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| P.H.T.C. SENDS STRONG REPRESENTATION TO MELBOURNE’S BOOMERANG CUP |
| November 2006
So popular is the Boomerang Cup that P.H.T.C. has managed to construct two teams of players. The Boomerang Cup is an international doubles event, played every other January on the two courts of the Royal Melbourne Tennis Club, in which teams of players from Real/Court Tennis clubs from around the world compete against each other. An analysis of the entries discloses that the draw contains teams representing 14 clubs from England, 5 clubs from Australia, but only 2 clubs from the U.S.A. It is amazing to see how keen the English entries are.
The teams from Petworth are styled “The Puffers” and “The Panters”, and if these names look strange, you should see some of the other team names! Representing Petworth in alphabetical order are Carolyn Armstrong-Smith (captain of The Panters), Alan Chalmers, Chris Clarke, Paul Diggens, Brian Ellis, Oliver Harris, Charlie Kearl, Alastair MacKeown, Harvey Rawlings, Robert Weir (captain of The Puffers), and Gordon Woodman.
The teams are a good mix of Boomerang Cup old hands and new boys. We have been holding regular and quite exhausting practice nights for several weeks, in order to ring the changes of partners, and gradually it looks as though established partnerships are being built, all of course entirely subject to the final word of the two captains.
In addition to competing in the Boomerang Cup, all the P.H.T.C. players have entered the R.M.T.C. Handicap Doubles event. This is not a team event, rather it is for established doubles partnerships, so it looks as though most of us will come back somewhat slimmed down owing to the combination of the extreme heat of the Australian summer and non-stop tennis! (For this author, the loss of weight is a good prospect)
Most of the players are travelling out with their partners and we will be staying in a block of service apartments in Melbourne, which is so they say within 20 minutes’ walk from the R.M.T.C. The playing schedule discloses that matches are timed from as early in the morning as 8.00 a.m. to as late in the evening as 8.00 p.m.
Some of the players are travelling out after Christmas to watch the big Test Match, whilst others will be stopping off for a few days in Singapore or Hong Kong. Other sporting attractions include large opportunities for the golfer and the Australian Open tennis championships. P.H.T.C. team members and their partners will also be looking forward to a wide range of social engagements, which has been planned by the organisers, and there will be plenty of opportunity for tourism.
We will try to send occasional bulletins on the progress made by P.H.T.C. members.
ALAN CHALMERS 23 November 2006
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