Monthly Archives: July 2021
Junior Performance Programmes
On the performance side of our coaching programmes, we’ve had some notable results and achievements of late worthy of showcasing. We had 3 players selected to compete in the Tennis Australia Super 10’s competition – Addison Franklin (recently awarded Blue Gum’s 2021 rising star), Lachlan Harney and Johnathon Maroney, as well as numerous players competing in the Super B’s series including Ben Pooley, Princeton Cheung, Sunday Orioye and Gabriel Teague. Coach Charlotte was also team manager of Addison’s winning Super 10’s team and is now on a winning streak of 2 seasons in a row! Congratulations to all these young stars showing great commitment and dedication at the start of their exciting tennis journey. We have great numbers of players regularly competing in tournaments which is fantastic and it’s great to see the support and comradery at each event from our players. Recently Caleb Sewell was awarded the sportsmanship award at the Rafa Nadal tournament, which is a fantastic testament to his character and personality and rewards him the opportunity to travel to Melbourne later in the year to compete for a chance to go to the Rafa Nadal Academy in Spain. Gerard Hadianto (also recently awarded Blue Gum’s 2021 rising star) travelled to Canberra over Easter to compete in the 12U National Championships and came away finishing in 9thplace in the country having had an amazing experience playing on the clay. Brendan Jayaprakash has just returned from Darwin to compete in his first ITF Grade 4 and 5 tournaments which is a fantastic achievement to be playing at that level and pushing his tennis onto new heights towards achieving a world junior ranking. We are super proud of everyone’s efforts, achievements and ongoing dedication and development to their tennis. Last term to enjoy the last of the summer weather, we ran a beach fitness team building afternoon at Cottesloe beach for all players across our performance programmes which was great fun as always, with lots of activities and fun and games pushing everyone hard! There’s plenty more activities in the pipeline so keep a look out for what’s coming up in the near future!
Junior Pennants
Winter pennants is well underway through the season despite the very average weather over the last few Sundays, and we wish all our 15 junior teams the best of luck for the season. Blue Gum has the prestigious claim of nominating the largest number of junior pennant teams of any club each year in Perth and last summer we nominated 22 junior teams, with 8 teams making finals, resulting in 3 winning teams. It’s a testament to the great club and great people making Blue Gum a club that players want to keep representing year on year. Last year was the first time we nominated a Boys Junior State League team, and they did us very proud finishing top of the ladder and narrowly missed out on the shield falling to Dalkeith in the finals.
Tennis Excellence News
Our coaching team is busy working hard to deliver tennis to the 350 or so children and adults that are enrolled in our programmes, with now 15 coaches out on court each week! We have recently welcomed coach Nick De Lima back into the coaching team; absolutely fantastic to have him back on board! And we can also introduce Addy Mann into the coaching team who has transitioned from training and competing for Blue Gum over the years into commencing coaching, as well as coach Elliot who is now in his second year at Blue Gum. Coach Elliot has been running some great coach training initiatives to help transition some of our stronger junior players into fantastic assistant coaches. Coaches Charlotte and Mitch are currently working through their Club Pro coaching qualification and Charlotte has also been gaining some extra qualifications in strength and conditioning through the ASCA Level 2 and a Grad Cert from the University of Wollongong. Our junior coaches, Cam Webb, Mal Davies, Aidan Cook and Addy Mann all turned 18 this year so the world had better watch out for these guys out and about! It’s great they are all still so heavily involved at Blue Gum, coaching and playing pennants having been a part of the club for so many years now.
Play Tennis Twilight Festival
A few weeks ago, coaches Dan, Charlotte, Elliot, Matteo and Mitch were part of WA’s Play Tennis Twilight Festival which welcomed more than 400 players onto court for Hotshots activities and cardio tennis activities at the State Tennis Centre which was an amazing evening of tennis, fun and games and great food.
12U Regional Zone Squad
This term we have the pleasure of working alongside Tennis Australia to run a regional Zone Squad for talented 12U players (one of only 5 clubs in WA selected); you’ll see us out there at 6.30am on a Thursday morning in the cold and dark training hard!
