The sixth playing of the Ted Avory Cup match between the International Clubs of the United States, and Great Britain took place in La Jolla, California at the La Jolla Beach & Tennis Club. The matches were hosted by Bill Kellogg, whose family owns this prestigious tennis club. The Club is situated on the beach at La Jolla which turned out to be essential to even conducting the event in light of the terrible fires that burned a short distance away. We had sea breezes the final four days, which cleared the air enough to play in relative comfort.  The 2003 match was held at the Longwood Cricket Club in Boston and in 2005 the matches were held in London.   This year the US Team was victorious by a score of 36 to 18 and after six matches dating back to 1997 the series score is even at 3-3.

The United States team consisted of the following players:

Open Men:       Kaes Van’t Hof and Jason McNaughton

Open Women: Hannah Holiday and Julie Chidley

35 Women:      Gretchen Magers and Jessica Schlotterback

35 Men:           Howard Sands, Gene Carswell and Hunter Galloway

45 Women:      Lucia Stark and Robin Harris

50 Men:           Geoff Cyckman, Tom Smith and Larry Belinsky

55 Men:           Brian Cheney, Chas Hoeveler and David Nash

55 Women:      Sherri Bronson, Kristin Fullam and Anne Mariucci

65 Men:           Fred Drilling and Lee Housman

 

The team captains were David Nash and Kristin Fullam and Armisted Neely provided a visual record of the match.

 

The match followed the same organizational structure this year as a result of an agreement between the respective IC’s to have a specific number of matches to be contested for the Cup. Each age group played two singles and two doubles with reverse singles in the morning of the second day and mixed doubles in the afternoon. The mixed matches which were most enjoyable to watch and very much appreciated by the players. There were some outstanding mixed matches and the many guests and club members who watched were treated to some tremendous tennis on both days. The quality of play was exceptional the entire two days and reflected the strong teams on both sides.

 

The British team was led by Mark George who was the Captain for the third consecutive year. The British team was made up of a number of familiar names including a several who played in the British win in 2005 in London.  The British women were strong once again but our women’s team was the strongest we have ever fielded. Their play was exceptional and due to the fires we scrambled to add three members to our team at the last minute. They all played well contributing important wins on both days. Gretchen Magers, Jessica Schlotterback and Sherri Bronson were dominant in their age groups and were undefeated in four matches. Overall the US Women were 12-8 against the British women and were winners on 6 of 8 mixed doubles.

 

The US Team started strong on Day One and carried their strong play to a lead of 17 to 10. The singles was 10-8 for the US but our doubles won 7 of 9 to increase the lead to 7 matches after Day One.Because of air quality issues the matches were played two out of three sets with a tiebreaker for the third set. Eleven matches ended up in the third set tiebreaker and the US won 6 of these matches. Key matches on Day One were Brian Cheney’s incredible win over Robin Drysdale, Hunter Galloway winning over Paul Scullard and the doubles team of Carswell/Galloway over Scullard/Ground. All of these were closely contested third set tiebreakers.

 

On Day Two the air cleared again and the US Team dominated in singles and mixed for a final score of 36-18. For the United States side there were several players who distinguished themselves by winning important matches.  Tom Smith won twice, Larry Belinsky and Julie Chidley won their mixed and Hannah Holiday, our 17 year old High School player, beat Romy Hutchins in a great third set tiebreaker. The 65 men continued their strong play as they won all matches without losing a set. Our Open Men who are current members of the University of Southern California Men’s Team were also unbeaten, were a treat to watch and represented the IC well. The day two result was 19 to 8 for the US.  Overall it was an extremely satisfying result and our players can be proud of their strong play and  great sportsmanship in keeping with the IC spirit.

