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

• Club Presentation & Award Night
• Club Award winners
• Competition Tennis
• Social Tennis
• Club Finance
• VALE – Betty Jean Crozier (nee Lawrence)
• Facilities Update
• Upcoming Dates

CLUB PRESENTATION & AWARDS NIGHT

The 2022 MCC Glen Iris Annual Dinner and Awards night was held on Friday the 25th of Nov at the MCC Committee Room at the MCG. It was great to have the opportunity to celebrate the sucsuss of club members both as individuals and teams throughout the year. Thanks to our guest speaker Chris Kachel, an international professional tennis player from1973 to 1981, who gave us some fantastic insight into life on tour and life as a coach. Thanks also goes to Sean Munaweera who was our host for the evening. Please see below a few images from the night and more can be seen on the clubs Facebook page.

2022 CLUB AWARD WINNERS

Waverley Tennis Summer Season 2021/22

Juniors:

• Best Performed Junior Team – SAT D Sp 3 Triples – Max O’Reilly, Marcus O’Reilly, Xavier Tran and Oliver Zelder
• Best Performed Junior Player (Rubbers) – Jery Chen (SUN B Sp 1)
• Best Performed Junior Player (Triples) – Jenson Holm (SUN D Sp 2)

Seniors:

• Best Performed Senior Team – Mixed A1 – Brooke Starling, Lizzie Kalyvas, Amelia Mills, Linley Wade, Nat Edwards, Louise Anderson, Olivera Ivcovici, Ben Rowler, David Rowler & Sean Munaweera
• Best Performed Senior Player – Josh Davis (A Res 4, Singles 14-0, Doubles 14-0)

Waverley Tennis Winter Season 2022

Juniors:

• Best Performed Junior Team – SUN A3 Rubbers – Luca Bassili, Anidhya Sirohi and Hridaan Jamwal
• Best Performed Junior Player (Rubbers) – Will Brooks Gay (SAT A Res 1)
• Best Performed Junior Player (Triples) – Carah Klair (SUN D Sp 3)

Seniors:

• Best Performed Senior Team – A4 – Josh Davis, Tom Lo (c) and Praneet Ram Sivaramakrishnan
• Best Performed Senior Player – Josh Davis (A4, Singles 10-0, Doubles 7-0)

2022 Club Championships 

• Mens Doubles Runners – up – Ben and David Rowler
• Mens Doubles Winner – Robert Foy and Brett Kelly
• Mens Singles Runners – up – Ben Rowler
• Mens Singles Winner – Luca Connaughton (Pictured Below)

JB Liddelow Award – Men’s Best performed Pennant Player 2022

• Robert Foy (Grade 3, Singles 12-0, Doubles 12-1)

Don Cordner Award – Ladies Best performed Pennant Player 2022

• Milla Fraser (Grade 3, Singles 11-0, Doubles 9-2)

Ian Occleshaw Trophy Best Performed Pennant Team

• Ladies Grade 3
• Finished on Top of their Section
• Went on to win 3 finals matches and progress through to the grade Grand Final
• Milla Fraser, Lily Fraser (C), Danielle Pappas and Jenna Gleeson

Competition Tennis

PREMIER LEAGUE 2022

A big congratulations to our Men’s & Women’s Premier League teams who completed the double! Below is how Tennis Victoria described the final.

The National Tennis Centre lit up with stunning matches on Saturday night, with the best of the best battling it out to become 2022 Premier League Champions. Ballkids, officials, broadcast partners and players all descended on Melbourne Park for the 2022 Premier League Grand Final during a busy day for the precinct.

After a stellar season in both divisions, MCC Glen Iris made they way out onto court to contest both the Men’s and Women’s championships against Hume Tennis & Community Centre and Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club respectively.

The MCC Glen Iris Women finished an exceptional season in style and achieving a clean sweep! Alana Parnaby led the way with a commanding win over Gabriella Villegas, while Genevieve Lorbergs and Zoe Hives once again proved to be a forced to be reckoned with in the doubles. The match between Belinda Woolcock and Jaimee Fourlis was one for the ages, and Jaimee eventually prevailed after coming back from a set down to win in a classic tiebreak.

