| A gala celebration was held on
Sunday 1st May 2005 to officially open the new
clubhouse. More than a hundred members and
former members had a wonderful afternoon in
balmy autumn weather to witness the ribbon
cutting by our State Member for Cleveland Darryl
Briskey, accompanied by life members of the RLTA,
Merna Bach and Jack Finney. |
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| Our president Ian Somers
welcomed the assembled masses which also
included our Mayor Don Seccombe, Deputy Mayor
Alan Beard and Federal Member for Bowman, Andrew
Laming. Ian thanked both the State Government
and the Redlands Council for their financial
support for the project and praised both Darryl
Briskey and Don Seccombe for their respective
roles in that process. Ian also paid tribute to
both the Architect Shane Keefe and the builder
Steve Bell and his team for the way in which
they went about their business and in the
quality of their end product, something of which
we are all very proud. |
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| Our Patron and long-serving life
member Jack Finney took us all on a journey down
memory lane and helped put the new clubhouse in
the context of the club's history. The
keen-eyed observer will note that the Mayor
(shown seated) came dressed for tennis while
long-time tennis player Jack Finney came dressed
as a Mayor! |
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| Following a few appropriate
words of wisdom from Ian, Jack, Don and Darryl,
the ceremonial ribbon was cut and a plaque
unveiled.
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| The official opening was
followed by a celebrity tennis match involving
Darryl, Andrew Laming, Mayor Don Seccombe and
Deputy Mayor Alan Beard. The match proved very
competitive and the large crowd were kept on the
edge of their seats. Just for the record, Don
and Alan went home with both the bragging rights
and two bottles of "Clubhouse Red" for what was
a victory for the "oldies".
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| In yet another victory for the
"oldies", our former coach Jeff Schneider and
the brilliant Nicole Seccombe (nee Johnson) won
the two bottles of "Clubhouse White" in a mixed
doubles match against the new coach Jani
Kroyherr and his partner Minyon Jones, one of
the stars of our Thursday evening competition.
The standard of the tennis in this match was so
good it seemed worthy of a Wimbledon final.
(But then it did follow the celebrity match). |
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| This was followed by a match
involving four other tennis coaches from the
Redlands district: Sean Doyle, Steve Parr,
Frayne Bloor and Ian Rothman. The tennis was
very entertaining but on this occasion it was
Frayne and Ian who gave Sean and Steve a tennis
lesson and were also presented with souvenir
bottles of Keith Collyer's favourite drop,
Clubhouse Red. |
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| Keeping with the
spirit of the occasion, the builder Steve Bell
and his right-hand man, carpenter Chris Barwick,
took on our architect Shane Keefe and the
electrician Clinton Barwick (who just happens to
be the brother of Chris) in what was billed as a
"friendly" grudge match. To the casual observer
it certainly appeared that the two brothers had
both played a bit of tennis (in fact both were
stars of the RLTA in their junior days), but the
same casual observer was overheard to say that
he thought both Shane and Steve should hang on
to their day jobs! |
| But the tennis was only part of
what was on the menu for the opening day
celebrations. It was a fantastic excuse for a
reunion of present and past members to relive
the glory of past matches and to renew old
friendships.
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| Our friendly bar staff Kym
Reimers and Les Finney kept the refreshments
flowing while chief chef Reg Griffin and his
volunteer veterans ensured that the new BBQ was
put to good use.
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Speaking of BBQ's, Yvonne was
still selling raffle tickets to help pay for
it. Even the Mayor was not quick enough to
escape.
Someone once said that as a tennis player
Tony Leigh made an excellent guitarist! It may
or may not be true, but Tony and his band
certainly cranked up a storm to keep the
party-goers rocking on until late into the
evening. What a way to christen the new
clubhouse and to let all our neighbours know
that we were celebrating. |
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