Message from our President

This newsletter is being written in strange times indeed. We have had to take the unprecedented step of closing down the activities of the club. We recognise that the club has an important role that extends beyond being a venue for tennis but also provides a valuable social outlet for members. It has been encouraging to hear of members keeping in touch via zoom and other means. Hopefully, we’ll have the opportunity to return to the courts before too long.  In the meantime, please stay safe and keep in contact via phone, email or social media. If you don’t already, please start following the club on Instagram and Facebook

Congratulations to our winning shield match teams and Most Valuable Player winners.  With final standings determined by the ladder positions, our Men’s State League team defended their title and our Women’s State League Team capped off our most successful season for a number of years, finishing second. My thanks to Ellen Lynch, Trish Haffenden and Mark Leuba for their efforts in organising the teams and to the team members for the manner in which they conducted themselves as representatives of the club.

We have a number of new members and I welcome you to the club. Please drop us a line if you have any questions or concerns and I look forward to meeting you in person.

Club Manager

I take this opportunity to welcome Di Cousins as our new Club Manager. We had an excellent group of candidates and thank you to the selection committee for their time and effort. Di’s activities are naturally quite restricted currently. In time, she will be focused on generating various new tennis initiative including night social tennis as well as strengthening the integration between Team Tennis and the Club. This also means Jenny’s time at the club will come to an end.  We are extremely grateful for Jenny’s efforts, loyalty and dedication over a 20 year period, and we can assure members that once current restrictions are eased, we will arrange an appropriate thank you function for Jenny.

Colin Napier

CLUB NEWS

CONGRATULATIONS to our 2 oldest members, Arnold Jones and Jaman, who both celebrated their 85 Birthday in April.

CONGRATULATIONS to the Napier Clan, with Kira Napier giving birth to a baby boy in April, making Rhoda and Garry first time Grandparents and Doug, a Great Grandfather for the first time.

THANKS to James Williams who has organized regular weekly telephone hook-ups with the Wednesday Men's social group. It's good to know that Gordon Dunlop is making great progress from his knee injury & could be back on the court by Christmas.

THANK YOU to the following members who have accepted new positions on the Board of Hensman Park Tennis Club: James Williams (Finance)  Michael Mclean (Sponsorship)

THANK YOU to Dale Hughes for all his work with Sponsorship.

THANK YOU to Ellen Lynch who has joined the Junior Development Team and will assist Connor Smith and Mark Leuba.  Her main role will be communications and she can be contacted on m.0432 107 646.

CONDOLENCES to the family and friends of a former long-standing member Elsie Carroll, the wife of John Carroll (deceased), who passed away earlier this year.

HPTC acknowledges the contribution of Andrea Mitchell, a former club member and President of Tennis West over 12 years, who passed away in April after a long illness, aged 64.

Men's State League

Tennis West has awarded the Men’s State League Title to our Men’s State League Team. MVP was awarded to Zach Itzstein

Brydan Klein, Evan Manso, Ethan Cook, Rhys Johnson, James Connelly, Ashwin Sharma, Matty Burton, Vincent Stouff,  Ashby Farrell Captained by Zach Itzstein.

Thanks to Ian Hutchison Real Estate and Team Tennis for their sponsorship this past season.

We had a high-quality team and played terrific tennis. There were various occasions where team members had to sit matches out, but they did so admirably and always put the team before themselves, which was great to be a part of  - Zach Itzstein

Vincent Stouff, Zach Itzstein, Ashwin Sharma, Evan Manso, Brydan Klein (pic below)

Women's State League

Tennis West has awarded 2nd place to our Women's State League Team. Congratulations to Anja Dokic (Captain) Ella Nurkic, Jennifer Ellie, Gen McCloskey, Ksenija Vujacic, Hayley Burton, Jaime Edwards, and Lily Fairclough.

Many thanks to Linda at South Perth Travel for their sponsorship this past season, our most successful in many years! We sincerely hope to have them on board again for our next State League season and our thoughts are with them at this difficult time.

The WSL had a fantastic season and we were very happy to finish second considering the awful circumstances and how the season ended. This was our best result in years. We had a team of seven and everyone was very supportive in all decisions made, on who would play each match. The girls were a close-knit group and worked together well and made each week fun. We can't wait for next season. Thanks to the Club and everyone that supported us - Anja Dokic

Hayley Burton, Jennifer Ellie, Ella Nurkic, Anja Dokic, Ksenija Vulacic (pic below)

Club Captain's Reports

Women's Summer League:

What a sad ending to a fantastic Summer Tennis League season. Although we didn't have any team sitting on top of the ladder, we had a couple of teams that made semi-finals:

Thursday Doubles Div 5 (sitting 3rd)

O/35 Sunday Ladies (sitting 4th)

I would like to thank all the players for their support and especially the Captains who make my job so much easier. A fantastic result for our great team. Thanks, girls for your dedication, communication skills, sense of humour and above all support of the club and the team. It was a pleasure to manage you.