And the men followed suit, also completing the 3-0 clean sweep in their match up against Hume. Alex Bolt showed his prowess, defeating Mark Whitehouse 6-4, 6-0 in a battle of the serves. The doubles match was a tug-of-war between MCC’s Aaron Addison and Matthew Romios and Hume’s Dayne Kelly and Zaharije Taric. But MCC proved too good in all three rubbers, and were crowned Premier League champions for 2022!

Congraultaions to all womens players

• Jaimee Fourlis, Zoe Hives, Alana Parnaby, Monique Barry, Nives Baric, Genevieve Lorbergs, Isabella Crossman, Scarlett Dattoli

Congraultaion to all our mens players

• Alex Bolt, Aaron Addison, Matthew Romios, Chanchai Sookton – Eng, Ethan Cook, Stefan Vujic, Blake Mott
• Well Done to Aaron Addison who was also named players of the season with his undefeated record

For those who attend our Super Round you would have seen some amazing matches and a truely great specitcal at the club. Thank you to Lyn Carter, Grant Fry, Peter Gillieron, Lizzie Kalyvas, Chiro Mukerjea, Sean Munaweera, Dennis Rowler, Trevor Sharrock, and Geoff Shallue for volunteering during the afternoon.

SENIOR COMPETITION UPDATE

By David Rowler

We are well underway with the summer season commencing on Saturday 8th October. The club has entered 7 Open singles doubles teams in Waverley competition all playing on Saturday afternoons.

We have had some challenging conditions with wet weather and in recent weeks a few hot days. Currently only our B Sp 3 team of Elizabeth Filonenko, Monica Nguyen (c), Sophie Rayne and Ophelia Sebek are currently sitting in the top 4.

There are a few teams sitting just outside the 4 and will look to finish the season strongly to progress into the finals.
Round 10 matches commence after the Australian Open on 4th February.

JUNIOR COMPETITION UPDATE

by Angelo Giampaolo

It has been a very busy start to the Summer Junior comp season, with 23 teams taking to the court, which is the most the club has had since covid began. We have 5 teams on Saturday and 18 on Sunday, with all teams being 9 rounds into the season with the last round for this year being played on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday 10th/11th of December. When play resumes in February, there will be 5 rounds remaining with the finals starting in March after the long weekend. Below is a summary how are teams are going:

Saturday Juniors:

4 out of our 5 teams are sitting inside the top 2, with the 5th team just outside the finals. Our Challenge Cup A1, B Special 2, B Grade 2 and B Grade 3 teams have all had tremendous starts to the season only dropping a handful of matches between them. A Special mention goes to our new club Members and brothers, Maksim and Mateja Gigovic who remain undefeated in B3 Rubbers. B Special 2 girls team consisting of, Diahna Srikanth, Rosalie Wang, Khushi Talkad and Leoni Miller Shapiro have also been very solid, only dropping one match and currently sit 2nd with a percentage of over 300.

Sunday Juniors:

With about half of our teams currently sitting in finals, all teams are ready to hit the ground running when the season re-starts in Feb. It’s been a great start for both our A Grade rubbers teams, with them sitting inside the top 2. A Grade 2 and 3 – Hridaan Jamwal, Demetri Kogas, Anidhya Sirohi, Ramond Qian, Alisha Kamran and Gisele Hoang – Migge are both sitting 2nd on the ladder with a percentage of 178 and 143 respectively. Also having a good season in our rubbers format, B Special 1, B Grade 1 and B Grade 6 – Aditya Krishna, Diahna Srikanth, Rosalie Wang, Yanxiang Huang, Danny Cai, Hugo Enters, Charlie Shi, Ranveer Virk and Noah Hoang Migge. All 3 teams sitting comfortably inside the top 4.

In our triples format, our C Grade 4 girls – Sarnya Singh, Darcy Librea, Imani Klair and Carah Klair have continued their good form from their previous season together, sitting on top of the ladder with a percentage of 151 and sitting 6 pts clear of 2nd. The club is also very proud of our new members, Arnav Rohatgi, Asha Coghlan, Ryan Wu, Mila McColl Jones and Leon Tanautmadja who are playing their very first season of junior comp, and are sitting 2nd on the ladder with a percentage of 141.

Best of luck to all our teams in the 2nd half of the season and we hope to see a few premierships come the clubs way early next year.

