Pacific Closed Junior champs 2009
Here is Rosemary Hargreaves telling us a little about
Fiji.
Lautoka Fiji August
2009 Air Pacific Oceania Closed Junior
Tournament
Chris Temu and I were selected to travel to Fiji for this
Oceania tournament - what a privilege! I arrived in Fiji at
about 5pm on 22 August, and after over an hour getting through
customs was relieved to find Pat O'Rourke still waiting on the
outside. One police checkpoint later we arrived at our
wonderful waterfront hotel in Lautoka. Pat has it all down to
a fine art, and so we were off to the Northern Club for their
wonderful, varied and most importantly cheap food and beer - and a
great pool if you so wanted.
The tournament started on the Sunday at 8.30am, and as with all
Pat's tournaments ran without a hitch. The Fijian and Oceania
tennis officials were all very welcoming and thankful for our
support. The work that is being done with the young people in
the Oceania tennis region is exciting for the future.
The Tennis centre is a long concrete building with little in the
way of comfort but keeps you cool which is the essential. It
is situated right next to the sugar factory which if the wind is in
the wrong direction clouds the courts in smoke and ash (although no
problems this year). There was a little wind but no
rain, and the temperatures were around 27 degrees each day with
little humidity.
I spent the Sunday and Monday as assistant referee. On the
Monday afternoon Chris arrived, and from the Wed we, along with 2
local men chair umpired. Chris had the deserved reward of
umpiring both the boys' singles and doubles finals.
The tournament was for 18U, with most of the young people being
between 16yrs and 18 yrs although there were some as young as
13yrs. The majority of the players were from Australia and
NZ, but there were representatives from most of the island groups
in Oceania from Fiji, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea,
Guam... These young people had a qualifying tournament
leading up to the Closed Tournament. The top seeds in both
the boys' and girls' were NZ'ders unfortunately the boy lost in the
semis and the girl in the finals, the Australians taking away both
titles. The standard of tennis was excellent, and the
sportsmanship of the players was on the whole outstanding.
Night descended in Fiji very suddenly at 6pm, it was therefore
essential to put games starting after 4pm onto the lighted
courts. On the first night there appeared to be an unevenly
matched pairing put on before 4pm, and wouldn't you know they went
to a tiebreaker in the 2nd set to 12, and then a long
super tiebreaker with the underdogs winning - the match had to be
shifted in the middle to the lighted courts.
The prize giving, dinner and performances were on the final
night Thursday, and a great way to finish the week. The
trophies were all local traditional carvings with the plaques
inlaid - very special.
I am sure Chris would agree, this was an amazing experience from
the pick up service (Pat), to the hotel, the meals, the weather,
and of course the tennis, and the experience for a future in
officiating. Even the Lautoka shopping was great - you will
have to ask Chris about the bargains to be had!
Rosemary Hargreaves