Mayfield Tennis Club Tournaments

TOURNAMENTS

1929 to 1985

In the early days of the Club, it was decided by members that “outside” tournaments would not be entered and this was confirmed later when there was a proposal that lady members should enter a team in the Southern Suburbs Housewives League.

However, in 1954 it was agreed that social matches should be arranged against other clubs on Sunday mornings and the first game was against Technical College. In subsequent years, matches were played against Shell Oil, Syfrets, Kelvin Grove, Olympics, Constantia, Bergvliet, Pinelands, the Dutch Tennis Club and Banhoek.

The first Club Tournament (mixed) was held in March, 1932 for a cup for men and a rose bowl for ladies, presented by the President, Mr Watt.

Club tournaments have been held annually since then and in 1936 Mr and Mrs 0. Turner presented two more cups.

In 1964 a Round Robin competition was added for a floating trophy presented by Potter and Moore.

In 1980, Mrs A. Andersen presented a new cup for a mixed Round Robin Tournament.

Encouragement has always been extended to junior members and for many years tournaments were organised for them. In 1971 and 1972 cups were donated to the winners by Mrs L. van der Berg but subsequently floating trophies were purchased by the Club.

In 1982 a new mixed social competition was inaugurated on a Sunday morning between teams selected by the President and Past President.

1986 to 2006

Club tournaments continued to be held throughout the year, mainly on a mixed doubles format.

In addition to the Potter and Moore Trophy, the Audrey Andersen mixed doubles Cup was also played for. These tournaments were played on a Saturday afternoon in lieu of social tennis and in 2005 a new system was introduced using the board which is used on Saturday afternoons to determine the make-up of sets, so that late comers and early leavers could be included in the tournament.

The men’s doubles competition was usually played on a Sunday morning

Matches against other Clubs gradually fell away except for the annual match against Pinelands Tennis Club which continues to be very popular. In recent years the match has been hosted by our Club due to Pinelands having difficulty in providing sufficient courts and recently “penalty points” were introduced for various indiscretions by participants which, when applied to the score always seemed to bring the final result to an honourable draw.

The Seniors vs Juniors (organised by David Parkyn) was an enjoyable fixture in the late 1980s but sadly has not been played on a regular basis for many years.

The “Opening Day” Chairman vs Past Chairman tournament has continued to be held and is usually followed by a braai.

This photograph, taken in 2006, shows committee members Neville Balfour, Steve Broekmann, Alfredo dela Fuente, Mark Lancaster and Cliff Houston.