Tours
Every year, the Blues Team goes on tour during the Easter vacation, and this is extremely helpful in the preparation of the Team for the Varsity Match in June. It incorporates matches against local clubs and provides vital match practice for the team, both in singles and in doubles. It also helps in creating a strong team spirit which is vital for the Varsity Match.
The club has been very generous to teams in recent years, and has tried to give them half of the funds needed for the expense of such trips. This has meant that the teams have been able to travel to Australia, South Africa, Florida, Thailand, Peru, Spain and Germany. We hope that these tours can continue for many years to come, as they offer experiences that will last a lifetime for those lucky enough to go.
OULTC Tour, Tel Aviv 2011
This year’s Easter tour took the Men’s and Women’s Blues teams on a joint trip to Tel Aviv, Israel. Six players from each team were selected for the tour, but unfortunately, one of the Men’s team fell ill with glandular fever days before the flight and was unable to travel. At such short notice no replacement could be found so in total eleven players boarded the flight to Israel. Each team had rented self-catered apartments in the same building, which worked out far cheaper than hotels but also added to the sense of camaraderie in the teams.
Ramat HaSharon National Tennis Centre
From day one the group got stuck into the tennis and after a quick shirut ride out of town the teams made it to The Israel National Tennis Centre in Ramat HaSharon. This club is akin to the NTC in Roehampton and is the base for most of Israel’s young players who are looking to make it in the tennis world. The first round of matches was a singles rubber for each player. There is no other way of describing it; Oxford had a very slow start, with Vicky Moffett being the only winner in the first round. There were however good performances from Tim Matthewson who went down 7-5 to the top ranked junior in the country and Greg Weir and Astrid Grindlay who both narrowly lost to the 2nd top rated players. Overall the day was a great success with both teams getting on well and the Oxford team was very thankful to Ron Becker, the coach at Ramat HaSharon, who organised the day and looked after the players so well.
Ron Becker and a few of his players with the Oxford Teams at Ramat HaSharon
A Day Trip to Jerusalem
Israel is a country of almost unrivalled history and so it would have been rude not to try and experience a little of this. A day trip to Jerusalem was the remedy and after a walk around the Old City walls the group went on a blitz of the main historic sites of Jerusalem including the Wailing Wall, the Via Dolorosa, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and the Dome of the Rock all nicely rounded off with a sunset from the Mount of Olives.
The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
Dan Accadia Tennis Club
The next day and the teams brought the focus back to the tennis and visited the Dan Accadia club. This club was recently taken over by Ron Steele and his wife Eitana. Ron, as well as being a past president of the IC of Israel, has also previously been the captain of both Israel’s Davis and Fed Cup teams. So esteemed in Israeli tennis circles is Ron that Dudi Sela (Israel’s top ranked male) came by just to say hello (and no doubt to get some hints from Oxford tennis training techniques.) The club backed onto miles of white sand with the ocean and its kite surfers a short walk down some steps from the courts. However, the teams were there for the tennis and not for the beach so got down to a few hours of training amongst themselves and club members in preparation for the matches still to come later in the week. Needless to say when the training came to an end the players did make a short trip down to the beach, just to make sure it was as good as it looked.
Ra'anana Tennis Club
Buoyed from a good days training both teams headed into the match against Ra'anana tennis club with confidence. It transpired that there was a marathon in the city of Ra'anana but a little late and with a very stressed and unhappy shirut driver the players made it to the club. Here, greeted by other IC members including Miki Darmon, a coach at Esporta Oxford a few years ago, the teams were once again treated very well indeed with refreshments and great matches provided. On the day the men’s team walked away with a 6-1 victory with some very crucial third set tie-break wins provided by Fred Burgess and Greg Weir, while Tim Matthewson managed to dispatch the Ra'anana number one, a top ranked player with relative ease. Tim and Greg teamed up together to record a strong doubles win while Fred straight from his three set win went on to win a second singles match. Aamir Aziz, the Oxford no.5 had a tough singles loss and Pete Le Neve-Foster followed up a singles win by partnering Oxford’s Nathalie Larsen in a mixed doubles. The ladies lost to a solid team 6-1, with the Oxford no.6, Nathalie Larsen, recording the only singles win. However, there were strong singles performances from Oxford’s no.1, Anjoli Foster, and no.5, Estelle Merle. In the doubles Astrid Grindlay and Julia Lowis paired up with their respective opponents in a doubles match against each other, with Julia and her Israeli partner coming out on top. Following some socialising with opposition players and club members, and some slightly dubious maths, Oxford came away with an overall win.
