General

February Newsletter 2021

18 Feb 2021

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The T&RA February Newsletter

Dear T&RA Members,

Welcome to this month's newsletter giving you an update of what has been going in the Tennis and Rackets world. The T&RA continue to work with other National Governing Bodies throughout this lockdown and are considering ways to rebuild the games when the lockdown is eased. Fixtures are constantly under review and are updated regularly on our website. The most recent fixture changes include:

Tennis

*U21&24 British Open Singles & Doubles Championships 2021 - 07-12 Apr 2021 - Postponed - Provisional dates 15th-19th December 2021
Cattermull Cup (Old Boys/Girls Handicap Tournament) 2021 - 07-09 May 2021 - Postponed until September 2021 (date TBC)

Click here to see a full list of Tennis fixture updates

Rackets

World Doubles Eliminator and Challenge - Postponed - Provisional dates 29 Sept - 02 Oct 2021

Click here to see a full list of fixture updates

World Challenge 2020

The International World Championship Committee (IWCC) met and unanimously agreed the 2020 World Challenge will now be held over until September 2022, with the challenger remaining as Camden Riviere.

Click here for more information

National Leauge Exhibition Match 2021

It was great to finally see some Tennis being played in the Battle of Team New England held at Boston Tennis and Racquet Club. The game saw teammates Camden Riviere and Tony Hollins as opponents. The format was best of 3 sets and a handicap of Receive 15 - Owe 30 was given to Hollins.

Click here to watch the game

2021 National League Exhibition - Riviere v. Hollins

Job Opportunity at Rugby School

Rugby School are looking to appoint a Director of Racket Sports. This is a new and exciting role and would suit a dynamic, inspiring leader who has a working knowledge of racket sports (tennis, rackets, badminton, fives and squash), an expertise in at least one of these and who would thrive in a busy seven day a week boarding school.

Click here to find out more

Director of Rackets Sports Recruitment Pack

Obituaries

Farewell Sam Beale (1947-2021)

Sam's departure will be felt in Bristol and across the Real Tennis and Rackets community. An inspiration to so many of today's youngsters (as well as the not-so-young).

The T&RA is deeply saddened to report the passing away of Sam Beale. Sam had been suffering with a long term illness (cancer) for some time, and he passed away at home peacefully with his family by his side. Despite knowing he had a difficult prognosis, Sam appeared to approach his illness with humour and great courage.

Click here to read more

Farewell Mike Bolton (1934-2021)

We are sad to record the passing of Mike Bolton, indefatigable enthusiast for life and the court games at which he excelled. At Wellington, he was in the Rackets pair 1950-53 and after Sandhurst joined the RE in 1955 and the Sarawak Rangers in 1959. So moved by his experience there he wrote the English Sea Dayak dictionary from his hospital bed.

Mike was variously Army Singles (56-59) and Doubles (54, 57-59) Rackets champion and Combined Services champion (56). He was Irish Real Tennis champion in 2003.

Click here to read more

Tennis & Rackets Entertainment

The Limerick Competition Entries have been Published

We have been overwhelmed with the number of entries reaching 300+ Limericks. For anyone looking for an evening of entertainment, I would highly suggest having a read of the entries and then voting for your top three. You can vote until 10 am on Friday 26th February and results will be published at 4 pm on Friday 26th February.

Click here to see how to vote

Read All Entries Here

Vote Here

A Brilliant Book Recommendation

MCC More than a Cricket Club
Real Tennis and other Sports at Lord`s
by John Shneerson

Are you in need of some lockdown reading? Here is a brilliant book written by John Shneerson published in November 2020. Clearly written, well-illustrated and attractively presented, this is the first account which looks at how Real Tennis and other sports have fared inside the world`s most famous cricket club.

Click here to buy the book

Around the World in 50 Courts

We continue to follow Haven Pell in his journey around the world. In this article Falkand Palace, Jesmond Dene, Manchester and Queen's Club Real Tennis courts are all featured.

Click here to read the article

Hammer Time - A Podcast for Rackets Players

We are excited to announce the first-ever Rackets podcast. In this episode, we hear Peter Cipriano, Ed Hyde and Ben Cawston's thoughts on how to create the 'perfect' rackets player using attributes of our current and recent crop of players.

One last thing...

We welcome you to take a look at the new Tennis section of the T&RA Website. With many thanks to everyone involved and especially to Richard Dalzell and his daughter Lily Dalzell. We hope you enjoy having a read of the new sections and you might even learn a thing or two.

Click here to see the new Tennis section

Click here for the NEW Tennis Section of the T&RA website

As always thank you for reading and don't forget to keep updated with the latest news by looking at our website or social media pages regularly. Links can be found at the bottom of this page.

Best wishes

The T&RA Team