Grace Park Lawn Tennis Club

117th Annual Report for the year ended July 31, 2006

Grace Park
Lawn Tennis Club Inc

117th Annual Report and Financial Statement

Year ended July 31, 2006

NOTICE TO MEMBERS

The 117h Annual General Meeting of the Grace Park Lawn Tennis Club will be held on Sunday, December 10, 2006 at 5:00pm in the Clubhouse,
6 Hilda Crescent, Hawthorn.

AGENDA

1. To confirm the minutes of the 116th Annual General Meeting held on November 27, 2005.
2. To receive the 117th Annual Report, Accounts and Balance Sheet.
3. To elect office bearers for 2006/2007.
4. To elect Auditors for 2006/2007.
5. To adopt a motion that Paul Lord be elected a Life Member of Grace Park Lawn Tennis Club Inc.
6. General Business.

By order of the General Committee

J Miles
Honorary Secretary

GRACE PARK LAWN TENNIS CLUB INCORPORATED
6 HILDA CRESCENT, HAWTHORN, VICTORIA 3122

Office Bearers 2005/2006

President: Mr Terry Stone

Immediate Past President: Mr Austen Diggle

Vice Presidents: Messrs Brian Gedge & David Allison

Honorary Secretary: Mr John Miles

Assistant Secretary: Mrs Sandra Stone

Honorary Treasurer: Mr Stuart Rogers

Assistant Treasurer: Mr Sebastian Sauvey

General Committee: Messrs Brett Browning, Barry Schmidt, Colin Davis, Nigel Munro, Nicolas Rayer
Mme Sandy Gedge

Life Members: Mesdames M Court, S King, J Vatovey, Drs J Diggle*, J Henley, Messrs P Cash,
P McNamee, M Rose, A Mulhauser*, K Rogers*, T Rush, F Sedgman, S Sharman, A Diggle, W. Arthurs

Patrons: Mr J Herring, Mrs D Diggle

Club Administrator: Mrs Sandra Stone

* Deceased

117TH ANNUAL REPORT AND FINANCIAL STATEMENT
FOR THE YEAR ENDED JULY 31, 2006

TO BE PRESENTED AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF MEMBERS
AT THE CLUBHOUSE ON SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen,

On behalf of the Committee I submit for your consideration the 117th Annual Report, together with the audited statements for the year ended July 31, 2006.

It has been a sad year for the club with the passing of Paul Dougherty – Champion tennis player, tennis coach, devoted husband and dad.
Alan Vic – District cricketer, great mate to the regulars at the bar.
Dr John Diggle – Club legend, President, Life member, pioneer of sports medicine.
Fred Davis – Father of Colin our pennant convenor
Paul Coxhill – Played No. 1 grade 1 VTA pennant at the age of 16 in the 80’s

On behalf of the club we pass on our condolences to their friends and family.

Let’s hope the club flag stays at the top of the mast for a long time to come.

Our State Grade women’s pennant team have done us proud by defeating Dingley in the grand final 4 rubbers to 0. Congratulations to captain Kristen Van Elden (State Pennant Player of the year) Kate Pinchbeck, Kelly Dunns and Jo May on this great achievement. I am sorry that Karen Butler, due to shoulder surgery, could not be an on court part of the win but her efforts off court played a big part in the success of the team. The men’s state team lost to Kooyong in the semi final.

Veterans Section 1 and Section 3 and the Grade 3 men’s team also won pennants which makes it our most successful season for many years. Thanks to Colin Davis, Sebastian Sauvey and Sandra Stone for their huge amount of work (and many coffees) in running 22 teams in the winter, along with the Bayside Summer Competition teams.

