June 2021 Newsletter

Dear Valued member,

UPDATE

It has been a while since I last communicated with you all but, sadly, we still find ourselves in the midst of this awful pandemic and with winter now upon us, our numbers will increase coupled with the potential of a third wave. This does not bode well for any of us, especially members of more advanced years!!

Sadly, the government has not been exactly pro active in getting the vaccine made available to the vast majority of the population, and the upshot of this is that we as a country remain on the “red list” of most countries with stringent preconditions of entry. It seems that travel overseas will be placed on hold for quite a while yet.

Let me bring you up to date with matters that have been happening;

ROD LAVER WORLD WIDE JUNIOR CHALLENGE.

You will recall that in 2019 we won the African qualifying leg and were due to play the finals in California in November last year. This has been rescheduled for November this year and we await the final decision as to whether the event will, in fact, go ahead. Our main problems are twofold. Being at that time of year, it will clash with end of year exams and particularly Matric. This may well have an adverse effect on the composition of our potential team, but it is our intention to have a team there if the event does go ahead. Travel will be difficult with few airlines flying in and out of our country and it may well need a circuitous route to get the team to California. It will be disappointing for those players who were in the team that qualified if they do not have this experience of not only seeing a different country, but mixing with players from other cultures and countries.

At the moment the USA are not allowing people from South Africa into the country but after visiting the visa authorities, we are hoping to make a special representation to the US Consulate. Fingers crossed.

VOSLOORUS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM.

This program continues to attract young (and in some cases very young) players. Vosloorus Tennis Club has now been affiliated and members have been registered with TSA and they have a team playing in the Gauteng East Winter league. Our two top boys from the past couple of years are the main stay of that team as well as one of our current juniors.

The other positive of the club now being fully registered is that more adults have come along to play and have, in several cases, brought their children along which has been a boost to our program. They have a young and vibrant committee and hopefully this is the beginning of greater things for the club.

We have continued in our aim to give more children experience of tournament play and with the wonderful initiative of Gauteng East holding one day events for those children below the level required to compete at TSA sanctioned tournaments, it has been an ideal vehicle for us to “blood” younger players.

In the last event we entered six children, three of whom being given the opportunity to play at this level for the first time and had one winner of his section; two finished second; two finished third and one fourth. This shows the improvement of the players who can now acquit themselves at a higher level. This is an early stepping stone to hopefully, greater things.

Add to that the other weekend Gauteng East held an orange and red dot morning. We entered eight children of whom six were “blooded” and this is an initial step into their tennis future. Our aim is for the kids to enjoy the day, mix with other children and most importantly, have fun! Results are the least of our concerns at this stage of their development, those will come later.

In all we have supported the four events that have been held so far with eight children being given their experience of tournament play for the first time.

Being able to mix and meet children from outside the Township is all part of the tennis education for these young players and the more opportunity we can give them, the better people and players they will be in the future.

Last time I wrote I said that four of our players had been chosen for the Gauteng East schools teams for the inter provincial which is due to take place in August. Unfortunately, one of the players broke his arm playing soccer and has had to withdraw, but he is young enough to hopefully compete next year.

KENTON ON SEA DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM

Once again, the Covid year has impacted on activities. Having said that, coach Khaya has done an incredible job to keep up the two weekly session, as much as the school allows.

At a Round Robin tournament held in April, the players were introduced to this concept and the different orders of play for varying numbers and how to fill in their scores.

More noticeably, progress has been made in the passing on of Life Skills. The nearby Kariega Game Reserve which itself has an outreach program, had sponsored wonderful material which Khaya has been allowed to present to not only our own players, but the entire classes. He had to undergo training in order to do this.

A planned trip to play against a junior club in Port Elizabeth, having been put on hold in the first quarter of the year, is now planned for the first week or two of the third quarter.

All in all, we are just glad to be able to offer the youngsters from Ekuphumleni some fun activities and the opportunity to learn to play the game of a lifetime.

SOCIAL EVENTS

It is still very much in our plans to hold social days in both Johannesburg and Cape Town towards the end of the year plus we hope to have a separate social day in Pretoria to allow our members there to participate without having to travel through to Johannesburg. Also we are looking at another form of social functions, but more of that in later newsletters.

IC ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING.

With travel restrictions as they are plus Wimbledon still not having made an announcement regarding the number of fans that will be allowed into the grounds, the IC AGM will again be held on Zoom in its traditional time of the middle Sunday of the tournament.

Any significant decisions that are made there will be advised to you in our next newsletter.

Kindest regards, stay safe and well.

Mike Dunk

Chairman
International Club SA