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CBSC TENNIS HISTORY Spring 2015

Greetings tennis fans. We are continuing our written history of tennis at the CBSC. We really appreciate all of your input so far. Our goal is to have a fairly comprehensive story of tennis at the club by the end of 2017. Hopefully a history of the Club will be available for our centennial in 2018.

Do you have stories to share? We love names, dates and above all pictures! Please email stories and photos to us. (<perrydunnett@shaw.ca>).

Please read over our history. Thanks

Crescent Beach looked different in the 1920s. In the background is Blackie Spit.

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Pre - 1940s:

One of the longest standing CBSC families is the Fergusson family. The Fergussons began staying at Crescent Beach on McBride Avenue between 1915 and 1920. Their grandson Rob remembers living on McBride every summer from 1941 to 1958. (Today the Fergusson/Risk/Peterman/Lance) families are still active CBSC members).

No one is really sure when the one tennis court on Sullivan Avenue was constructed (or who built it!). Below are two pictures of the court in the early 1940s. On the left, we believe, is Maureen Stewart.

Maureen Stewart? Posing in the 1940s

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1940s: According to Rob Fergusson, tennis in the 1940s and 1950s was not as organized as it is today. Usually a “gang” of young members and adults would take over the one court on Sullivan street and play singles or doubles (rotating all the players) for a greater part of the day. There was no formalized instruction and no tennis committee. Some of the players back then were Cliff Adams and Miles Brooks.

Our oldest tennis trophies are the two Nelson Trophies (Girls and Boys 16 and under singles) - first awarded in 1943. The Nelson family arrived at Crescent Beach in 1936. Krista Carwana (Nelson) tells us that her dad remembers that the area from Agar to Gilley (between McBride and Kidd Rd.) was a big open field.

Middle trophy: Nelson trophy 1946.

Dick Nelson won the trophy in 1946.

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Here is a picture of Krista (Nelson) Carwana presenting the Nelson trophy to Girl’s trophy winner Alison Binley in 2008 - Holly Wacker was runner-up in the 16 and under singles category that year.

Mairi Coulthard remembers playing tennis in the 1940s and 1950s after their family purchased their home at Crescent Beach in 1944. Mairi remembers that to play on the court on Sullivan Street you had to sweep the court first then put the net up. Emily Grimston (and her sisters Evelyn and Gail) as well as Anne Irving were Mairi’s partners back then.

One of our tennis trophies is the “Claire Brewster” trophy for girls 12 and under doubles. Claire said her family came each summer from Revelstoke in the 1930s. The family would stay at the Crescent Beach Hotel. Later Claire’s grandmother purchased their cottage on McKenzie Avenue in the 1940s. The Brewster/Andruff/Pepper families are still very active members of the CBSC.

Another long standing CBSC family were the McGavins. Gerald McGavin told me that the family’s CBSC membership has continued since 1947. Gerald mentioned that swimming (and diving) was the main focus and tennis was just for fun. He believed that the tennis court on Sullivan was owned (or leased) by the club.

“Can you imagine” - Gerald told me that he used to bike down the hill to the Sullivan courts or his mom would drive him down SANDY HILL TRAIL - in those days you could drive down the trail (but not up)!

Rob Fergusson commented that for summer ending tournament play the swim coach would just post a big board and players would sign up. The players would organize themselves. Rob can not remember any awards ceremony but can remember receiving some trophies. Gerald McGavin mentioned that awards were given out at Gardner store (basically on Beecher and O’Hara Lane.) Officials would stand on the large porch and member would stand on the street waiting to accept their trophies. Mairi Coulthard confirms that awards in the 1950s (before there was a clubhouse) (both swimming and tennis) were given out at the end of summer under the porch at Gardner’s store (corner of O’Hara Lane and Beecher). Later she mentioned the awards were given out at Wickson’s pool.

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1950s: Still in the 1950s, the only tennis court at Crescent Beach was the one located on Sullivan Street across from Camp Alexandra and formal tennis instruction was not yet part of the CBSC.

