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

July 2025
Welcome to the IC of Bolivia!

Welcome to the IC of Bolivia!

We are very pleased to announce that the creation of the new IC of Bolivia was formally approved at our AGM in July and warmly welcome their members to our IC community.

Bolivia celebrates a rich tennis history, which started with the arrival of British and North American immigrants at the beginning of the 20th century, who worked in railroad construction and mining and began practising the sport in mines at Uyuni and Oruro. The Bolivian Tennis Federation (FBT) was founded on 24 March 1937 in Catavi (Potosí) with the aim of organizing and promoting tennis, and is now affiliated with the ITF and the South American Tennis Confederation.

Today, there are around 16,000 active tennis players in Bolivia. Nearly 10,000 of these are ranked in the National Federation, and 12 players have also been ranked within the ATP or WTA. The country has 32 clubs spread across nine ‘departamentos’, including three centenary clubs: National Tennis Club Oruro, Tennis Club La Paz and Cochabamba Tennis Club. Other major clubs are in Santa Cruz and other cities, including Sucre and Tarija. The clubs have served as meeting places for people of different backgrounds and have promoted values such as discipline, respect and teamwork.

Discussions around the creation of the IC of Bolivia started at the IC Centenary celebrations at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in August 2024 – which were followed up with approaches to professional players to secure their support. At the start of 2025, the founding team worked alongside the IC Council and members of the ICs of Argentina and Uruguay to create the statutes for a new IC of Bolivia, and held a founding day with their 19 founding members to establish the Constitution on 1 March in La Paz.

The founders presented their plans at the IC AGM on 6 July and the creation of the IC of Bolivia was formally approved.

From this point, the board of the IC of Bolivia plan to:

  • Hold their first AGM
  • Onboard around 20-30 new members
  • Set up a philanthropic programme that will offer tennis coaching for disadvantaged children in key cities around Bolivia
  • Start the organisation of an IC of Bolivia Invitational event for 2026 – working with the ICs of Argentina and Uruguay
  • Work with the IC Council to create the IC of Bolivia website and social media pages.

Please join us in welcoming the IC of Bolivia to our IC community!

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

 email:secretary.icnz56@gmail.com

 

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