Grafton Tennis and Squash Club » Tina Whitehouse

Grafton Christmas Cracker

Tina Whitehouse — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:49:23 +0000

50 revellers enjoyed one of the best-ever parties on Saturday: the clubhouse had been transformed into a cosy, candle-lit high-class restaurant with logfire blazing; dinner was prefaced by the unveiling of the Grafton coat-of-arms masterminded by club archivist Mike Surridge and Tony Braimbridge, which is in place above the bar.
After a first-class homemade dinner had been demolished, a few Alternative Awards were presented (Best Injury and Security Guard of the Year etc) , Tony Braimbridge and Olivia Tsang picked up the Most Improved tennis/squash Players trophy and dancing kicked-in after the Raffle (proceeds to water fountain, water butt etc); The last-standing were reluctantly ejected at 0300 and a huge vote of thanks goes to Tamsin Livingstone and the Social Committee for making it happen.

GRAFTON OXBRIDGE OUTING

Tina Whitehouse — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 16:39:32 +0000

Early December brought out out the usual suspects for the Varsity match, which has become an annual Grafton outing -more for the drinking possibilities rather than the witnessing of high quality rugby. Despite limited attendance at the Uk’s older universities the party was partisan and very vocal in support of their team. This year Oxford stamped their authority in a powerful second half display. The assembled party then retreated to the usual venue of the Turks Head, and then on to Clapham for a ‘ruby murray’. Nothing to do with Sutton. Later reports suggested that the stouter members of the party continued drinking elsewhere -sore heads next day were ascribed to the US style whisky.

HALLOWEEN HI-JINKS

Tina Whitehouse — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:17:35 +0000

The pictures tell the story: everyone looked suitably ghastly and fell foul of the magic potion and were suitably bewitched, bothered and very bewildered before Lucas summoned broomsticks before the witching hour plus three….

Joint best-dressed winners were Giorgina, Morvern,Tamsin and Simon…thanks as always to social committee for organising.

MILLENNIUM CUP 1ST MATCH WIN

Tina Whitehouse — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 15:17:30 +0000

We took a good first stride towards making it three in a row in this local tournament with an impressive 8/1 win over friendly foes Norbury Park on Saturday April 16, with several players making their Millennium Cup debut. The score is deceptive: Matt and Gemma had to focus after easy first sets to close out their matches, Sergino had a tight U16 battle, Dan and Richard narrowly lost 5/7 in the third and the mixed was an entertaining three-setter with Chris and Louise edging Maxine and Norbury captain Nigel, fuelled on Pride and shod with Murray’s shoes(!) . Monica, Angela, Rob, Rachel and Nicola had solid wins to secure valuable points in this round-robin stage. Telford beat Woodfield 8/1 in the other match. Good weather, good tennis, good vibes, good day so many thanks to all who played and supported; next up is Wigmore May 7 (H)

CHRISTMAS JOLLIFICATIONS

Tina Whitehouse — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 13:06:57 +0000

45 people enjoyed a festive night (and morning): candlelit dinner, open fire,quiz, etc and the raffle winners left very happy! Many thanks to the social committee for organising and all the best to all for Christmas and 2011

Halloween at Grafton

Tina Whitehouse — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 17:56:38 +0000

A BLOODY good night was had by all. Radek’s fiendish pumpkin soup had everyone queuing at the bar to quench the flames in their throats with the Halloween punch. Special thanks to Rachel Kirsty and Ant for getting it together.

COLERAINE 4 GRAFTON 2 ( BUT HEY…)

Tina Whitehouse — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 16:34:45 +0000

The squad argue the view that they peaked in the early hours of Sunday on the dance floor of the Harbour Lounge…but to go back a bit: intrepid Graftoners Monica, Morvern, Julian, Neil (Dowden), Tony (May) and Anthony joined the advance guard of Murray and Molly in Portrush on the spectacular North Antrim coast for the match against Coleraine last Saturday (Sept 25); plans for a quick team talk at the Springhill bar and an early night swiftly dissolved as the Guinness and the craic kicked in but miraculously we assembled on time at the delightful Rose Gardens courts.