Our sponsors for the year 2005/06 once again provided much needed financial assistance for our top level teams. Our major sponsors are as follows:

Dunlop Slazenger
Cantwells Property
Triangle Corporation
O’Loughlin Design Service Pty Ltd
Studio Craft Picture Framers
Clean & Green Property Services
Oakley Thompson & Co.
Prince

Membership numbers at the 31st July, 2006 were as follow:

Country Non-Playing: 1
Country Playing: 2
Full Playing: 230
Full Playing Gold: 6
Honorary: 3
Junior: 261
Life: 12
Non-Playing: 30
Non-Playing Gold: 3
Patron: 2
Provisional Playing: 36
Social: 12
Special Junior: 2
Temporary: 4

Total: 603

Our membership has shown a slight decrease in numbers, but still remains at a very healthy level.

The Bayside Juniors have been very successful winning 4 pennants in the winter season – well done to all concerned. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Brett Browning and his wife Kim for the great job that they
have done in running the juniors teams over the past 3 years. Brett is stepping down from the junior convenor position. Thanks for a job well done.

Through our committee’s and bar convenor Brian Gedge’s decision to not continue with a full time bar manager, but to use casual bar staff, we can now see over a full year the financial benefit to the club, and it has been substantial.

Night competition and squash pennant, I am sure, have given great stress relief to many of our hard working members. Thanks to Sandy and Brian Gedge (tennis) Graeme Rough and David Allison (squash) the club remains as vibrant as ever and the bar till continues to tick over at a great rate.

Our gymnasium continues to serve members, and acts as a great attraction to potential new members thinking of joining the club. Kirsten Sutherland and Sam McLean, through their organisation ‘Pulse’, are great assets to our club and many of our members are enjoying a new lease of life due to their training methods.

At the end of the last year Christian Muddle and Kevin Gill left the committee, we thank them for their contributions.

Stuart Rogers has carried out his role as treasurer in an extremely professional manner. We sincerely thank him for the enormous amount of time that he has put in to keep the club’s finances in check.

Club secretary John Miles continues to perform his role of Club Secretary admirably – it takes a lot of hard work, which is greatly appreciated.

Sandra Stone our club administrator is to be commended for her approach to all matters pertaining to the day to day running of the club.

David Allison once again tirelessly ran the club championships over the Labour Day weekend in March which saw Paul Lord creating club history by winning his 10th Men’s Open Singles title.

Kim Tram has once again played an instrumental part in the preservation of the club’s history. Through his company ‘Studio Craft’, he has framed more of our historic club photos, including one of Sir Robert Menzies. He also donated the framing of our latest State Grade Women’s flag.

Your committee has decided to cease the costly and time consuming quarterly newsletter and replace it with regular updates on our new website www.graceparkltc.com For some of our older members this may pose a problem but we must be with the times. Tony Lam and Sandy Gedge have put in an enormous amount of work to produce such an excellent site.

Austen Diggle our immediate past president continues to be a great help to the committee, and me personally, with his vast knowledge of the club

Finally, I would like to sincerely thank all members for their support without which Grace Park would not be regarded as one of the top clubs in Victoria.

Terry Stone
President

State Grade	Grade 1
Mark Van Elden	Danny Arbib (c)
Michael Staniak	Tom Paine
James Lemke	Aaron Pisani
Matthew Hicks	Xen Fourinotos
Adam Hubble	Ben Elix
Aaron Nolan	.

Grade 4	Grade 7
Matt Paul	Nic Rayer (c)
Steven Muir	Lachie Slatter
Tom Tyndall	Sadhir Raskutti
Garvish Raskutti (c)	Ross Alderson
Shaun Waters	Zeb Nicholls
Jimmy Dougherty	.
Myekal Benham	.
	.
Grade 10	Grade 12
Brendan Jackson	Nathan Lemke
Connor O’Bryan (e)	Tysan Danda
Marcus Matear (e)	David Joseph (c)
Cooper Millett (c) (e)	Michael Thompson
James Morris (e)	George Maroulis
.	Ian Metz
.	Ben Stewart

Grade 15	.
Oliver Schatt (c)	.
Leroy Miller	.
Matthew Starling	.
Tim Yeung	.
James Richards	.

Men's Saturday Teams
Grade 1	Grade 2
Justin Robinson	Will Pisani
Steven Park(c)	Evan Sannan
Tim Verlin (e)	Peter Wallis
Andrew Hardeman	Wayne Smith (c)
Zac Berezaski	Ashley Allan
Rowan Kerr	.

