Welcome to the July edition of the MCC Glen Iris Valley News. In this edition you will find updates and articles on;
- Updates from the Board
- Upcoming Events/Calendar
- Competition Tennis
- Social Tennis
- Membership Update
- Facilities Update
From the Board
I trust this winter edition of the Club newsletter finds you well.
Thank you to the Club’s Convenors for their contributions keeping us all informed about what is happening around the Club-that is appreciated.
The Club’s AGM was held in May. The Board received valuable feedback from members on issues they wanted addressed. We have taken that on board and will be progressively addressing those. That will now include a regular segment in the Newsletter, “Update from the Board.”
We are well into the winter competition organised by our partners, Tennis Victoria, MEMERLTA, Waverly & District, and Blackburn & District Night. We trust you’re finding the competitions challenging. Very pleasing to see night competition coming back to the Club.
Great to see the Club shirt being worn. Makes it instantly recognisable who is representing the Club.
The Club is organising some social events so you get the opportunity to meet members’ off-court. Please refer to the Club Calendar and we look forward to seeing there.
Take care and stay safe.
On behalf of the Directors.
Peter Gillieron
Chair
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting was held on 29 May 2023 with the Board elected as follows: Amelia Charlton, Jordana Dymond, Peter Gillieron, Ross Johnson, Lizzie Kalyvas, Mark Karpinski, Chiro Mukerjea and David Rowler.
The Board has elected the following positions:
- Chair – Peter Gillieron
- Deputy Chair – Jordana Dymond
- Secretary – Jordana Dymond
- Treasurer – David Rowler.
Contacting the Board
The Board is currently in the process of re-constituting how club members can contact individual Board members. We will be in touch with members shortly with email addresses for each Board member.
Update from the Board:
- Consideration of Book A Court System (public) for Roy Street
- Improving the branding and signage around the club
- Arranging defibrillator training
- Updating the First Aid Kit at both premises
- Various maintenance items including updating the benches on and off courts and general refurbishments of the courts.
- Maintenance items at the Roy Street site
- Arranging the 100th year celebration for the Club
As stated below, there will also be a celebration function for the 100th year of the club this year with details being provided shortly.
Jordana Dymond
Secretary
Upcoming Events
- Sunday 9 July 2023. Working Bee from 8.30 am (apologies for the short notice)
- Sunday 30 July 2023. Afternoon function at the MCG – Melbourne v Richmond. Further details below
- Sunday 27 August 2023 Opening of the Patricia “Pat” Anderson Rotunda at the Club
- Saturday 7 October 2023 Centenary Celebration – Evening Cocktail Function at the Club
- Sunday 15 October 2023. Centenary Celebration – Afternoon Social Round Robin-Bar- b-que at the Club
- Saturday 25 November 2023 Annual Dinner/Presentation Night at the MCG
Competition Tennis
SENIOR COMPETITION UPDATE
By David Rowler
Saturday Winter Season
Our season kicked off with an intro practice night on Thursday 20th April. It was great to have a good turnout from the players who collected their new club shirts and enjoyed a BBQ afterwards.
I hope all the players are enjoying wearing the New Balance club shirts which look fantastic. It’s great to come down and be able to determine straight away which is the MCC Glen Iris player on court. Pleasingly, we are also getting positive feedback from the opposition teams.
We have now approached the midway point of the regular season with most teams having played 6 or 7 rounds of competition.
It’s been very busy each Saturday, especially in the afternoons with all courts being used by 4 men’s Pennant teams and either 2 x Waverley or our Grade 3 women’s Pennant team.
This has meant that on 2 occasions so far, one of our Waverley teams has had to play at the opposition club as the home team.
Unfortunately, for our morning women’s pennant teams there has been 2 or 3 washouts, whilst the afternoon matches have generally been able to be played with some mopping and late finishes.
Our teams are having variable results with no real trend so far.
The men’s Grade 5, sec 2 team (Savelli’s) are a clear standout on top with 5 wins and 2 losses.
The Men’s State Grade team started strongly, then dropped 2 matches and rebounded with a strong win against Royal South Yarra last week at Albert Reserve and are now placed 3th.
Their remaining Home Matches are listed below which all commence at 1pm.