BOOK A COURT
The Book a Court system (BAC) operates smoothly if used correctly. Most issues are the result of the actions of the last person who entered/exited the courts and can be avoided by everyone following the correct procedures outlined here:
- It is most important to ensure that the gate is ALWAYS SHUT – please check it is shut before you enter your PIN and be sure to shut it again behind you as you enter and leave. This way the system will alert you if the PIN fails and will be ready and operate correctly for the next person.
- Ensure the light above the keypad flashes green after PIN entry and you hear two short beeps and the gate will allow you to enter. Your lights will not activate without correct PIN entry.
- The system will allow you access 15 minutes prior to your booking time and it is recommended that you arrive prior to your time. If the lights were already on and turn off because you have not entered your PIN on time, a cooling down period of 15-20 minutes is required before they will come on again.
- Do not hold the gate open for other users. Your considerate action may leave them playing in the dark if the above process is not followed correctly.
- Book your court at least 25 minutes prior to play to ensure that the PIN is active at the gate and be sure to book for the length of time you plan to play.
- Please use ONLY the court you have booked and finish your match on time to allow the next players to access the court without the need to wait or ask you to leave. If you wish to extend your play, simply log in and add another booking if a court is available (remembering that this will need to be done at least 25 minutes ahead to time).
- If someone is continuing to play on your court when your booking time has commenced, politely remind them that their time has finished. Playing on another court instead causes a knock-on effect and inconveniences others.
- Allow others to book the court if you are unable to play by logging in and cancelling the booking if you are unable to play.
Please also refer to the BAC T&C’s on the BGPTC website.
Also, if members wish to play/practice, please ensure you book a court firstly, to ensure availability and secondly as we are requested to keep usage statistics to justify our continued existence with the City of Melville.
Thank you for your assistance.
SOCIAL TENNIS
- Visit to Fremantle Tennis Club – 30 BGPTC members went to Freo on the 15thMay. Deb and Greg organized a great afternoon of tennis with the folk at Freo. Unfortunately we didn’t win the trophy but we hope to see them at BG next year, and we will hopefully be holding the trophy again.
- Coaches day – 27thMarch – Dan, Mitch and Elliott provided an afternoon of fun and coaching tips for the members.
- Our Opening Day on Saturday 10thOctober saw our fabulous grass courts back in action and a great turn out for the Cannon Trophy, which was won by Ole Hammer.
- We also enjoyed the “not the Hopman Cup cup”, but yet again, thanks to a Covid lockdown, we missed out on our Anzac Day Tournament.
- Keep an eye out for our BlueGumbledon Tournament in July/August.
Please remember to check your Social & Tennis Roster. If you are unable to do your roster on that date, it is YOUR responsibility to find a replacement – and advise our Tennis Captains of the change. The roster is emailed out, and on the board outside the bar.
MONDAY NIGHT TENNIS
There are currently 61 players registered for MNT this term (44 members and 17 non-members; 28 men and 33 women). We fill the 12 lit courts every week. Player standard varies from average social through to strongly competitive. The improvement of many of the players, who have remained part of the group for a number of years, has been remarkable.
This extremely successful programme, run by Bill Thomas, is a great revenue raiser for the club and brings new members to our club. The overall standard is strong, but less experienced players are also welcome. We are very grateful to Bill Thomas for his continued contribution to this valuable programme.
CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Adult Club Champs were held over the weekends of 10, 11, 17, 18 April, 2021. Winners were presented with their awards at our Presentation Night on 22ndMay – congratulations to all the winners.
Our sincere thanks also goes to Lyn and Clem Gannon (with the assistance of Sue Redmond) in organizing and running of this event.
ORANGE BALL PLAYERS
You may have noticed the new blue lines on courts 19 to 22 which have been permanently marked for the benefit of our Orange Ball players. The dual markings may affect some people more than others, but the time and effort saved (by coaches and parents) with not having to prepare the alternative line methods, far outweighs this inconvenience. The parents of the Orange Ball players who no longer have to spend up to an hour using masking tape to make the lines before each fixture, are greatly appreciative.
