Albany Lawn Tennis Club enjoyed a special day recently when its indoor court was officially reopened.

His Excellency Lieutenant Governor Sir John Lorimer and Lady Lorimer arrived at the appointed time and were met by club chairman Tim Davies and president Bryan Sharp.

In the clubroom they met members of the Manx Lottery Trust, namely chairman Sarah Kelly, Sarah Maltby MHK, Trevor Butler and Ian Begley.

Other guests included Ian Copley who was the structural engineer for the project, Abi Harris who is the mother of professional tennis player Billy Harris, as well as club secretary Pat Sharp.

Only two days earlier, Billy had been named as the Sportsman of the Year at the Isle of Man Sports Awards at the Villa Marina.

Sir John then proceeded to the door of the indoor court where he knocked three times on the door - like Black Rod in Parliament - with an old wooden racquet.

Everyone in the court had been sitting in darkness and, as Sir John opened the door, the lights came on and there was a big cheer from all the guests, the juniors lined up at the net and their parents.

The Lieutenant Governor cut the ceremonial purple ribbon held by Gianna Dang Aoen and Freddie Vorster. After a few words he hit the ball over the net with the wooden racquet to big cheer and the children all ducked!

His Excellency then spoke with many around the court before everyone then adjourned to the club lounge for an excellent buffet and a lot of social chat.

The delayed 1pm coaching session went on court and the assembled guests were able to watch the lesson from the balcony.

Thanks go to the committee for all the preparation and to the juniors who behaved so well throughout the day.

- Albany’s next event is the celebration dinner which will take place at the Empress Hotel in Douglas on Friday, March 27.

The club still needs to fund raise, hence the tombola which will be drawn at the dinner. Tickets are available for all members (seniors and juniors) to make their contribution towards the club’s finances.

- The dates for forthcoming club tournaments and the Chrystals Open will be announced soon.

PAT SHARP

The Isle of Man boys nine-and-under tennis team enjoyed an excellent weekend competing at the County Cup in Manchester recently.

For Eli Reeves, Tobi Kammerer, Marshall Furner and Cooper Dowd Williams, this was their first time representing the Isle of Man off-island, with Charlie Vorster the only player with previous experience.

Every single one of the boys battled hard and fought for every point across the weekend at the event in Cheadle Hulme.

There were some fiercely-contested matches against North Wales and Cumbria, with impressive doubles wins for Tobi and Eli.

Tobi also narrowly missed out in a tie-break thriller, while Cooper and Charlie delivered a standout doubles performance, narrowly losing 4–3 to Cumbria. Marshall improved match by match and pushed some very experienced players close.

Derbyshire and eventual overall winners Cheshire proved too strong on this occasion, but the boys learnt a lot from the weekend and know where they need to improve.

The team wish to thank Chris, Kristina, Andrew, Alex, Helen and Sophie for their support.