Grade 3	Grade 5
Taila Donald	Craig Weller
David Donchi	Dean Seeley
Seb Sauvey (c)	Andrew Oxland (c)
Tom Sheahan	James De Leijer
Joe Flannigan	Tom Keighrey
Andy Field	Cory McCallum

Grade 7	Vets 1
Jake Hammond	Jason Lindeman
Brett DeLeijer	Brian Williams
John De Leijer (c)	Colin Davis
Tom Miller	Terry Stone (c)
Nathan Hammond	Kevin Gill
Kim Tram	John Miles
Oliver Groth	Greg Crump

Vets 3	Vets 6
Alan Fryday (c)	John De Kever (c) *
Alan Fryday (c)	Glen Mackie
Graeme Lamb	Ron Stasiak
Dennis Bridgland	Brett Browning
Rohan McIntosh	Steve Wellard
Hardi Rahimi	.
Leon Shanahan	.

Women’s Pennant Teams 2006
State Grade	Grade 1
Kristen Van Elden (c)	Jurate Hardy
Kate Pinchbach	Ola Luczak (c)
Kellie Duns	Sarah Miller
Joanne May	Uta Preston
.	Caitlin Brooksbank
.	Brooke Chapman
.	Tanja Klenkoski

Grade 2	Grade 4
Felicity Smith	Brooke Starling
Jackie Collins (c)	Alice Gordon
Shu Huei Huang-Fredt *	Alison Simons
Carla Smarille	Michelle Grocock (c)
Julia Kourzetsova	Jane Brodie
Lara Williams	Collette Fowler
.	Samantha Bridgland

Grade 6	Grade 7
Sophie McKinley	Melissa Cooper
Rebecca Davey	Sophie Sheahan (c)
Ashley Ward	Jessica Heeps
Courtney Jarman	Beatrice Matthews
Sylvia Luchin	Alice Mosley
Marita Ouzas	Ilona Stuwart

Grade 7	.
Nichola Simmons	.
Anne Simmons	.
Ashley Capannolo (c)	.
Taylor Capannolo	.
Mikala Capannolo	.
Madeline Cosgrove	.

2006 PENNANT TENNIS REPORT

2006 has provided the Club with arguably its best season ever. Twenty-two teams were entered (three men’s and three women’s teams more than in 2005) placing the club third only behind Dendy Park and Kooyong for the most number of teams entered. Of these twenty-two teams, twelve reached their sectional finals or beyond.

The State Grade ladies were successful in winning their grand final over Dingley while our Grade 1 ladies lost in the semis. Pleasingly our Grade 6 and both Grade 7 girls reached their respective sectional finals showing that we have solid strengths coming up from our younger girls.

On the men’s side both our State Grade and Saturday Grade 1 teams lost in the semis while the Grade 3 men won the flag defeating Wonga Park. Grade 5 and 12 teams reached their sectional finals while our Vets 1 and 3 teams won their respective grand finals.

Two players were named pennant player of the year in their respective grades: Kristen Van Elden in Ladies State Grade and Nigel Munro in Vets 3. A special mention should go to Kristen who was undefeated in the number one position including finals.

Lastly I would like to thank all the players, captains and parents of juniors participating for all their effort in making this such a successful year for the club. A special mention must go to Sandra Stone for all her assistance in this, my first year as pennant convenor.

PS In summer we have entered 8 teams in the Bayside singles/doubles competition (5 men and 3 women's)

Colin Davis & Sandra Stone
Pennant Convenors

CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 2006 Grace Park Club Championships were held over the Labour Day long weekend with the finals played on Monday, March 8, providing a concentrated feast of tennis, which the players are starting to appreciate as a preferred alternative to the country tournaments. In particular, we thank John Miles, David Allison, Sebastian Sauvey, Nigel Munro and Terry & Sandra Stone for completing the daunting task with a minimum of complaints. All Club members are encouraged to play in the annual tournament and make it a bigger and more exciting event each year. There is a multitude of talented players within the Club so spectators and fellow competitors should come along and give support and enjoy the viewing of some fantastic matches.

