Neale Anderson, Acting Captain, reports...
On the fourth of May, HKCC was privileged to play in the inaugural HKFC Tennis Invitational, organized by Kevin McNamara. Leaving the hotshots at home, the tournament featured one pair from the B, C and D leagues, with one Men’s, Ladies’ and a Mixed Match against the opposing pairs of each Club. Along with HKCC and HKFC, the other invited teams were Kowloon Cricket Club and Clearwater Bay Country Club.
Against all the odds in one of the wettest two week periods seen, Saturday was dry and the weather gods held out for the entire day. In addition to a lucky break with the weather, we were able to ‘borrow’ two of Kevin McNamara’s friends from Sai Kung - Jared Dubbs and Steve Anderson were called up over their cereal in the morning, and became honorary members for the day and did us pound.
We were drawn against Clearwater Bay first, and the Men led off. Our B pair was Martin Crawford and Isaac Stewart, Neale Anderson and Martin Garcia played C, and Jared and Chris stepped up to play D.
In the Ladies matches, the team got off to a good start: Susan Menzies and Stephanie Fuller were our B pair, Nadene Goldman and Linda Roberts played C, and Carly Davies and Jessamy Smiley played D.
As the afternoon progressed, it became clear that HKCC were playing well, but not clinching the set points – were we being too nice? Maybe the friendly and convivial atmosphere was lulling us into a false sense of security – by the final sets we were high up in the games ranking, but fourth (out of four) in set points. Unfortunately, that was the way it ended. Kowloon Country Club carried the day with 20 points, Clearwater Bay and HKFC tied in second at twelve points, and we were just out of the running with ten points.
However, the whole day was played in a very good spirit, which was carried over to the bar and barbecue dinner afterwards. Many thanks to Kevin at the Football Club for organizing this event – we’ll look forward to it next year.
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