From the Racquets Sub-Committee
From the Racquets Sub-Committee
Chair Jonathan Sweeney
Happy New Year to everyone and welcome to our first edition of “From the Racquets Sub-Committee”.
To reflect the broader offerings of racquet sports at Royal Sydney we have renamed the Tennis and Squash Sub-Committee to the Racquets Sub-Committee. I hope you have all managed to have a good break over the festive season and reconnect with family and friends, particularly so given the horrors of 14th December.
As we look towards 2026 it is helpful to reflect on all the things that we have achieved over 2025 in Racquet Sports.
The resurfacing of court 7 into a multi-sport court, enabling both tennis and pickleball, was a significant achievement and has been received very well.
The addition of our new coaches; Laura and Meryl to the team has been a great success, adding further to the expertise of Monique and Gerard. We also bid farewell to Cayleigh who has gone on to head up the tennis program at Ascham.
The Lawn Court and Hardcourt Championships were great successes with more and more Members participating. We are looking at including some new events to attract even more players.
Squash has continued to grow with more Royal Sydney teams playing the City Houses competition and increasing participation in squash events. We have had continued success in the City Houses competition and won the “Golden Balls” interclub tournament.
Tennis also had successful interclub events against Elanora and Royal South Yarra. The match against Royal South Yarra was played in Melbourne and despite inclement weather we managed to get in a few matches. Unfortunately, the reduced format did not help us and we suffered a defeat at the hands of a very strong RSY team. It was great to see some new faces in the Royal Sydney team and bodes well for a new influx of younger players into the Royal Sydney Team.
The Cadet program is proving to be very popular and demand for spaces has been very strong. We are looking at how we can engage with even more children and grandchildren of Members to widen participation in tennis beyond the Cadet program.
Mattia and the team have been planning a number of new programs and events for 2026 so keep an eye out for them, as they should be a lot of fun and appeal to Members of all standards.
2026 will be a year of renewal for the Racquets Sub-Committee with a number of members retiring in April. I would like to thank Elizabeth Johnston, Sophie Quist and Andrew Jerogin for their tireless work, commitment and great ideas during their time on the Sub-Committee.
I will be stepping down and would like to thank you all for your support, help and great suggestions over my time as Chair.
We could not have achieved anything without the excellent work of Patrick Lenard, Mattia Stoissa and Mark Wallace. They, along with the superb coaching team, have been nothing short of exceptional and racquet sports is in great shape due to all their enthusiasm, hard work and perseverance.
I wish you all the best and look forward to seeing you out on the courts.