Welcome to the International Lawn Tennis Club of New Zealand
"Hands across the net, friendship across the ocean "


Welcome to the IC of New Zealand

The IC of New Zealand was formed in 1956 and has around 150 members in New Zealand and around 50 living overseas.

Ron McKenzie and Jeffrey Robson inspired the formation of our Club after they had been made Honorary Overseas Members by the IC of Great Britain. Jeff was our Patron from 1994 until he died in 2022 aged 93 and always took a very active part in our activities.

At our May 2023 AGM we appointed another long-time member Sir Colin Maiden as our Patron. Sadly Sir Colin passed away in July 2024.

ICNZ was very pleased to send 2 teams to help celebrate the centenary of the foundation of the original International Club in Great Britain in 1924.

The revolving photos above reflect some of the team. To read more click on the August 2024 Newsletter on the Noticeboard as this is entirely a report of the IC Week held on the Wimbledon grass courts.

Some of the names of former or current International players who are members include:

Lan Bale, John A Barry, Dr Peter Becroft, Jill Bignell, Beverley (Vercoe) Billington, Martin Colenbrander, Marcus Daniell, Gilles de Gouy,      Bruce Derlin, Malcolm Elley, Marina Erakovic, Raewyn (Dickson) Ferkins, Patsy (Belton) Fleming, James Greenhalgh, Peter Hampton, Brett Hibbert, Alistair Hunt, Grantley Judge, Betty (Bryant) Kay, Robin Legge-Hunt, Dan King-Turner, David Lewis, Mark Lewis, Andrew Lobb, John Lockington, Greg Long, Justin Mackenzie, Cecilie (Fleming) McIntyre, John Mills, Ethne (Green) Mitchell, Dame Ruia Morrison, David Mustard, Mark Neilson, Linda (Stewart) Nightingale, Pavlina Nola , Elizabeth (Terry) Odgers, Onny Parun, Tony Parun, Danny Parun, Brenda Perry, Marilyn Pryde-Lawrence, Erin Routliffe, Ruth Seeman, Philip Seemann, Des Shaw, James Shortall, Jeffrey Simpson, Artem Sitak, Gary Slater, Elaine (Becroft) Stephan, Brett Steven, Judy (Burke) Tinnock, Claudine Toleafoa, Andrew Turner, Michael Venus, Marcel Vos, Wesley Whitehouse, Dan Willman, Kevin Woolcott, Brian Woolf.

Overseas based Anton Bettink, Howard Broun, Robert Clarke, Ian Crookenden,James Dunphy, Ron Dutton, Kelly Evernden, Pauline (Elliott) Hanson, Lew Gerrard, Jeremy Grubi, Steve Guy, Robyn Legge-Hunt, Chris Lewis, Mark Long, Julie Richardson, Russell Simpson, Oliver Statham, Rubin Statham, Paul Smith, Stephen Temple.

Touring Players. We also have a group of younger players who are actively playing on various circuits. At the Paris Olympics Erin Routliffe and Lulu Sun represented NZ.

The IC of New Zealand is active in organising a number of events and matches for both junior and senior members.

The NZ Funds Trans-Tasman Trophy event for junior players (16 & under) was competed for annually with Australia, on a home and away basis. This led to the wider zone eliminations.

In 2008 the World Final of the first Compass IC Junior Challenge event washeld very successfully in Auckland. This has now grown each year with the elimination matches being played every second year, with the final the following one. The 2013-4 Finals were played at Wimbledon, the 2015-6 at Monaco and the 2017-18 in Japan. 2022 was held in San Diego and November 2023 in La Jolla USA. This is now called the Rod Laver Junior Challenge.

Morning Tea functions at the ATP & WTA tournaments in Auckland each January, for members and overseas players.The worldwide Covid-19 pandemic led to the cancellation of the two International Tournaments for the 2nd year in January 2022 but we were thrilled to be back in action again in January 2023 and 2024.

60th Anniversary Weekend. In late August 2016 we held a wonderful celebration, with tennis, golf and a special Dinner. Around 120 members and partners came from around New Zealand and overseas for this. Special guests included Lew Gerrard and Ian Crookenden, two well-known NZ Davis Cup Players. Our Patron, Jeff Robson MBE was honoured with Life membership of ICNZ, a very well deserved honour. Since then Life Membership has been awarded to Des Shaw and Brian Woolf in 2019 and Jill Bignell in May 2023.The most recent was Cecilie McIntyre in 2024 after 5 years as President and 25 years on the committee. She has now edited 100 of the occasional Newsletter which can be opened on the Noticeboard.

In October 2019 we resumed our matches with the Australian IC when a NZ team of 10 members with supporters travelled to the Gold Coast for a very successful weekend of friendly rivalry. NZ won the matches 8/3 therefore becoming the first holders of the Sedgman-Tills Trophy. It was a great pleasure to have Frank Sedgman and his wife there for the weekend, and also on the Saturday evening to meet Ken Rosewall and his (now late) wife Wilma.We thank ICA President Kerryn Pratt and her committee for making us very welcome.

After a Covid postponement in March 2022, we played another match with the Australian IC in Wanaka, in the South Island in March 2023 which although smaller was well contested and NZ retained the Sedgman-Tills Trophy. See the Noticeboard for our newsletters covering this and other events.

IC Council News

August 2025
AGM 2025

AGM 2025

Our AGM took place at the National Tennis Centre, Roehampton, on the middle-Sunday of The Championships at Wimbledon and was attended by 56 delegates, representing 33 out of the 41 ICs invited. 

The agenda covered:

  1. The approval of the formation of the new IC of Bolivia (you can read more about this here)
  2. The decision to notify two inactive ICs (Bulgaria and Romania) that they will be suspended at the next AGM, unless any rehabilitation to their activity occurs before then
  3. A generally healthy financial position, albeit reserves could be stronger and more introductions to potential donors are needed
  4. A strong level of events activity, with a significant number of upcoming anniversary celebrations (find out more about these here)
  5. A strong improvement to our communications, with all ICs sharing the eNews with their members and our IC Council Instagram account reaching over 1,000 followers
  6. The results of this year’s Business Returns survey, which you can read in more detail in the Members’ section of the website here
  7. An update from the IC Philanthropy Foundation, who are now supporting 17 programmes in 15 countries and have recently introduced a new Global Cultural Exchange Programme (you can read more about ICPF’s work here)
  8. The success of the inaugural wheelchair tennis event at the 2024 IC Week and an ask to more ICs to include wheelchair members and players.

The AGM was preceded by a workshop on Saturday 5 July, which focused heavily on the theme of driving greater engagement with younger former players. We ask all ICs to discuss this objective more with their Regional Reps and Boards – including the nomination of potential mentors from your IC for current or former professionals.

For further information and the documents from the AGM, please log in to the Members’ section of the IC Council website. Each IC’s President and Honorary Secretary has these details and can share any information or answer any questions you may have.

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Contact

Our Honorary Secretary is Angela Hart
Telephone: + 6421 168 5148 

 email:secretary.icnz56@gmail.com

 

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