well and after the singles matches they lead 3 - 1.

Hayley Park's top doubles combination of Michelle North and Adele Orangi made short work of their match against Jennifer Poskitt and Sarah O'Dell winning 6-0 6-0. In the bottom doubles match Hagley Park's Sally Moorfield and Beth Williamson went down in 3 sets to Jenny Blackburne and Brogan Maoate 4-6 6-4 5-7 in what was a close match.

Cashmere retained the women's title for 2010 with the final score being 4 matches to 2.

Individual results
Michelle North (Hagley Park) lost to Jennifer Poskitt (Cashmere) 4-6 1-6
Sally Moorfield lost to Jenny Blackburne 3-6 1-6
Adele Orangi lost to Brogan Maoate 4-6 4-6
Beth Williamson beat Sarah O'Dell 6-3 6-3
North and Orangi beat Poskitt and O'Dell 6-0 6-0
Moorfield and Williamson lost Blackburne and Maoate 4-6 6-4 5-7

In the men's competition the race for the title of ASB senior Inter-Club champion for 2010 was between defending champions Cashmere and Elmwood. The final was closely contested and the quality of tennis displayed during the afternoon was of the highest standard as both teams gave everything in search of the ASB title.

Elmwood were victors on the day winning the tie by 4 matches to 2. The four singles matches were all very long encounters and were split at two a piece. Elmwood's number one Remi Feneon and number two Logan Mackenzie continued their dominance of the season with fine displays of power tennis to defeat brothers Tim and Matt Meredith respectively in straight sets. Feneon had dropped just one singles this season while Mackenzie has not lost a singles or doubles.

Cashmere then evened up the tie at 2 all with Johnny McHarg and Peter Hampton scoring solid wins over Andrew Cochrane and Simon Mooney.

The Elmwood pairing of Feneon and Mackenzie, undefeated all season, were again too powerful for their Cashmere opponents with a fine display of quality doubles tennis. The number two doubles came down to the wire with Elmwood's Cochrane and Mooney finally winning the third set tiebreaker.

Congratulations to Elmwood on being the winners of the men's ASB inter- club competition.

Individual results
Remi Feneon beat Tim Meredith 6 - 2, 6 - 3.
Logan Mackenzie beat Matthew Meredith 6 - 2, 6 - 2
Andrew Cochrane lost to Johnny McHarg 2 - 6, 5 - 7.
Simon Mooney lost to Peter Hampton 4 - 6, 4 - 6.
Feneon & Mackenzie beat T. Meredith & J. McHarg 6 - 3, 7 - 5.
Cochrane & Mooney beat M. Meredith & Tim McHarg 6 - 4, 6 - 7, 7 - 6.

Ellen Barry makes the semi-finals

March 22, 2010: Canterbury's Ellen Barry has made the semi-finals of an ITF Women's event in Bath, England this past week to record her best result since her return from injury. In the quarterfinals she beat Lesley Kerkhove of the Netherlands before succumbing to Poland's Katarzyna Piter in the semi-final. Barry now head to Asia for a series of tournaments.

New Members of the 100 Club

March 15, 2010: Brothers Johnny (right) and Tim McHarg have each chalked up their 100th singles win in senior interclub within a week of each other, becoming the newest members of the elite Canterbury Tennis 100 Club. Sally Moorfield has become the first person to hit the 100 Club twice, having had her 200th singles win this season.

Town take out 3 of 4 age groups

March 10, 2010: The Town Junior team (pictured) took out 3 of the 4 age groups contested on a beautiful day at Ashburton last Sunday. Country were decisive winners of the 12's grade with Town being equally as decisive in the 10's and 16's grade. The 14's grade went right down to the wire with Town winning 3 of the 4 mixed doubles matches to take the contest 9-7.

Comeback of the day went to Sumner's Tiger Houston at No 4 for Town in the Boys 10's. 8-1 down in his match to 9, he fought back against Mid Canterbury's Connor Brosnahan to force a tie-break at 8 all and took the tiebreak 7-3.

