Girlie Nobbs Centenary Bounty Tennis Tournament

What a fantastic day we all had at the Cheryl Tennis Club last Sunday. Fifty six players representing the Norfolk families of Young, McCoy, Evans, Christian, Buffett, Quintal and Nobbs gathered at the courts just before 2pm and competed for the ‘Girlie Nobbs Centenary Bounty Tennis Trophy’.

Everyone was asked to play in their ‘Bounty Hats’. Some great tennis was had and there was lots of laughter on and off courts as the verandah was packed with spectators and those waiting to get on court. It was fantastic to see ‘salan hu nor bin plieh f’ lorng tiem’ (people who had not played for a long time) back up at the courts. Each family had to have eight players and they were paired off and everyone played three matches. All points were added at the end to get the winning team.

This perpetual trophy was sponsored by Andre and Kim Nobbs (left), and inspired by Andre's Grandma who turned 100 in March this year. Grandma was a formidable tennis player in her time and up until about five years ago was still playing tennis and hitting a mean ball, especially on the backhand.

She was also known for aceing people quite regularly. Andre also sponsored another trophy with Grandmas serving ability in mind. He asked some of our senior members of the community, and former tennis players, to judge for the ‘most kased’ (most wicked) serve. Unfortunately Kik was unable to make it on the day, but Greg Quintal Snr and Robin Butterfield had their eagle eyes (as judges) tuned in all afternoon and didn’t miss a serve. After watching all players, sometimes even making trips downstairs to get a better look, and using a ream of paper with all of their notes, came up with the ‘2010 Most Kased Server’ and it was awarded to Jill Buffett.

The 2010 team winners of the ‘Girlie Nobbs Centenary Perpetual Tennis Tournament’ were the Christian family (right). They were clear winners with a 10 point lead on the Quintals.

The results were: Christians 68 – Tanya, Will & Sue Randall, James & Anna Elliott, Meg & Mitch Meers and Smudgie. Quintals 58 – Lew, Shella & April Quintal, George & Ebony Parsons, Bebs Sanders, Sarlu and Slack Meers. Nobbs 53 – Joe, Andre, Mai, & Snobbles Nobbs, Candice Snell, Deb Gilmore, Pendo and Gaelene Christian. McCoys 49 – Kevin & Jason McCoy, Daryl & Mikeila Reynolds, Coral Rowston, Loppy Christian, Jo Kelly and Livi Cooper. Youngs 48 – Adon Butterfield, Lynne Mogey, Fenella Evans, Joel Christian, Andre Forrester, Margaret Rossiter, Doug Creek and Karen Menadue. Evans 44 – Shane Evans, Emma Wright, Roger Hein, Amy Elliott, Trev Gow, Beachy & Mark Hayes and Judy Roberts. Buffetts 29 – Spuddy, Karen, Merv, Norris, Irene, Craig, Jill, Tiffany and Adam Buffett (all Buffetts by name too).

I would like to thank all of the team captains for getting their teams together. To those that I rang at the last minute asking them to "please play", thaenks f’ me (thank you). A special mention to the Buffett family who managed to gather all ‘Buffetts’ with no other names on their list. They even got one of the kids to fill in whilst waiting for Dad to finish work – wal dan yorlyi (well done everyone) for showing such great team spirit. Thanks to each and every one of yorlye (you) for playing and to the spectators who I’m sure enjoyed the tennis and heckling from the verandah just as much as we all did.

Special thanks to our Most Kased Serve judges, Greg (above two from right) and Robin. Thanks to Rusty’s Meats for supplying the sausages. To Chris, John and Karen for cooking and looking after the bar and Tanya for helping to make everything run so smoothly.

Look forward to seeing you all back on the courts shortly.