 

There were wonderful social events hosted by the Club with an opening Italian buffet dinner and a beach picnic on Thursday night. Bill Kellogg spoke to the history of the Club and Julian Tatum spoke to the origins of the Avory Cup. On this night we honored Dodo Cheney as our guest for her incredible tennis career and induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. The first 300 of her gold balls are on display at the Club. The British players enjoyed meeting her and we were pleased to have her in attendance at all the matches. Linda Nash, Anne Cheney and Alice Prendergast provided pashminas in IC colors to all the ladies for the beach night and Alice made earrings in IC colors for the British women players.  Chas Hoeveler arranged for shirts for all the players and we appreciate the additional financial support from Jim Wilson,one of our Directors.

 

We are indebted to Bill Kellogg who hosted the event at his fabulous club and whose staff were exceptional to work with on social events and room accommodations.  Despite the unbelievable fires and smoke we delivered a wonderful sixth playing of the Ted Avory Cup and we look forward to going across the pond for the match in 2009.

 

 

2007 Ted Avory Cup Oct 25th Results Singles Day One
Age	USA	Great Britain	Winner	Score	Country
Open W Singles	Hannah Holiday	Alex Napier	Napier	6-4  6-2	GB
	Julie Chidley	Romy Hutchins	Hutchins	4-6,6-3  (4)	GB
35 W Singles	Gretchen Magers	Karen Whishaw	Magers	6-1  6-4	USA
	Jessica Schlotterback	Sally Godman	Schlotterback	6-1  6-1	USA
45 W Singles	Lucia Stark	Christine French	French	6-2  6-1	GB
	Robin Harris	Anne Clarke	Harris	6-2  6-0	USA
55 W Singles	Ann Marriucci	Di Hill	Hill	6-0  6-0	GB
	Sherri Bronson	Di Oakley	Bronson	6-1  6-2	USA
Open M Singles	Kaes Van’t Hof	Mark Beim	Van’t Hof	6-4  6-2	USA
	Jason McNaughton	Mark George	McNaughton	6-3  6-4	USA
35M Singles	Hunter Galloway	Paul Scullard	Galloway	4-6 6-3 (5)	USA
	Howard Sands	Richard Ground	Ground	7-6 (7) 3-3 (ret)	GB
50 M Singles	Geoff Cyckman	Mike Dawe	Dawe	4-6  7-5 (5)	GB
	Tom Smith	Paul French	French	2-6  6-1 (8)	GB
55 M Singles	Brian Cheney	Robin Drysdale	Cheney	2-6  6-2 (9)	USA
	Chas Hoeveler	Nial Sweeneyq	Sweeney	6-4  7-5	GB
65 M Singles	Fred Drilling	Hank Nijeboer	Drilling	6-2  6-1	USA
	Lee Housman	Julian Tatum	Housman	6-1  6-2	USA
Day One Singles    USA   10           GB  8

 

 

 

 

 

Doubles Day One
Age	USA	Great Britain	Winner	Score	Country
Open W	Holiday/Chidley	Napier/Hutchins	Napier/Hutchins	6-3  6-4	GB
35W	Magers/Schlotterback	Whishaw/Godman	Magers/Schlotter	6-0  6-0	USA
45W	Harris/Stark	French/Clarke	Harris/French	6-2  6-4	USA
55W	Bronson/Fullam	Hill/Oakley	Bronson/Fullam	7-5  6-3	USA
Open M	Van’t Hof/McNaughton	Beim/George	Van’t Hoff/ Mcnaughton	6-4  6-4	USA
35M	Gene Carswell/Galloway	Scullard/Ground	Carswell/Galloway	6-2  6-7(5) (7)	USA
50M	Cyckman/Smith	Dawe/French	Dawe/French	7-6 (5)  6-4	GB
55M	Cheney/David Nash	Drysdale/Sweeney	Nash/Cheney	6-4  6-4	USA
65M	Drilling/Housman	Nijeboer/Tatum	Drilling/Housman	6-1  6-2	USA
Day One Doubles    USA    7        GB       2
Day One Totals        USA   17         GB     10