Return to senior ranks

Press, 12 September 1986, Page 13

Return to senior ranks

Avonside, the oldest tennis club in Christchurch — it held its first opening day 90 years ago — is back in women’s senior inter-club competition this season after an absence of a year. It has a reputation of strength over many years since then, especially in the women’s teams fielded in that competition. Whether the tranquillity of the club surroundings, bordering as they do the quiet, flowing Avon River, has a beneficial or relax-

ing effect on the spirit, or whether the women of the Avonside club just happen by luck to last longer, look younger and continue playing, or being involved in tennis long after their contemporaries have relegated their rackets to the garage, is something to ponder. Their record in Christchurch inter-club participation is remarkable. The first team competed in the 1955-56 season with such notable players as Stephanie Field, Vai Elley, Diana Norrie (now

McKinnel) and Pauline Boatwood. They reached the final in this very first year, losing to United. Until relegated two seasons ago their participation in inter-club has been constant since 1955. In a senior sport which often sees a shuffling of players each season between clubs, it is refreshing to note the loyalty to Avonside shown by their long playing stalwarts. Two players who still play extremely well and who this year will relinquish player positions in the

Avonside team are Diana McKinnel and Carol Pearce, who now plan to concentrate on their veterans* tournament commitments. The two won several titles in the last few years, while still playing senior inter-club. Mrs McKinnel, who has had such a dose association with Avonside over many years, as player, captain, coach and president, has played for Avonside since 1955, relinquishing her place in the team only in the days when approaching motherhood kept her on the sidelines — one suspects impatiently. Diana Norrie, as she was in the earlier times, was always prominent in Canterbury tennis, being a finalist in many Canterbury titles and winning several doubles titles with her partner, Carol Smith (now Pearce), who remains her doubles partner on the veterans circuit Carol Pearce also has a fine tennis record, playing competitively since 1953, winning the national plate under 17 and 19 as a junior. In 1960 she won the Canterbury senior singles title. In 1958 the Avonside women's team won the inter-club title that had eluded the first team back in 1955. The team was Pat Leopold, Lois Mardon (now Marriott), Carol Smith (Pearce) and Diana McKinnel. By 1980 the team had won the inter-

club title eight times in 16 years.

Pat Leopold, a player in that first winning team in 1958, also gained national recognition, and proved over the years to be not only an Avonside stayer, but a tennis player whose love of the game carried her on to selector status for Canterbury. Other players have added their steady talents to the Avonside reputation — Lois Marriott, and, more recently, Stephanie Field, who has only recently switched from senior inter-club to concentrate on veterans’ events. For the last 10 years Jean McDonald has applied her considerable tennis talent to Avonside’s cause, and as captain of the team last year led her team to win the first division, and so regain senior status. Traditionally, the Avonside teams have carried a reputation of an ability to keep the ball coming back over the net, of a dogged determination to hang on to each point gained, and, above all, of an ability to produce a fighting spirit that leaves many a younger team wondering.