Every effort to accommodate all players and time is made when the draw for the tournament is being completed. However, with the number of courts and events offered, it is impossible to satisfy everyone. Much time and energy is required to run the tournament so please make sure when you enter the annual tournament that you are available at all times to play and have no prior commitments. This will alleviate the need for forfeits and rescheduling of matches causing inconvenience and disappointment to all parties concerned.

	Winner	Runner Up
Men’s Singles Open	Paul Lord	Daniel Arbib
Men’s Singles B Grade	Colin Davis	Barry Schmidt
Men’s Singles C Grade	Matt Payne	Jason Whitehill
Men’s Singles D Grade	Cooper Millet	Oliver Groth
Men’s Singles Veterans	Colin Davis	Brian Williams
Boys’ Singles 18 & Under	Shaun Waters	Jimmy Dougherty
Boys’ Singles 16 & Under	Nathan Lemke	Brett De Leijer

Men’s Doubles Open	A.Stone/D.Arbib	H.Rahimi/P.Lord
Men’s Doubles B Grade	S. Sauvey/C.McCallum	J. Dougherty/Z.Nicholls
Men’s Doubles C Grade	J.Hammond/N.Hammond	G.Mourlis/M.Thompson
Men’s Doubles D Grade	R.McIntosh/J.McIntosh	C.Sheahan/J.Morris
Men’s Doubles Veterans	C.Davis/R.Williams	H.Rahimi/B.Schmidt

Ladies’ Open Singles	Ola Luczak	Uta Preston
Ladies’ Open Doubles	O. Luczak/B.Chapman	K.Butler/S.Miller
Ladies’ Graded Singles	Claire Lemke	Collette Fowler
Girls’ Singles 18 & Under	Caitlin Brooksbank	Brooke Chapman
Girls Singles 16 & Under	Courtney Jarman	Sophie Sheahan

NIGHT TENNIS COMPETITION - 2006

The Blackburn & District Night Tennis Competition SUMMER 2005 season started in July , 2005.
At writing this report the season is nearly over with only the finals to play.

For the current season Grace Park fielded 12 teams totalling approx. 90 players, who play Open Doubles on Tuesday and Thursday nights. The competition comprises 36 clubs throughout the district who together field more than 2000 players distributed over 40 sections and 316 teams and four nights – it is a very big event and there is plenty of tough competition. Some clubs ‘pennant level’ players who like to keep their weekends free, play in this competition so there is no lack of challenge.

For each half yearly season, a total of 14 rounds are played followed by the finals rounds. This season, Semi Finals are played week of November 21st followed by the FINALS during the week of 28th November, 2006. At time of writing the finals are not yet completed.

We can report that Grace Park had a successful 1st season of 2006, with three teams winning their respective flags. The winners are as follows:-

Thursday A Reserve Grace Park Phoenix captain Sandy Gedge
Thursday C Special (1) Grace Park Bombers captain John Innes
Tuesday C(3) Grace Park Demons captain Peter Adam

Each section (normally) has 8 teams. The finals rounds are played in order:- Semi Final – 1st vs 4th at 1st home; 2nd vs 3rd at 2nd home: Grand Final - Winners of the Semi Final round play at a venue yet to be determined.

Usually, the winner of the Finals goes up a grade and the number 8 team (bottom!) goes down a grade, although the organisers do exercise some discretion, and this is not always the case.

Entries for next season, commencing the week of January 29, 2007, are already closed. Sometimes, however, it is possible to place late entries should there be a ‘bye’ in any of the grades. So, if you would like to play or enter a team please contact the Club.

Ladies, in particular, are reminded that there is Ladies competition on Monday nights, so why not get a team together and join in the fun?

Brian & Sandy Gedge
Night Tennis Competition Convenors.