Many thanks to all the parents and supporters who travelled from all over Canterbury for this fixture. Any photos taken on tha day would be welcomed by Canterbury Tennis please email Rob Wilkinson rob.wilkinson@canterburytennis.co.nz

Town Junior Teams for Town vs Country

March 4, 2010: Canterbury Tennis has named the Town team to play Country in this year's annual fixture to be played at the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre on Sunday, March 7th. The teams will play doubles, singles and mixed doubles starting at 10am. The Town team features players from 10 different clubs. This fixture was unfortunately rained out in 2009 so everyone is crossing their fingers for Sunday. Click here for the complete team »

Tennis Open Weekend was a Hit!

Febuary 19, 2010: The Christchurch weather turned on a great day for the National Tennis Open Weekend in Christchurch on Feb 13th & 14th. A total of 17 local tennis clubs opened their doors and encouraged budding tennis players to come along and give tennis a go at their local club.

Our newest affiliated club to the Canterbury Tennis family, Riccarton Domain, participated in the event and they had a positive response to the day (top two photos below). Visitors both young and old and of varying abilities took to the courts with club members to have a hit and make the most of the Open Day. As a result of the initiative this small club attracted 12 new members on the day with a further 2-3 likely to sign up in the near future.

South Brighton Tennis Club coach Hiro Yahata was on hand to give pointers to visitors and to encourage those who were returning to the game or looking to get into tennis to sign up for an Easi-Tennis course at the club. A ball machine was set up feeding balls to junior visitors who had come along for the afternoon to experience tennis. (Final photo below.)

Interestingly, Hagley Park Tennis Club attracted people from a cruise ship that had docked in Lyttelton for a couple of days, to come and play tennis at the club. Somehow a flyer must have made it onto the ship!

Cashmere Tennis Club President Guy Armstrong led by example at their club open day. Guy was out on court actively coaching and putting a small group of visitors, adults and children, through their paces for the afternoon. The group thoroughly enjoyed their visit and were ready to sign up as members by the afternoon tea break!

Overall the participating clubs are enthusiastic to see the Come Play! Open Day happen again in 2011! Many thanks and congratulations to all participating clubs on a successful and rewarding Open Day for 2010!

Competitive showing from Juniors

Febuary 10, 2010: Canterbury Juniors produced some sterling performances at the National Hardcourt Championships held in January 2010. The region had players win 3 of the 12 titles up for grabs. Pang Suwanaposee won the 14's Girls Singles and Doubles with her partner Shaani Te Mata-Frost, and Connor Heap and Kai Lee took out the Boys 12's Doubles title in Hamilton. Many other Canterbury players peaked for good placings.

Pang Suwanaposee

Connor Heap and Kai Lee

Doubles proved happy hunting ground with Maddie Clarke and her Nelson partner Ashleigh Calder being runners up in the 16's Girls held in Christchurch, Gabby Coates and Olivia Smith were beaten finalists in the Girls 12's in Hamilton as were Finbar Argus and his Auckland partner in the Boys 14's.

Maddie Clarke and Ashleigh Calder

Gabby Coates and Olivia Smith

Canterbury players to make semi finals of doubles event were plentiful with the unseeded duo of Katie Hartland and Michal Matson making the Girls 12's semis after knocking out the No. 2 seeds, defending Girls 14's Doubles Champs Brogan Maoate and Beth Williamson were knocked out at this stage as were Benji McGillivray and Alex Hunt of Nelson in the Boys 16's.

Pang Suwanaposee's success in the Girls 14's was backed up by finals appearances by Finbar Argus (Boys 14's) and Connor Heap (Boys 12's). Argus and Heap both came up against strong opponents in their finals, Finbar lost to his doubles partner Cameron Norrie and Heap to standout Boys 12's winner Kyle Butters who turns 13 shortly and won't qualify to play in the 12's Nationals which will be held in Christchurch in April.