Oxford vs. IC
The next day and the teams were back at the Dan Accadia to play an Israel IC select team from the area surrounding Tel Aviv and some players who travelled further distances, one girl being from Nazareth. Also in attendance were members of the IC committee and locals who had come down to watch the tennis. Unfortunately, both men and women were unable to keep up with a very strong Israel IC team, with Oxford only picking up a few rubbers in total. On the boy’s side all singles went the way of the I.C with a notable lack of mental strength coming from Greg Weir who managed to turn a commanding 5-1 lead into a resounding 8-5 loss. The ladies would have suffered the same fate had it not been for a win for Vicky Moffett. Match of the day went to Astrid Grindlay who fought valiantly in her singles, but unfortunately lost it 11-9 in a deciding tiebreak. The next round became a mixture of competitive fixtures and doubles that involved some of the IC committee who had come to watch. One such match saw Pete and Nathalie team up once again against Estelle Merle (Oxford) and her partner who had the envious track record of never losing more than a handful of games to a young Brad Gilbert. Despite this, the Oxford pair, clearly gelling well by now came out on top. The competitive matches were not over as Fred Burgess partnered Aamir Aziz to a closely contested doubles loss, while Tim Matthewson and Greg Weir managed to salvage some pride and took down the IC top pair. On the women’s side Oxford’s no.1 doubles pair Anjoli Foster and Astrid Grindlay also secured an impressive 6-3, 6-4 win against the IC top pair, while Julia Lowis and Vicky Moffett lost a close match against the no.2 pair. A great day was had and hopefully the club and their players also enjoyed themselves.
Greg Weir with Ron Steele and IC President Mark Bergman
The Oxford Blues with members of Israel's IC club
The Dead Sea
Another tourist must in Israel is a day trip to the Judean desert to see the ancient fort of Masada and a quick dip in the Dead Sea. At 400m high the hike to Masada acted as a fitness exercise in itself, but the views and the history learnt definitely made it a trip worth making. After floating in the Dead Sea, and some very masculine mud covering to improve skin complexions, it was back to Tel Aviv. However, in true British style the team had travelled to a desert, which get three days of rain a year, and managed to get caught in flash floods. Much to the tour guide’s delight there were delays as the road was cleared of boulders and water before traffic was allowed through.
A homemade spa at the shores of the Dead Sea
The Last Stretch
An extra training session at the Dan Accadia was scheduled to be the last tennis excursion of the trip, but unfortunately the weather of the desert came to Tel Aviv for the last few days and made sure this didn’t happen. Despite the lack of consistent sun that had become the norm, there was still plenty to do in and around Tel Aviv: the old city of Jaffa was visited, long runs along the beach for the more fitness minded; a few museums were toured, some nightlife was taken in and then it was time to head home. For some reason it is actually harder security-wise to leave Israel rather than to get in but after a couple of hours of security and questioning of the more suspicious in our team we boarded the plane and headed home before all going our separate ways.
A Final Thank You
Israel was an excellent time for all involved and really brought players from both teams together. The tennis was excellent and this is in large part to the IC of Israel and especially Mark Bergman, their president, who helped set up the matches at Raanana and Dan Accadia. Hopefully some lasting links have been made between the clubs we visited and OULTC. All members of the travelling team are especially indebted to several persons back home including Friends of OULTC, Sir Patrick Sergeant and St. Stephen’s House all of whom made very generous contributions to the tour. Without such generosity the tour would not be what it is today so the debt really is a large one. An OULTC tour is a time that few will forget and as such we are very grateful for the opportunity and hope that traditional Easter Tour continues for many years to come.
Some interesting links:
http://www.ictennis.net/Noticeboard/tabid/63/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/124/IC-Israel-Hosts-Oxford
-University-Tennis-Team.aspx
http://www.israeltenniscenter.com/htmls/Friendly_Tournament_with_
British_Players.aspx?c0=13684&bsp=13448