Trish Haffenden (Women's Captain)

Men's Summer League:

Due to COVID-19 and cancellation of Summer Pennants finals, Tennis West has advised the ladder leader at the end of the rounds is the designated winner.

Winning Men's Teams are:

Saturday Men Div 2

Nicholas de Lima, Matthew Burton, Kendrick Chia, James Newton, Tyler Mizuhata, Conor Smith (R), Trent Caruana (R), Adam Napier (R) and Captained by Ash and Matt Burton. The team was dominant over the season, with consistently good performances. Unfortunately impacted by injuries and absences later in the season, but still managed to win the competition.

Saturday Men Div 3

Lachlan Casey, Tom Oliver, Lee Augustson, Conor Smith, James Haas, Yagan Kiely and Captained by Jaye Mckay. They were dominant over the season and a particularly good performance from Lachlan Casey who also won MVP for the division.

John Di Noto (Men's Captain)

Summer League MVP Winners: 

Men's State League

Zach Itzstein (pictured above)

Saturday Men's Open Div 3

Lachlan Casey

Sunday Men's 50+ Doubles Div 1

Ian Rundle

Tuesday Mixed Doubles

Veronica Burns

WHO IS VERONICA BURNS: 

Veronica has been a member of Hensman Park Tennis Club since 2012.

She began playing tennis at Australind Tennis Club in Primary School and was selected to represent WA in the State Team in 2006.

Veronica has previously been a member of our Hensman Park WSL team and our Saturday Div 1 team. And more recently, the Tuesday night Mixed Doubles Div 2 team and Thursday night Ladies Div 1 team.

Congratulations to Veronica for this MVP recognition.

A 'younger' Veronica Burns (left pic below)

Junior Summer League

Congratulations to our Junior Summer League Team winners:

Girls 14&U Div 5

Congratulations to Grace Bell, Madhavi Shrivastave, Monet Chandler, Anoushka Joshi, and Finlay Foster.

Girls 12&U Div 2

Congratulations to Annabelle Rowe, Olivia Buttgeig, Matilda Cridland, Emma Loughnan, and Katya Horrocks.

We had 4 MVP award winners:

George Rowe 14&U Div 3

Grace Bell 14&U Div 5

Raavi Gill 12&U Div 1

Matilda Cridland 12&U Div2

Grounds and Hall Update

Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, activities at the Club are severely restricted.

The Clubhouse and toilets are closed.

Courts: 5 Hard courts and 3 Grass courts are available for use by Members and the Club’s Coaches. Please refer to Facebook for the latest conditions of use.

Access to the courts is via the South West gate – use code 6151.

Grass Court Fence

Rusted chain-wire mesh on the fence between the 2 Grass court Bays has been replaced. Thanks to The City of South Perth who provided $5000 towards the cost. The City of South Perth also installed a new ceiling fan in the Kitchen.

Verti-mowing

Grass Courts 13 to 17 were verti-mowed on Thursday 16 April.

Weed Spraying

A big thank you to Arnold Jones for carrying out weed spraying around path edges and beneath fences. Arnold also puts out our rubbish bins each week.

Club Lease

The City of South Perth Council meeting on 24 March approved a 21 Year lease for our Club. Our previous lease was for 5 Years.

City of South Perth Master Plan for the “Hensman Reserve”

The City of South Perth will commence the development of Master Plan for the “Hensman Reserve” (Tennis Club, Kindergarten, Sump and Playground) in the second half of 2020. The process could take about 12 months to complete. If you want any more information about the Master Plan please call Ken McIntosh on m. 0427 422 759

Social Tennis

Up until the close of the club due to COVID-19 attendance at social tennis remained steady with 5 grass courts being regularly used on Saturday afternoon, 4 courts on Wednesday afternoon, 2 courts on Wednesday morning, and 2 courts on Friday afternoon. Since the club closure, the Wednesday afternoon men’s group has continued to keep in contact with each other via email and a light-hearted videoconference chat each Wednesday at 5pm. A number of members are taking advantage of the relaxation of the club closure rules, whereby restricted access has been allowed to the courts for one on one hitting during the daytime

Peter Messer

Sponsorship

HPTC welcomes Spadaccini Homes & New Choice Homes as sponsors, replacing the Master Builders Association which has been a sponsor for the last decade. Our new sponsors have signage on court 17. Spadaccini Homes specializes in the $500,000 & above contract home category. Spadaccini Homes won the top home award in Australia in 2017 for 2 different Perth homes in both the MBA & HIA national housing awards, a feat that is unlikely to ever be repeated. New Choice Homes has won numerous Master Builders awards and services in the $150,000 - $550,000 price range for both first and second home buyers. Contact Rob Spadaccini on m.0417 778 804 to discuss all your housing plans.

Please support our Sponsors wherever you can and let them know you're from Hensman.  We appreciate their support and want to ensure they get maximum value for their sponsorship so we build a long term relationship.