Finbar Argus

Connor Heap

Gabriela Coates continued her development with a semi final loss in the Girls 12's, Coates like Connor Heap, will be eligible for the 12's in April which will be missing outstanding Whanganui junior Paige Hourigan, who like her cousin Kyle Butters turns 13 shortly.

Canterbury region players who made quarter finals were numerous with Elliot Darling and Beth Williamson in the 14's, Kai Lee and Chanistha (CT) Ampornachariya in the 12's and Ashleigh Calder, Artem Vassiliev and Elliot Darling in the 16's.

Canterbury Top Junior Region

Febuary 10, 2010: Canterbury has been confirmed as the top junior region after the recent National Teams Events. A gold medal winning performance by the Girls 12's team along with silvers from the Boys 12's and Girls 14's and a Bronze from the Boys 14's was enough to give Canterbury the title by just 1 point from Waikato-Bays and Auckland.

Pictured below checking out thier Gold medals are the 12's Girls team of Natasha Dickison, Jess Shaw, Gabby Coates, Olivia Smith and CT Ampornichariya - well done girls!!!!

The Anthony Wilding Story

Febuary 8, 2010: Over 8,000 people have attended The Anthony Wilding Story during the past 12 days. This one man play performed by Matt Chamberlain proved to be a huge hit with the Christchurch public as the tennis community celebrates 100 years since local hero Anthony Wilding won the first of his four consecutive Wimbledon singles titles. The play was part of the Christchurch City Council's Summertimes programme in conjunction with Canterbury Tennis.

New York for Rosemary

February 5, 2010: Local official Rosemary Hargreaves is off to New York shortly to attend a 3-day ITF Level II (White Badge) Referees' Course. Here's how the trip came about:-

"Who'd have thought 3 months ago that I would be off to New York this month? What a journey so far -so many thanks to so many people. I will be attending a 3 day ITF Level II (White Badge)Referees' Course 22nd - 24th Feb 2010 at Flushing Meadow New York USA.

"Mid November Tony Glentworth mentioned the course to me. Following this up on the internet, I received backing from my husband for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Applications closed on 13th Dec. I completed the application form, and Tony and I put together thoughts for Tennis New Zealand's letter of support. Acceptance was received on 23rd December with much excitement. The next step was to make application to SPARC for a Prime Minister's Scholarship. With immeasurable guidance and support from Aidan O'Rourke the application was strongly supported and willingly submitted through Tennis New Zealand to SPARC. On 2nd February SPARC confirmed that the scholarship had been awarded to the full value requested - so I am off to New York.

"This course is specifically a referees' course. ITF courses in the Southern Hemisphere are rare and focus on chair umpiring. My goal is to focus on refereeing, and this course offers the opportunity for this. 16 officials were selected for the school, and I am the only candidate from outside of North America.

"I am looking forward to increasing and confirming my knowledge and skills. I will be extending my knowledge of the interpretation and application of ITF rules, and on site and on court management. Attendance in the USA will further expose NZ Tennis officiating to international trends, practices and applications.

"My constant companion currently is the ITF Rules of Tennis, Duties and Procedures for Officials, and the Pro Circuits Rule Book. Who'd have known there was so much to learn? Then Ireceived my reading material from the course, 6 more books of 100 pages each. Thank goodness for the long plane trip. I am working with New Zealand Tennis Umpires' Association and other ITF qualified officials in New Zealand to prepare for the course.

"Information gained in New York will be shared with officials and the wider tennis community. I cannot say thank you enough to Aidan O'Rourke, Pat O'Rourke, Tony Glentworth, Tennis New Zealand, New Zealand Tennis Umpires Assn and SPARC. And thank you to all for your bestwishes. I will be doing my best for New Zealand.

'If I can make it there, I can make it anywhere'.

Rosemary Hargreaves
Referee

 

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