I noted that on the 16 and Under boys trophy (the Nelson trophy) the 1956 winner was Robbie Fergusson! According to Rob one of the best players around in the mid 1950s was Steve MacDonald (the Steve MacDonald Trophy started in 1979 is given to the Girls 10 and under doubles winner) and his older brother David. Other players Rob remembers from the 1950s include Brent Gifford, Lesley Gifford, John Chipperfield, Ian Matheson, Linda Lee, Holly (Helen) Campbell and Heather Fergusson.

In 1955, the Larkins (Pete/Rose) arrived at Crescent Beach. The Larkins and later the Saunders and Nordby families and their children, have contributed significantly to the CBSC tennis program. Son Larry Larkin was a Tennis Chair (1988-91) while Pete and Rose’s daughters Barb Larkin Saunders was a tennis committee member and Mary Larkin Nordby is still the club secretary. Many of Pete and Rose Larkin’s grandchildren have been involved in coaching at the CBSC. Sean Larkin (tennis coach), Becca Larkin (tennis coach), Teriann Larkin (syncro coach - now helps out as clubhouse secretary), Hans Nordby (Pool boy), Anders Nordby (head tennis coach) and Heidi Nordby (tennis coach). Mary’s husband Ewart (past sailing chair) is currently on the tennis committee.

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1960s

We do know that in 1961, the club constructed its own tidal pool on land made available by the B.C. Packers Ltd.

When the Crescent Oyster Company property at the end of Blackie Spit was subsequently sold to the Municipality of Surrey for use as a park, the club was granted a 20 year lease . The first two CBSC tennis courts were finally built beside the tidal pool.

Rod Livingston (whose parents Dave and Floy owned a cottage on Gardner in the 1960s) remembers when the tennis courts were being constructed. Rod remembers that the courts were built up resulting in a huge hill of sand. Rod and Crescent beacher Tom McLean would dig tunnels in the sand and then drop tennis balls into the holes. Their "ball rolling machine" kept their parents and siblings guessing where the tennis balls would emerge from the sand bank. “The bank of sand on the north side of the courts was probably about six feet high and we would have a maze of criss-crossing tunnels, and of course the ball, would not come out of the three given options "A', "B" or "C" but come out about five feet away in unannounced hidden tunnel "D". We didn't take bets so no money changed hands, but we may have conned our parents out of 10 cents worth of ju jube candies over at Duncan's store”. Rod remembers that other helpers included Doug Buchanan, Al Hetherington, Randy Chambers, Terry McConkey, Bruce Robertson and Geoff Barker.

Rob Fergusson remembers that when the tennis courts were built the tennis program really began. Two more courts were added in the 1970s.

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In the late 1960s Mrs. Penny Moul was very involved in CBSC tennis and the assigning and reporting of the tennis tournament was at her house “called the Moul Hill”. Members believe that tournament games were arranged by the individuals themselves and various private courts up the hill were used as well as the new CBSC courts.

Bruce Webster (CBSC head coach for many years) remembers a story from around 1965. As he remembers, the adult men's singles winner from CBSC (Bob Wright) played the men's singles winner from the White Rock Tennis Club (Frank Muir) at the White Rock Tennis Club at summer’s end. Bruce believes that this was the only time the two clubs ever competed like this. (Frank Muir won the match).

Some of the first head tennis coaches in the late 1960s included Norm DeLeenheer and Bob Moffatt. The first tennis chairs were John Matheson, Pat Elliot, Penny Moul, Don Mainwaring and Bill Armstrong.

Happy CBSC tennis players!

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Here is a clipping from the 1966 Seahorse:

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Trophies

In the past trophies were named as the result of individual members or families offering to purchase a trophy then continuing to pay for engraving and upkeep. This sometimes led to trophy name changes as families joined and then left CBSC membership. An imperfect system which meant some trophies went missing over the years. An example is the two 16 and under Boys Doubles 2nd place trophy. One of the double trophies starts in 1998 while it’s partner trophy dates back to 1955!

Most of our current tennis trophies date back to the 1960s or 1970s as club numbers increased and new categories like 8 and Under, 10 and Under and 12 and Under were created (as well as for doubles).

CBSC Tennis Trophy winners

Tennis coaches and some award winners - 2008

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1970s: During the 1970s Mark Tindle was the head tennis coach. The Tindle family were all tennis players and both Mark and sister Jill were nationally ranked. Mark arrived in the 1970s for summer work as head coach. The Mark Tindle Trophy for Boys 8 and under doubles is still used today. Mark later became the Tennis Chair in the 1990s and his children Scott and Lisa were both swim coaches in their era at the CBSC.

