Welcome to the March edition of the MCC Glen Iris Valley News. In this edition you will find updates and articles on;

• Update from the Board
• Upcoming Events/Calendar
• Competition Tennis
• Social Tennis
• Facilities Update

Updates from the Board

From the Chair

I trust the autumn edition of the Club Newsletter finds you well and having got through a belated summer.

The Club Championship has recently concluded. We extend our congratulations to our new Club Champions, Savannah James and Sergej Todorovic. Thank you to our members who entered the Championships and crossed swords (across the net) in combat with their fellow members. Our thanks to VIDA’s Angelo Giampaolo for organising the Championships.

Directors have met with the mid-week convenors, Marty Beecroft, Grant Fry, and Dennis Rowler to touch base with their respective groups. There was a good exchange of ideas plus suggestions for club improvement which directors can consider. Directors were also able to express their appreciation for the leadership role the Convenors play at the Club. I encourage any member looking to enjoy social tennis in a welcoming environment, to contact any one of the convenors.

We reported last year that the MCC Foundation has a conditional contract of sale with the Riversdale Golf Club to purchase the land leased to the Tennis Club. One of the conditions was the approval of the sale by the Riversdale Golf Club members. That approval was given in November 2023. A further condition was the approval of the Monash City Council to the application for the plan of subdivision. The Plan creates a separate lot for the land which the Tennis Club leases from the Golf Club and the balance lot remaining as Golf Club’s land. The public exhibition by the Council for the Plan has concluded and the Council will make a decision in April on the subdivision application.

Directors met with the MCC Project team some weeks ago for preliminary discussions on the redevelopment of the High Street Road site. There is an understanding that High Street Road will remain primarily a tennis center but expanded to encompass the MCC’s Squash & Real Tennis Sections. The “racquet centre” concept was canvassed at the time of the merger discussions.

The MCC has provided a slide presentation in the link below for members’ information. We are appreciative to the MCC for their time and the opportunity for further consultation(s) with the Club once the contract of sale becomes unconditional.

• Click Here to view the slides

The 2024 winter season commences at the end of April. We congratulate all members who have been selected to represent the Club and wish them well.

Our grounds person Joseph Rafter has retired from the position unfortunately due to ill health. We thank him for his service to the Club over many years and look forward to recognising him at the earliest opportunity.

I am pleased to advise that Ashley Wall has expanded his opening & closing duties to include general ground maintenance. We appreciate Ashley taking on the expanded role.

I trust the drainage works adjoining our carpark are not unnecessarily impinging on members’ access to the courts. Please continue to look out for vehicle movements associated with the drainage project.

On behalf of the Directors, I wish all members and their families a peaceful Easter period.

Take care and stay safe.

Peter Gillieron
Chair

From the Secretary

I trust that this update finds you well.

Since the last newsletter, the board has been working on several matters including the following:

• Maintenance works at the Roy Street premises;
• Adopted the Tennis Australia Member Protection Policy;
• Membership cards;
• Improving the signage around the club;
• Entering into agreements with contractors and service providers;
• Installing of new windbreaks for the Courts.

The AGM will be held on Monday, 27 May at 8pm at the clubrooms. Formal notification regarding the AGM will be sent to all members shortly.

The Board confirms that the annual dinner is scheduled for Saturday, 7 December 2024. Please put this date into your diary.

If members have any queries regarding the Club, please do not hesitate to contact me on secretary@mccglenirisvalley.org.au.

Jordana Dymond
Secretary

New Members

By Amelia Charlton

MCC Glen Iris would like to welcome to the following members who are rejoining or new members to the club this year.

Titus Ting, Ryan Parkinson, Suhas Arora, Dominik Lentowitcz, Sean Spralja, Sharnna Ainsworth, Ryan  Morath, Jenny Stubbs, Nicholas Pashulya, Thomas Miller, Kanishk Arunraj, Ethan Khamly, Joshua Mercuri, Lily Addison, Matej Kepeski, John Yunan, Matthew King, Teagan Yaung, Grant Hardisty, Eve Song and Herman Miller.

At the date of this newsletter, the club has 415 members. Thank you to the members who have renewed their membership promptly, this is very helpful to the club. If any member is experiencing temporary financial issues affecting their membership subscriptions, can they please contact the club via membership@mccglenirisvalley.org.au as soon as possible so alternative arrangements can be discussed.

Upcoming Events

• Monday 15th April – Term 2 Coaching Starts
• Saturday 20 April 2024 – Winter Season – Competition Team Practice & BBQ (details below)
• Sunday 21 April 2024 AM Working Bee
• Saturday 27 April 2024 Tennis Victoria Pennant commences.
• Saturday 4th – Sunday 5th May – Waverley Tennis Winter Season commences
• Monday 27 May 2024 Annual General Meeting.
• Friday 5th July to Monday 8th July – 91st MCC Glen Iris Junior 125 Event
• Thursday 3rd October to Friday 4th October – Junior JDS Event
• Saturday 2nd November to Tuesday 5th November – Junior 125 Melbourne Cup Event
• Saturday 7 December 2024 Annual Dinner & Presentation Night

Club Championships

By David Rowler

Thanks to all the players who entered the events this year. It was great to see some new members taking part and meeting other club players. It was fantastic to hold the Women’s events once again. As always it would be nice to have more competition and social players taking part in the annual event. I urge anyone who didn’t take part this year to set yourself to play in next years event. It’s a great opportunity to meet fellow club members and enjoy some competitive action. The more entries we have the better the event will become for all members.