SQUASH REPORT

In 2005-06, the Grace Park Squash Section has enjoyed another fulfilling year. Unfortunately, the courts were not fully utilised with the MCC Squash Section relocating to its new permanent home at the RACV clubhouse in Bourke Street, Melbourne (from the commencement of the Spring 2005 Season). However, this was partially offset by the emergence of a new team of younger players and recruits from tennis in the Autumn Season of 2006.

The Grace Park Pennant Player of the Year in 2005 was Adam Stone, who won from Max Newton in second place and Rob Fowler just behind in third place. Whilst Adam’s success rate was outstanding at 88% of matches won (from 17 matches played), Rob’s effort in winning 75% of his 41 matches is equally meritorious given the level of commitment it takes to play that many matches,. However, we can only have one winner and that is Adam, well done, and commiserations to Max and Rob.

Congratulations to Austen Diggle who has collected more silverware, winning the 2003 and 2004 Club Championships. There has been a considerable delay in completing the championships because of player commitments, lack of facilities (only one court makes it difficult to hold a tournament) and injuries. Nonetheless, Austen defeated Hugo Jankov 3/0 in the 2003 Championship and Angelo Coco in the 2004 Championship (also 3/0). Austen’s performance was even more meritorious when it is considered that he played the semi-final of the 2004 Championships immediately before the final. Well done Austen!

The 2005 Championship has not yet been decided with the congestion on the court, player commitments and injuries. We hope to catch up soon.

In the 2005 VSRA Club Circuit and the VMSA Spring Pennants, Grace Park entered the following teams:

Club Circuit C4	Club Circuit D1
Rob Fowler	Adam Stone
Rod Giri (c)	Max Newton
Chris Nixon	John O’Loughlin
Neil Singleton	Mat Pearson
Tim Burke	Graeme Rough (c)
	David Allison
	Lindsay Cowling
	Alan Black
	Lachlan Rough

Masters Grade 6	Masters Grade 10
Angelo Coco	Rob Fowler
John de Leijer	John O’Loughlin
Ian Cameron (c)	Chris Nixon
Hugo Jankov	Tim Burke (c)
Rod Giri	Graeme Rough
	David Allison

In Club Circuit, Rod Giri’s team in C4 finished in a disappointing 6th position. Meanwhile, Graeme Rough’s D1 team finished in fourth position on 45 points (missing the finals by a mere three points). Number one for D1, Adam Stone had a good season losing only one game, but he also missed eight games whilst on assignment with Samantha Stosur in the USA. If Adam was available for the entire season, this team would have done well in the finals.

In Masters, Ian Cameron’s Grade 6 team did very well to finish second, as did Tim Burke’s Grade 10 team at the end of the home and away and went into the second semi-final against the first placed side (Altona in the case of Grade 6 and Wantirna in Grade 10). Unfortunately, both teams lost. In Grade 7, No.1, Angelo Coco lost 1/3, No.2 John de Leijer won 3/0, at No.3 Ian Cameron went down in straight sets and at No.4, Hugo Jankov lost 1/3. This was not totally unexpected as Altona had won both encounters during the home and away. In Grade 10, Wantirna won four rubbers to nil. Only Rob Fowler put up some resistance whereas John O’Loughlin, Tim Burke and Graeme Rough all lost 0/3.

However, all was not lost, yet, and we moved on to the preliminary final. Rob Fowler had booked his plane ticket and was off to Spain, promoting John O’Loughlin to No.1 in Grade 10. Unfortunately, the opposition (Fitzpatrick) were too strong and John, Graeme and David Allison all lost in straight sets. Tim Burke, however, played well, but conceded a dead rubber when the game score was 2/2. In Grade 7, a similar scenario played itself out. Angelo won, but John, Ian and Hugo all lost.

Despite this bad ending to the season, most players had a good season, especially John de Leijer with eleven wins to three losses, Angelo with an 11/5 record and Ian with a 10/5 result. Rob Fowler also did well with a 6/2 result.