TUESDAY MORNING LADIES

by Lyn

Midweeks Ladies Section 5 MEMRLTA Summer Competition 2022/2023 – We are sitting 3rd on the ladder for this current season and have been enjoying some great tennis – many matches go down to the wire in a tight finish.

Tuesday 13/12/22 is the last match for this year as we head into the Christmas break – the season resumes Tuesday 7/2/23 for 6 weeks before finals commencing on the 21/3/23, let’s hope we can maintain our current standing and enter the finals strongly.

I think everyone is looking forward to the Christmas/Summer Break – maybe catching a few matches at the Aus Open or just enjoying some time with family. Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Social Tennis

NIGHT SOCIAL PLAY – Wednesday & Thursday

By Dennis Rowler & Grant Fry

The numbers for Wednesday and Thursday nights are consistently around 20 and 12, respectively. The good news is the tennis has been great when we get to play as is the numbers that stay back after tennis for drinks and snacks. With more than half the number of players staying back on each night.

The weather has not been kind recently with rain and cold not knowing that summer is here, but we are looking forward to a big improvement and numbers increasing after the holiday period.

Covid is still having an effect with members coming down with it. It has been refreshing to know that all our members have respected the health of others and not come out if they have had possible covid contacts or are not feeling well.

It was great to see the carpark lights were again working on Thursday 8th Dec. Having them working makes it so much safer when returning to our cars after dark. It also makes the carpark a more secure place. The front entrance steps are also far safer now the large tree that threw a shadow on the steps has been removed. It has been no small effort by Ross Johnson who had to continually chase up the installer to come and fix them. So thank you Ross.

We will have social tennis through the Christmas period if we have 4 or more people wanting to play. If you are not a regular player on Wednesday or Thursday night and you wish to play over holidays (or any other time) please contact:
Wednesday Nights, Dennis Rowler e-mail dennis.rowler@gmail.com or Mob. 0425 226 463
Thursday Nights, Grant Fry e-mail garfish123@optusnet.com.au or Mob. 0407 247 800

TUESDAY MORNING SOCIAL TENNIS

By Grant Fry

Tuesday has not fared well with the rain but on Tuesday 22nd we finally had a good day with 13 players in total. There are so many more options when it is 12 or more players. Sadly, we have lost Mieko who is visiting relatives in Japan until Christmas. It is good to see we have Michael Kawabe back from Japan after a long holiday.

For those who have not been out on a Tuesday morning before. We do have a mixture of players and everyone is welcome to come out and play. It will cost club members $0-00 and balls are supplied, only used once from the previous weeks night social tennis.
The format of play varies depending on who is playing, it is all doubles but certainly if you want to play singles and have a partner who wants to do the same you are welcome to join us. The doubles are as much as possible organised to give everyone good but fun games of tennis. Afterward we have coffee at the club rooms or go to Bensons Café at Mt Waverley for lunch and coffee.

If you are thinking of coming out for the first time please text me on 0407 247 800 in case I need to book extra courts.

TUESDAY NIGHT INTRA-CLUB

by Marty Beecroft

Tuesday night tennis completed a successful year of great quality tennis. Having some dry weather and regular sessions meant players could find some form, push each other and the tennis always played in great spirit. We welcome players of a good standard to make contact and attend a test night, we play three sets each Tuesday and players can book in the day before which provides a great level of flexibility for those that may have other commitments.

Club Finance

By David Rowler – Club Treasurer

The board recently passed the 2023 budget, which I’m pleased to announce includes no increase to the current membership subscription rates (same rates since 2020).

All members should now be familiar with the membership renewal process with ClubSpark. As the majority of members renewal date falls on 1st January, please look out for the invite to renew later in December. We would appreciate if renewals can be main promptly, however as always feel free to contact us at membership@mccglenirisvalley.org.au should you be experiencing financial hardship.

We continue to receive great support from the MCC Foundation, including clubhouse cleaning and maintenance and have recently agreed to reimburse the club for our utility outgoings.

VALE – Betty Jean Crozier (nee Lawrence)

25/09/1921 – 23/11/2022

The club recently lost our oldest living 50-year life member.

Betty’s family has a long history with Glen Iris Valley Recreation Club starting with her parents who were founding members of bowls and croquet. Her father John Lawrence was the bowls club champion in 1929-30 and the secretary for 1931 to 1933.