- 24th June vs North Ringwood TC
- 15th July vs Grace Park Hawthorn
- 29th July vs Fawkner TC
- 5th August vs Tennis World
Round 13 (12th August) is a super round where our team plays at North Ringwood vs RSY, together with another men’s and 2 women’s matches.
All teams welcome any club support and are happy to see fellow club members viewing and cheering on their matches.
Check out all the ladders on the following link (inc WDTA)
Blackburn & District Night Tennis
The autumn season has wrapped up with our Thursday team finishing 4th and losing their elimination final on the 1st June. The spring season entries have been completed with 4 teams being submitted, up from 2.
It’s great to see this growth in this area of the club.
Season Commences on 31st July.
| Monday Ladies Doubles Sec 5 | Tuesday Open Doubles Sec 1 |
| Elena Daly (C) | Calum Kennedy-Moore (C) |
| Helen Ackland | Brad De Franceschi |
| Tiana Choi | Tom Pepper |
| Anne Davies | Francisco Roxas |
| Esther Kim | Tim Scott-Sandvik |
| Pam Rowler | Anthony Harvey |
| Mia Yun |
| Thursday Open Singles Doubles Sec 1 | Thursday Open Doubles Sec 5 |
| Calum Kennedy-Moore (C) | Elizabeth Filonenko (C) |
| Brad De Franceschi | Monica Nguyen |
| Robert Komljenovic | Alice Sunnucks |
| Tom Pepper | Ophelia Sebek |
| Francisco Roxas | Sophie Rayne |
| Anthony Harvey | (Grade 4 Women’s Pennant Team) |
State Grade Pennant
By Michael Turlejski
It’s been an impressive start for our top men’s pennant team in the revamped Tennis Victoria State Grade competition. They currently sit 2nd at the season halfway point and are well placed to carry that into a top 4 finals position come season end.
State Grade has brought together the best players in the state, comprising of current and ex-professionals, representing the 8 biggest clubs, in a rare opportunity to combine in a competitive team environment.
The team’s secret sauce to success as far has been, its player depth, great team morale and a balance of experience and youth (and a bit of healthy banter).
We encourage all at the club to support the team as they continue on their journey for an inaugural premiership!
JUNIOR COMPETITION UPDATE
Winter Junior competition has nearly reached the halfway point and all teams have settled into the season well. Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been kind, with half of the matches being washed out.
After round 6, we have several of our twenty teams sitting inside the top 4. Our rubbers teams:
- A Reserve 1 team (Julio Machuca and Hugo Enters) has started the season on fire and currently sits 1st on the ladder by 7pts.
- Our B1 team (Charlie Shi, Ranveer Virk and Scarlett Rickard) and B Special 1 team (Maksim Gigovic and Mateja Gigovic) also sit on top of the ladder after a solid start to the season.
Our Triples teams:
- D Grade 2 (Yuzhe Huang, David Yu, Zachary Yao and Dante Muto currently sit 2nd on the ladder, only dropping one match for the season.
All other triple teams have started well and aren’t too far out of finals contention.
Let’s hope we have some better weather for the remainder of the season. Good luck to all teams.
Social Tennis
Tuesday Night Social
By Marty Beecroft
Over late summer and autumn, it has been great to see quite a few new members on Tuesday night and the quality of tennis has been great. For those that don’t know, the night costs just $5.00 which covers lights and balls and we play three sets of doubles. Tuesday Nights are focussed on more advanced players and is designed to be challenging and competitive yet social. As always we welcome down any new players for an introduction session.
If anyone wants to join or needs more information please contact Marty Beecroft on 0413 929 088 or marty.beecroft@caribbeanpark.com
Wednesday & Thursday Night Social Tennis
By Grant Fry & Dennis Rowler
The winter weather has certainly arrived. There have been a couple of washouts and near washouts and a few cold nights however the tennis has been good when we have played. As usual, we also have a few staying back for a chat and drink afterwards. We have continued getting between 12 & 20 players on most Wednesday and Thursday nights. If anyone wants to join us please email either Dennis at dennis.rowler@gmail.com or Grant at garfish457@gmail.com.
Mid-Week Ladies Report
By Lyn Carter
After a very interrupted start with school holidays, byes, washouts, players out injured etc. the Tuesday morning team currently sits 5th on the ladder midway through the winter season.