In the 2006 VSRA Club Circuit and VMSA Autumn Pennant competitions, Grace Park entered the following teams:

Club Circuit D1	Club Circuit D1
Rob Fowler	Max Newton
Neil Singleton	John O’Loughlin
Rod Giri (c)	Mat Pearson
Chris Nixon	Graeme Rough (c)
Tim Burke	David Allison

Club Circuit E2	Masters Grade 5
Jolyeon White	John de Leijer
Lachlan Rough (c)	Angelo Coco
Lachlan Cooper	Ian Cameron (c)
Andrew Field	Hugo Jankov
Andrew Pannifex	Rod Giri
	Phil Warren

Masters Grade 10
Rob Fowler
Neil Singleton
John O’Loughlin
Chris Nixon
Tim Burke
David Allison (c)

In Club Circuit the pennant organisers were unkind and put two of our teams in the same grade (D1) when one team had applied for C4 and the other team, D2. The result was that the higher ranked team led by Rod Giri had a fairly successful season only to lose the Grand Final, whereas the lower ranked team led by Graeme Rough struggled, but did manage to avoid refereeing duties. The highlight for Graeme’s team was defeating Rod’s team in the Grace Park Derby, however, this backfired a little as the drinks bill was enormous.

It was a pleasure to welcome fresh talent to the Club, when a new team was entered in E2. The team was a group of first year university students who hailed from Scotch College and the younger bar staff from Grace Park. The team suffered when Lachlan Cooper was offered a place in Medicine at Adelaide University and Jolyeon White ended up at Deakin (Geelong). Nonetheless, the team gained valuable experience and these players will be an asset for the Club for many years to come.

In Masters, Ian Cameron’s Grade 5 team had another successful home and away season finishing in second place on the ladder. However, finals are different and this team lost its second semi-final and then the preliminary final to be eliminated at the penultimate hurdle. Notwithstanding this disappointing end to the season, John de Leijer and Hugo Jankov had outstanding individual win/loss ratios. Unfortunately, David Allison’s team in Grade 10 faired poorly and its participation in the finals was limited to refereeing duties.

- Graeme Rough

The 2006 Wednesday night tennis season started 1st week of February and will continue, without break, until 13th December 2006.

Wednesday Night Tennis commences at 7pm for 3 hours of continuous play until 10pm, when there is a tasty barbecue which, together with a few drinks amongst friends makes for a lot of fun in the comfort of the Club Bar - all this for $8 including balls, lights, GST and the barbecue is super value - naturally drinks are extra.

The standard of tennis caters for grades from intermediate social to Pennant Grades - there are players at every level who enjoy the relaxation of having a good hit with mates. Numbers vary between 12 to 26 depending upon the weather and players’ Competition commitments.

Doubles is played to maximise the use of the courts, plus, playing with a partner makes for good fun. It's the perfect way to get to know people as after each set the players are "mixed up" to give everyone the chance to play with different partners (and meet new people).

Wednesday night tennis continues to be the perfect opportunity for new members and prospective members to get to know the Club and the people, and to choose to join the Club.

With the warm weather already upon us, we are looking forward to seeing continuing good attendances and lots more fun and tennis. If you are a Grace Park Club member and would like to play, just turn up at the Club at 7pm on a Wednesday ready to play and ask for Brian or Sandy - its that easy to join the fun. For non members looking to join our Club, please call Brian first on 9429 8396 to arrange a suitable night.

Brian & Sandy Gedge
Wednesday Night Tennis Convenors

The season finals were held during November & it has been another great season for our young tennis players at Grace Park. Fourteen (14) teams played & for those who are the statisticians - the statistics were as follows:

Semi Finalists: Sections 3; 4-1; 6; 7-2; 8-1; 8-2; 14; &16. (8 teams)
Grand Finalists: Sections 3; 4-1; 6; 7-2; 8-1; 8-2; & 14. (7 teams)
Premiers: Sections: 4-1; 7-2: & 8-2.

It would have been a great sight to have seen the 2 Section 8 Grace Park teams fighting it out in the Grand Finals.
Congratulations once again go to the Section 4 team (Section 5 last season) led by James Young who have won 2 premiers this year. However they do not stand alone with this achievement - this was also the case for Section 7 (Section 12 last season) led by Joshua Tram; & Section 8 (Section 13 last season) led by Billy Banias. Well done players.

