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 145 members in New Zealand and around 45 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.

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, 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. Recently we were very pleased to congratulate Michael Venus and Marcus Daniell for winning the Bronze Medal at the Tokyo Olympic Games.

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 was held 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. 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 has 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.

60 th 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.

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 postonement in March 2022, we played another match with the Ausralian 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. 

To read more news please see our Noticeboard.

IC Council News

March 2017
La Carreta entries now open

La Carreta entries now open

Entries are now open for the 2017 La Carreta event. This year, the event will be held at the Bulgarian National Tennis Centre in Sofia during the 20th – 24th September 2017, in conjunction with the IC of Bulgaria’s 10th anniversary celebrations. 
 
The Bulgarian National Tennis Centre and the official hotel are both situated in the heart of the beautiful city of Sofia. Furthermore, the IC of Bulgaria are hosting a Welcome Party and IC dinner around the tennis, ensuring a usually and thoroughly enjoyable week for all teams.  
 
For the tournament format, contact details and any further information, please visit the event webpage and attached factsheet. Otherwise, please indicate at your earliest opportunity, any interest in sending a participating team, to Katerina Guenova at kguenova@bgtennis.bg 

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Contact

Our Honorary Secretary is Angela Hart
Telephone: + 6421 168 5148 or Home 09 534 6381  and email:secretary.icnz56@gmail.com

 

Upcoming Events

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