Tennis became more and more popular throughout the late 1960s and 1970s. The seahorse advertised in the 1970s that there would be more discipline in tennis lessons. Also, no one was allowed to sign up for “double lessons” till the END of registration day.

Some of the players in the late 1970s were Deborah Radcliffe, Alexia McGavin, Cathy Legg, Catherine MacDonald, Nancy MacDonald and Melissa Fahy.

Rob Fergusson and daughter Jennifer Fergusson, circa 1975

Amy Emerick, Jennifer Fergusson (right) waiting for lessons. (circa 1980-1982?) .. note the shoe tag...

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John Buckley, who was the Head Tennis Coach in the early 1980s remembers the 1970s. John’s two brothers first learned to play tennis with Bob Moffat as the CBSC (1970). John had his first lessons from Mrs. Webster and son Bruce Webster at White Rock and then moved on to the CBSC having lessons with Mark Tindle, where “I was lucky enough to play with the likes of Mark Freeman (who took over coaching from me in 1986) and Richard Savage. I mostly played doubles with my good friends Byron Coulthard and Greg Bell and all of us were local Crescent beachers and parkers”.

Did you know??

Something that affected the whole club in 1978 was that the Municipality of Surrey came up with a Development Plan for Blackie’s Spit. The City’s plan which was adopted in principle showed the CBSC being bulldozed and a new pool and courts constructed on Dunsmuir Farm, approximately where the community gardens now exist. There were no details as to who was going to pay for these new facilities or even if they were only for the CBSC or whether they were to be a Municipal facility. At the time club president Duncan MacKenzie led a large delegation and presented a brief to Surrey Council on November 20, 1978. The Brief included details of the original donation of the land from BC Packers Limited which included a clause that the CBSC be allowed to remain on the site as long as it was used for recreational purposes. The plans were eventually redrawn and the CBSC in its current location, was left intact. Whew! and profound thanks to Duncan, who still has a copy of the Brief and all the attachments.

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1980s:

Jennifer Fergusson (now Overaa), Molly Fergusson (now Peterman) and Lindsay Risk (Rob’s sister Heather’s daughter) remember the early 1980s:

“We used the court in Ocean Park (“up the hill”) to play on during the tournaments as there were too many games and not enough courts near the clubhouse. We were always bummed when we had a game there because our moms would make us ride our bikes up the hill to get there (usually with our competitor) and we were tired before we even started. Plus, no one was watching or cheering us on!”

“Like today the tournaments were sudden death – the coach would seed us and set up a tournament bracket and if you lost, you were out of the tournament. You could play in 3 different categories – for example, if you were 12 year old girl you could play in girls 12&U singles, 12&U doubles and if you wanted you could play up such as 14&U doubles (if an older friend needed a doubles partner).”

The girls also mentioned that the Mathisen tennis courts were also used for tournament play during the summer.

Some of the players at this time were Lavelle Thompson, Kylie Irvine, Tanya MacDonald, Alison Thomas, David MacKenzie, Ian MacKenzie, Amy Lesley Gifford, Teriann Larkin, Eileen MacKenzie, Shannon Gordon and Jane Glanville.

Awards ceremony 1982. Girls doubles 14 and under winners. Left to right Lindsay Risk, Catherine McGavin (coach), Jennifer Fergusson, and head coach Jim Lees.

Note the CBTC t-shirts - always a friendly rivalry with those swimmers!!

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1990s: In the early 1990s Larry Larkin was tennis chair and over a few years, Larry built all the bleachers that are around the tennis court and pool. Larry had the frames built at his school then put them together with wood donated by Tim Hudson. Larry and his dad Pete then painted them.

During the 75th anniversary (1993) medals were introduced for tennis (previously ribbons were given out). Barb Saunders (Larkin) was involved in starting that. Sean Larkin (Larry’s son and Barb’s nephew), designed the medal. The medals had a green seahorse in the centre with large gold crossed tennis racquets starting at the bottom where its tail started. CBSC was written just above the seahorse and “Est. 1918” was just below. There was a scalloped line encircling all this.