A special (albeit late) note must also be made that last season (Jan – June 2006 season) that our Section 13 team (Billy & Costas Banias; Claire Robertson; Ryan Tierney; James Whelan; & Kelly Horan) won the Daryl Cox Memorial Shield for the Best Junior aggregate score. A Grace Park team last won this trophy in 2001 which was the first time since the Shield started 20 years ago.

For the new season Grace Park will be submitting sixteen (16) Sunday morning teams with one hundred (100) players starting in late January 2007 and finishing in June. We will be requesting from the full range of sections:- being from Sections: 1 (strongest) all the way through to the beginner Sections.

Next season we have 12 courts available for our sixteen teams - six courts at Grace Park (first 8 sections) and six courts at MLC (second 8 sections).

I would once again like to thank all the Captains for helping me get the teams together; to all the parents who I have spoken to; and to the new captains who have taken on this essential role.
As always, the Committee of Grace Park Lawn Tennis Club would like to sincerely thank all the parents of our juniors for getting them to the matches, but most importantly, for providing the support, encouragement and interest, that all our children and young adults need.

The Club wishes to thank all our junior players for representing Grace Park this year and we hope you all have a safe and happy holiday. The courts will be open to all members to play and practice hard over the Christmas break so please use them.

Brett Browning
Junior Convenor

After a great win in 2005 we were promoted into Section 5 from section 6. Our team of Sophie Trotter, Lilian Box, Jane Cash, Keiko Hosoda and Denise McCabe all had high expectations for another big season however it was not to be. Keiko returned to Japan during the season and a number of untimely injuries saw us finish a disappointing 6th position.

Unsure if were going to be able to fit out a team with the loss of Keiko and Denise overseas we managed to recruit 3 new players. Gwynn Joseph, Rong Xu and Sandra Stone joined us and we haven’t looked back remaining undefeated all season. The new players have brought us great depth which we hope will deliver us another grand final. We played the first final on 9th November and recorded a convincing win against the second team, Brighton. We have a week to go before the grand final on the 23rd, expectations remain high.

Unfortunately we are losing one of our key players Gwynn at the end of the year. We wish her well and thank her for her huge contribution. We look forward to next year in section 4 and would be very interested in hearing from anyone looking to join us for competition on Thursdays or a hit on Monday mornings. If anyone is interested please contact Sandra Stone

Jane Cash
Mid Week Ladies Convenor

It’s been another busy twelve months at Pulse with the gym always being a hub of activity. More and more members are utilizing the services offered at Pulse and many pulse clients have joined Grace Park over the past year as a result of their coming to Pulse at the gym.

Over the last financial year the gym was upgraded with a new treadmill purchased by the tennis club, and a number of exercise bikes were added by Pulse. This has resulted in a better-equipped gymnasium for members and the increase in usage. (even club legend Paul Lord is now training at Pulse!)

Residents in the Grace Park / Hawthorn area are now making a strong connection with Pulse and the Tennis Club which has lifted both the profile of the club and been of benefit to the club in many ways. It has always been a focus at Pulse to promote the club and we are making great progress with our involvement with many community events such as ‘Open Houses’, various Primary School Fundraisers and the ‘Oak tree Foundation’.

The addition of small group classes to our health and fitness programs and social running groups has also seen an increase of new clients visiting the club and becoming aware of the clubs amenities such as the hiring of the club room and bar for social functions.

One of our main aims of 2007 is to attract as many current members to use the gym that may not be aware of our services and to continue to improve our programs and equipment. We are delighted with the support we have received from the Committee and we look forward to retaining our strong relationship with the club and members.

We wish everyone a safe and healthy Christmas and we hope to see all of you in the gym in the New Year!

Best Wishes

Kirstyn Sutherland and Sam McLean

* Special – For January and February we are offering all members a free health and fitness consultation to show how we can help you get into shape.

Winner

Runner Up

Club Circuit C4

Club Circuit D1

Club Circuit D1

Club Circuit D1