In deference to our hosts we duly achieved a noble 2-4 loss:
Morvern and Monica d Angie and Anne 3/6 6/3 6/4 hauling it back from 2/4 0/40 in the third, which contained a 14-deuce game!
Ant and Tony lost to Kevin and Conor 2/6 3/6 and to Paul and Ronan 1/6 3/6 in two energetic games with much slipping and sliding on the Astroturf.
Murray and Molly lost 0/6 1/6: the score belies the match of course: M+M contrived to lose several games from 40/0, there were lots of deuces, long rallies and…(whoa-let’s face it, you were blown off court-Ed)
Julian and Neil lost to Paul and Ronan 3/6 2/6 from being up 3/2 and a break but beat Kevin and Conor 6/4 6/7 7/5, saving two match points- these were two high-quality games.

Some very social tennis ensued via the club bar with our extremely hospitable hosts before 15 of us repaired to the Harbour Bar back in Portrush to celebrate the day-and the start of the next… (see picture gallery-special thanks here to Murray’s sister Roz who constituted the Grafton support team); Portrush transforms from sleepy seaside town during the day to a seething Bosch-like jungle at night so Grafton felt quite at home…

Recoveries were made on Sunday with walking, swimming, surfing and Irish music in the Springhill and plans were laid for a Coleraine return fixture in SW12 and an annual overseas match so look out Warsaw, Paris and Split!

MILLENNIUM CUP RETAINED!!

Tina Whitehouse — Sat, 25 Sep 2010 11:13:35 +0000

A repeat of last years’ final was battled out at Telford on Saturday September 18 in perfect conditions; the club may be an oasis of calm but on court it was not- this must be the closest final to date: every match was very even and the result was in doubt right to the end so there were a few shredded nerves!

First blood went to the hosts: Joseph Dwonczyk wore down Max Jones 7/5 6/2 with a powerful serving display(mens singles) and Julie Richardson outlasted a valiant Kath Bower 7/6 6/4 in a long match (Ladies 40+); but Louise Wilson and Gemma Wallace scored a valuable point for Grafton with a 6/3 6/2 win ,which was much closer than the score suggests; special mention of Louise’s net play here.

Grafton won all three of the next matches to go 4/2: in the Girls match Paula Ratajczak gamely recovered from losing a tight first set to take the next two 6/2 6/2 finding range on her groundstrokes effectively; Crystal Sutar defended strongly against her friend Charlotte Scott who was probably the more aggressive player and teased enough errors in a match containing several 20+ stroke rallies to win 6/4 6/2; the mens doubles was key and in an exceptional match Darren Good-Giles and Matt Lavers just squeezed a win 7/6 4/6 1/0 (10-8): Telford saving 3 match points, one with a let cord! Much applause from the considerable crowd here…

Then Keith Lavender squeezed enough errors from Steve Grant in the Mens 45+ with a trademark solid display 7/6 6/2 to make it 4/3; this left the Boys and Mixed on court, both of which were tight 3-setters; Joshua Thomas failed to convert 2 Millennium Cup points at 6/5 in the second and lost the tiebreak so while they started a 3rd set all eyes turned to the mixed: Kevin Bowers and Loraine Pereira took the first 6/3 but Chris Noel and Angela Raynor levelled 6/3; the 3rd was nervy but thanks to some athletic volleying from Chris, Grafton just took it 6/4 on their third match point to retain the (magnificent) trophy. The cheer from the predominantly Grafton supporters was deafening.

This was another colourful chapter in the history of Grafton and the Millennium Cup and many congratulations to ALL who played and supported this years’ competition to enable the trophy to grace the Grafton bar for another 12 months.

GRAFTON 122 A TRIUMPH TOO

Tina Whitehouse — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 17:40:54 +0000

Miraculously it didn’t rain and a great day was had by players and spectators alike celebrating Grafton’s 122nd birthday; 18 pairs battled out group and KO stages from 10 to 5 and trophies were awarded in the evening sun to Giorgina and David Mozley (Main), Steve Lynch and Simon Barker (Plate) and Murray and Hannes (Saucer) before celebrations in the bar til gone 11pm….hats off to organizers Rachel, Kirsty, who set high standards with a colour-coded order-of-play and Anthony, Radek and Lucas for BBQ/Bar and special mention to Mike Surridge for his photographic work (see the album in the bar); herewith a selection of pix and Radek can show the whole story of the day on the TV screen on request

Mitchell and Gibbs retain mixed crown

Tina Whitehouse — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 12:18:16 +0000

Toby and Melanie got the better of Ben Kelly and Morvern Scott in an excellent match last Saturday 6/4 3/6 6/0; Ben and Morvern levelled after a very tight high-quality first set with long rallies and some brilliant retrieving from all four players; but then Toby and Melanie ran clear thanks to Toby’s acrobatic volleying and strong serving and rallying from Mel, who made very few errors.