Betty spent much of her childhood down at the club in Brixton Rise and continued to play tennis into her 90’s at the current site.

Her family’s connection continues with her daughter Pam Rowler, husband Dennis and children David and Ben all playing and heavily involved at the club.

Facility Update

MONASH COUNCIL

Monash Council has several drainage upgrade projects in the works. One of these projects involves a new storm water pipe being installed across High Street Road, ending in Damper Creek just west of our club. While these works don’t directly impact the club’s site, we have agreed to provide vehicle access to the work site within the Riversdale Golf Club. While the project is underway (expected to be between February and June 2023), the lawn area immediately to the west of the car park will be fenced off and used as part of the work site. There will be limits placed on the time of day and number of vehicles accessing the work site, consistent with the club’s normal operations and scheduled events. Any areas of our club disturbed by these works will be restored (by the contractor) at the conclusion of works. Further updates will be provided.

GAZEBO

The Club will be proceeding with the construction of the Gazebo in between courts 6 & 7 in memory of our Life Member the late Patricia Anderson. Pat bequeathed the generous sum of $25,000 to the Club. The Club has received landlord’s consent from Riversdale Golf Club (we thank the RGC for its support), and a building permit from our contractor.

CAR PARK LIGHTING

Members would be aware that the club recently upgraded the car park lighting to LED (including the addition of a light near the corner of the driveway). While this has been a great improvement, over the past month we have experienced some electrical issues which have lead to the lights often not being on at all. We are close to a resolution for this problem, and expect to have reliable operation of the car park lights very soon.

COURT CARE

With summer upon us (yes, this is actually summer), members need to pay particular attention to court care. Of greatest importance is that the courts are properly watered, both before and after each set (or comparable period if just practicing). If you have any doubt as to whether the court needs watering, start with a light water to see how quickly it is absorbed. It is always better to over-water (and have to wait a little) than to play on a dry court. Consider arriving a little earlier, so as to have the time to properly water the court before commencement of play. When hosing a court, spray away at a distance (not down at your feet), to avoid damaging the court.

Bagging is also very important. During the drier and windier months, it is very easy to create a dust storm. If any significant dust is being raised whilst bagging, consider giving the courts a very light water before bagging (in addition to a proper water afterwards). Simply dragging the bagger more slowly can make a big difference too. Other general tips include; Bag the whole court, all the way to the fences or adjacent court. Mix up the direction, both length-wise and across. Remember, the intent of bagging is to spread the en-tout-cas evenly over the court.

COURT 1

The uplift in the base line on court 1 (High Street Rd end) will be repaired before Christmas. The work will take one day but the court will be out of action for approximately one month while rolling and watering are undertake to settle that part of the court.

WORKING BEE

The latest club working Bee was held on Sunday the 16 of October. Thanks to Ross Johnston, Dennis Rowler, David Rowler, Ainslie Cummins , Mark Karpinski, Ben Rowler, Peter Gillieron and Geoff Shallue who worked hard getting a lot of the gardens and pruning up to date around the club.

Many hands make light work and we look forward to our next working bee in early 2023.

FROM THE KITCHEN

by Grant Fry

I would like to thank all the members who have helped keep the kitchen clean and tidy. Unfortunately I cannot name everyone, mainly because it is obvious when I go to the club it has been clean and tidy plus on most occasions when I know that the dishwasher needs emptying it has already been done. So if you are one of those people THANK YOU, I really do appreciate it.
Over the Christmas break I will keep the supply of milk, tea & coffee replenished for club members. However, if you are going to have a large group using tea & coffee, please let me know so that I can make sure that there are enough supplies available. Best way to contact me is a text to 0407 247800.

Upcoming Key Dates

• 2023 O3K J125 Tennis Only MCC Glen Iris Open – a Tennis Australia Sanctioned Event – Jan 11 to 14
• Working Bee – Sunday 15th Jan
• Aus Open Adult Social Tennis Evening by Vida Tennis – Jan 19th – 6.30pm start – More Details
• 2023 JT Junior 125 MCC Glen Iris Australia Day Event – a Tennis Australia Sanction Event – Jan 22 to 25
• Competition Tennis returns 4th/5th Feb