If there are any ladies out there that might be interested in playing competition on a Tuesday morning please contact the club. Games commence at 9.30 and are usually completed by 1.00 p.m.
Membership Update
By David Rowler
Court Bookings and Availability
A reminder to all members, that membership only entitles that person to use our courts.
You are welcome to bring along visitors to play with, however you as the member are responsible to ensure the correct fees are paid prior to entering the court to play.When making a booking using the Book a Court system you can add the player/s you are going to play with for each session by using the ‘Add Player’ function.You will then need to select whether they are a member or guest. Guest fees do apply and are charged at $10 per hour booked.
Alternatively, fees can be paid at a daily rate of $15 per adult or $10 per child. Envelopes are available upstairs next to the office door in the clubhouse.Or pay by EFT to MCC Glen Iris Valley Tennis Club
BSB: 013-247
Account: 529448729
Facility Update
By Ross Johnson
Lights
As previously reported, the car park lights were converted to LED and one additional light installed (near the driveway corner) back in August. Unfortunately, not long afterwards, we began experiencing electrical issues. Over subsequent months whilst this problem was investigated, the car park lights were either just partially on or off altogether. The good news is that this problem has now been resolved and the much improved car park lighting is good to go.
On the very day the car park lighting was sorted, court 12 lighting stopped working, closely followed by court 9! Thanks to the fast response of our lighting contractor (D&A Lighting Systems), the fault was located and repaired within a couple of days. As members would likely be aware, the club has high utilisation of courts throughout the week, so losing even a single court has an impact. Thanks to Vida Tennis for their assistance and flexibility in handling this unexpected event.
Both issues were quite unrelated, except that they related to original wiring. Amazing to think the club has been in Mount Waverley now for well over 30 years!
And now for the great news… the club will shortly see our two remaining courts with metal-halide lights (courts 11 & 12) converted to the superior LED lights. We expect this work to be completed by the end of July. The club appreciates the support of Tennis Australia whose National Court Rebate program is part funding this upgrade. A formal announcement to members will be made upon completion.
Courts
Currently the courts receive routine maintenance every couple of weeks. A more extensive quarterly maintenance of the courts has just been introduced (in addition to the existing schedule). The first iteration will occur over the next couple of weeks. We anticipate that members will notice the improvement.
Over the past month, almost all of the court rain rollers have been serviced (with one being replaced), so they should all be in peak condition.
The following are tips on using a roller effectively, which also helps preserve both the roller and court surface;
- Slide the adjusting ring up into position so the squeezing roller presses gently against the foam jacket.
- Keep the wheels on the ground! Let the roller move on its foam jacket roller and wheels.
- Push slowly! Allow time for the foam jacket to soak up the puddles. Enter deep puddles very slowly to minimised court damage after drying.
- Empty the roller into a drain pit by tipping it onto its right-hand side.
- When finished, drop the adjusting ring to release pressure from the squeezing roller.
- Return the roller to its metal shed after use. Sun exposure damages the foam.
Clubhouse
The clubhouse has also received some attention. MCC has recently implemented several safety upgrades, including changes to a number of locks and door handles (bringing them into line with fire safety regulations) and improvements to the external balustrades. Several lights in toilets and changerooms have also been repaired (replaced with LED fittings) and a new hand dryer installed in the men’s change room. Finally, members may notice some additional rows on the honour boards, particularly the Club Champions board in the bar area.
Rotunda
The new rotunda between courts 6 & 7 is nearing completion. This has been built using a bequest from Life Member Patricia “Pat” Anderson. Painting has now been completed (thanks to Mark Karpinski for leading this monumental effort and to all those members who participated). Some landscaping is all that remains to be done. It’s great to see members already making good use of the new addition. An official opening will occur within the coming weeks.
Grounds
Members may notice the gardens looking a little scruffy at the moment. We are presently working through an issue with our gardening contractor which we expect to have resolved shortly.
Finally, RIP the flag pole (located between the clubhouse and High Street Rd). It has been laid to rest (on the ground) and will be disposed of properly at an upcoming working-bee.
Social Event
Football Function – Melbourne V Richmond
The Club is hosting a cocktail function at the Melbourne v Richmond game on Sunday, 30 July 2023. Below is the link to the flyer and booking form for this function.
All members and their guests are welcome to attend. We hope to see as many members as possible at this function.