Congratulations to our new club champions!

• Men’s Open Singles – Sergej Todorovic d Sean Spralja 7/5, 6/2 (pictured below before the final)
• Men’s Open Doubles – Andrew Carter / Ben Rowler d David Rowler / Andrew Semmens 6/4, 6/2
• Ladies Open Singles – Savannah James d Kerrie Clarke 6/3 6/4 (pictured below)
• Ladies Open Doubles – final to be played between Jaimee Fourlis / Jordana Dymond vs Kerrie Clarke / Savannah James

Competition Tennis

Senior Teams

By David Rowler

In March the summer season competitions were completed. Overall, we had a good number of teams representing the club with 10 Open singles doubles teams in Waverley Tennis and one in Eastern Region for the first time. The season started very wet with 2 to 3 consecutive washouts for most teams and warm weather greeting the players return after the Christmas break.

Congratulations to the teams who progressed to the final stages. Unfortunately, we didn’t come away with any premierships this season, but nevertheless, we had some great team performances including:

• A Res 4 team, pictured below, of Siddarth Sundaram, Tsutomu Reid, Kuberan Rengasamy Kannan and Haruki Reid had a strong season and were runners up in their Grand final against Hampton Park 0-0-15 to 3-6-36
• A1 team of Alex and Raphael Savelli was defeated in the semi-final by Mountain Gate 0-1-21 to 2-4-30.
• A Res 1 team of Patrick and Max O’Reily and Raymond Qian were defeated in the semi-final by Eildon Park 0-0-14 to 2-4-25.
• Finally, our Section 3 ER team of Brad DeFrancesci, Rob Komljenovic, Tom Pepper and Calum Kennedy-Moore lost a tight semi-final to Warrandyte.

We now are looking forward to the winter season which commences with Tennis Victoria Pennant on 27th April.

I’m pleased to confirm that we have been granted teams in State Grade for both Men’s and Women’s. Both teams will be scheduled to play home matches together on Saturday afternoons. This is exciting, considering that the likes of Kooyong, Royal South Yarra and Grace Park Hawthorn are the only other clubs to be represented in both competitions.

We have also entered the following teams in Pennant with teams to be confirmed in the coming weeks by Tennis Victoria.

• Women’s Grade 2 and Grade 4
• Men’s Grade 3 x 2 teams, Grade 4 x 3 teams, Grade 5 and Grade 7 x 2 teams.

This is together with 2 Open singles doubles teams in Waverley Tennis, meaning that all courts on Saturday afternoons will be fully allocated.

All players would welcome club support during the season, so please come down on a Saturday afternoon to support our teams.

Women’s State Grade

1. Zoe Hives
2. Ruby Ward
3. Scarlett Dattoli
4. Savannah James (C)
5. Zahra Arthur
6. Gen Lorbergs
7. Naima Luthra

Men’s State Grade

1. Sam Dowler
2. Lewis Miles (C)
3. Nicholas Jovanovski
4. Brandon Laubser
5. Michael Turlejski
6. Nima Roshan
7. Zac Osborne

Senior Competition Team Practice & BBQ

MCC Glen Iris invites all Senior Winter competition players to a practice and BBQ on Saturday 20th April. Below are the details

• Tennis – 1 to 3 pm – Meet and practice with your team
• After 3 pm – Free BBQ, and drinks at the bar.
• 3:30 pm – Brief on new changes to Pennant for 2024 & Introduction of our Men’s & Women’s State Grade teams
• Uniform collection

Junior Competition

The summer 2023-24 season was incredibly busy for the club and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the players and parents for a wonderful season. We had 23 teams take to the court, 18 on Sundays and 5 on Saturdays. At the end of the home and away season we had 8 teams make through to the finals. The grand final weekend final was a fantastic spectacle, with 5 of our teams winning through and gaining the home-ground advantage. Below are the results:

Saturday:

• A Res 1: 2.4.32 def Wellington 1.2.24 – Congratulations to Ranveer Virk, Roman Shrestha and Marcus O’Reilly
• A Grade 1 (Boys): 0.0.14 lost to Mayfield Park 2.4.25 – Congratulations To Mateja Gigovic and Maksim Gigovic

Sunday:

• A Reserve 1: 2.4.48 def Dingley 1.3.31 – Congratulations to Ranveer Virk, Charlie Shi and Scarlett Rickard
• D Special 5: 3.38 def Burwood 3.26 – Congratulations to Aiden Huang, David Yu, Zachary Yao and Dante Muto
• D Grade 6: 4.22 def Mt. Waverley 2.27 – Congratulations to Shrihaan Chitrikavi, Alex Horsfall, Zahan Bhopti and Rafael Ortega

We had 1st-time winners, back-to-back winners, and a narrow 3-peat miss. Congratulations to all teams on a wonderful season and we look forward to seeing you all again for the start of the winter season in May!

Mid-Week Ladies

By Lyn Carter