Page 36 - QARANC Vol 17 No 2 2019

34 The Gazette QARANC Association
EXERCISE GRAND SLAM 19 Army Tennis Training Camp, La Manga, Spain
The annual Army Tennis Training Camp – Ex Grand Slam, took place in Spain at the La Manga Club between 17 – 24 March 2019. Forty personnel attended, with coaching provided by two civilian coaches – Jonny Kinsella and James Pugh, who are the Army Men’s and Ladies’ coaches respectively. The players were drawn from serving and retired Army personnel, including players from the Men’s and Ladies’ ‘A’, ‘B’ and Masters’ squads, as well as various Corps players. As in previous years, the schedule included four hours of coaching and drills each day from 1000-1400 hours, with opportunities to play matches, practice skills, swim, use the gym or run ‘the hill’ afterwards.
There had been no rain in the region since December so everyone was expecting the usual hot, sunny and windy week. However, the weather had other ideas. There was torrential rain overnight and on three mornings, the red clay courts had turned into sludgy soup and delayed tennis training. Fortunately, the courts drained fairly quickly and were playable after two hours. Four hours of training was eventually completed each day, with Jonny and James introducing many new drills and mini games for match practice. Typically the men and ladies train separately. However this year there were excellent opportunities for the Men’s players to alternate between the groups and mix in, and the Ladies, Masters, ‘A’, ‘B’ and Corps players provided some good opposition. Each day’s training finished with 20 minutes of fun knockout games for all players. These varied with either everyone on court in a volley ball type game, one-hit ‘round the world’ team game or ‘beat the coaches’.
The 40 participants on Ex Grand Slam at La Manga on a sunny day
2019 Inter-Services ‘B’s Tennis Winners
There was always more tennis in the afternoons by the Men’s Masters and the Ladies’ ‘B’ team players, including Corporal Ligale, who played in preparation for their Inter- Services ‘B’ competition. This provided due dividends as I am delighted to say both the Army Men and Ladies were victorious and are the winners of the 2019 Inter-Services ‘B’ Tennis Championships.
The final day’s traditional ‘Red v Blue’ Team Tournament was due to start at 1000 hours but due to rain and flooded courts, play was delayed until 1630 hours. Good use was made of the gym, shop and cafe until the courts dried out. After three rounds of singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches to a 10 point championship tie-break format, the Reds were leading. However, two rounds later, the Blues emerged victorious. It was all good fun and epitomized the ethos and cohesion of the Army teams and also the aims and value of the training week. Hopefully this will convert into retaining our titles at the Inter-Service Championships later in the year at Wimbledon for the Inter-Services ‘A’s and Masters.
The training camp is approved and subsidised by The Army Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA) and the Army Sport Lottery. Further funds are generated from personal contributions, PRI/Unit funds and Corps funds. Thank you to the QARANC Association as well as the rest of the contributors for supporting this successful exercise. New players of any ability are always welcome to join Army tennis, and represent our Corps.
Corporal Muthoni Ligale
Sergeant Greig and Corporal Ligale keeping dry in the La Manga tennis shop
AMS personnel: Sergeant Hilary Greig (306 HSR, AMS Band), Corporal Muthoni Ligale, Lieutenant Colonel Tessa Grieves and Major Fiona Welborn (RADC)