More sad news for Albany members – Life member Louis Callow, died on Monday following an accident at home. Louis was the longest serving member of the club having been club captain and President. He and his late wife Nancy were members when I joined in 1962. He was always keen to support events and the development of the club at Ballaughton through all its stages. The funeral is on Monday at 11am at the Douglas Lawn Cemetary Chapel, Johnny Watterson’s Lane. I do hope some of the members who knew Louis will be able to attend.
On Wednesday we hosted 16 children who are here for their annual holiday, funded by a local charity The Friends of Children of Chernobyl. They had tennis coaching with Ian Watson and helpers and lunch provided by Jan Gaskill and helpers. Special guests included Sir Laurence and Lady New who have been patrons of the charity for many, many years and The Lt Governor, Sir Richard Gozney. His wife Diana, who is a club member helped on court. The club gave each child a gift of a Manx pen and felt pens and they are taking home 22 knitted items made with wool donated by club members and Joan’s Wool & Craft Shop for their younger siblings.They left with ice lollies and the loudest “Thank you very much” I’ve ever heard!
The Road to Wimbledon (Isle of Man) was held at Douglas TC, Kensington Road and I am pleased to say that the winners were Albany members Roch Mirski and Charlotte Clarke, who will travel to Wimbledon in August to compete with the winners from all other counties. The runners-up were also from our club Jayden Go and Sarah Long and they have been offered a day’s coaching at Wimbledon! What more could young tennis players ask for! Well done all four of you the club is proud of your achievement and I feel sure this is a memory you’ll treasure. Full results from last week’s event are on the iomlta website. Scores in the finals were Roch def. Jayden 4/0 4/1 and Charlotte def. Sarah 4/0 4/3(1).
Details of the summer camps will be on Facebook and the Albany website.