One of CBSC’s most qualified head coach was the colourful Lex Vinson who ran the tennis program for 7 years starting in 1988. Lex, a level 5 coach, was a junior hardcourt champion in Australia and played in the Australian Open. Lex worked tirelessly instructing players in all aspects of the game and was able to instill passion for the sport as well as providing excellent instruction. Do you remember Lex? (Remember never to be late!!)

We need a picture of Lex here and a story!! Do you have one? Please help!!

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2000s

Bruce Webster was the head coach for 5 years in the 2000s.

New Westminster born tennis player Bruce began playing tennis at the New Westminster Tennis Courts (remember those clay courts). Bruce’s parents (Alan and Edith) were instrumental in running not only the New Westminster Tennis Club but the White Rock Tennis Club for many years. The Webster trophy is still around for interclub play each summer.

L o t s o f s t o r i e s o f t h e 2 0 0 0 s s t i l l n e e d e d h e r e ! ! P l e a s e e m a i l <perrydunnett@shaw.ca>

Coaches Paul Edworthy (left), Chris Holt (right) and Philipa Farni (on ground) with some paddlers. -

2006

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Tennis Tournaments: Today the last week of August lessons is set aside for Junior Tournament play. We understand there used to be a tournament in both July and August. This format changed in the 1990s when Larry Larkin was chair or just before. (I believe it was because it was taking up another whole week of lessons). Ribbons only were given out in the July tournament. When Larry was chair they also changed to the present format of the round robin instead of a draw with a player being knocked out as soon as they lost a game.

Mary (Larkin) Nordby remembers when she was in her teens (around 1969) and joined lessons that she had to arrange her own times for matches in the tournaments. At that time, the trophies were given out at the August Gala Award ceremonies, just prior to the swim trophy presentations. In the late 1970s and early 1980s private courts as well as the CBSC’s 4 courts were used for both the junior and adult tournaments. Private courts included the Mathison Farm, the Mainwarings, the Ritchies and the White’s courts. In those days Duncan MacKenzie thinks a full set was played and of course there was no such thing as a “7 point tie breaker.”

Tennis Awards: Following the week long tournament the Tennis Awards would recognize not only the individual winners of the different age categories but also would honour the outstanding paddle, and junior players.

Kristi Gordon, Shannon Davidson, Sarah Fleck and Kendall Jenns.

1976. Here the head coach?? stands beside Katy Fergusson (bowl cut) and Shannon Gordon (braids) on the podium.

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1989 U14 Doubles (from the left-Mark Irvine, Andrew Williams, Sean Larkin and Johnny McIntosh)

Molly O’Callaghan still has her ribbons, badges and shoe tags!!

1986 and 1987 - U16 Singles winner Mark Schmid

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Junior League play: Along with other tennis clubs in the area the CBSC participates each summer in a weekly play day culminating in the playoffs and ownership of the Webster Trophy. Bruce Webster still helps organize the tournament. Duncan MacKenzie remembers that in the 1970s CBSC entered a Junior Team into the local Junior league. This was, and part of the growth of CBSC tennis, because of the influence of then coach, Mark Tindle. Mark encouraged some of the juniors such as Tony Mainwaring, Mark Freyman, Richard Savage, Lani & Migi Ross and others to enter Junior tournaments in the Lower Mainland. Mark’s youthful enthusiasm was catching and carried on by his successors, Gordie Charles, Dave Bonshor, Bill Mainwaring, etc.

Records show that the CBSC has won the Webster Interclub League trophy many times. Here winning League members are Graydon Botsford, Braedon Bealieu, Ian Perry (holding the first place trophy) Phillipa Farni, Holly Wacker and Alison Binley. (2008).

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Tennis Coaches before the Syncro Show - 2008

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Fun Days (Dress up days) have been a tradition at the CBSC since before the 1960s. Here 2007 coaches Darth Vader (Fraser Perry) and Marilyn Monroe (Nicole Davidson) pose for the camera.

Fun Day 2008

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Do You Remember?

ROCKETS!!

When Nash Vuletic was head coach in 2007 he introduced “Rockets”. Here coaches Kyle White, Curtis White, Mark Wacker and Fraser Perry get ready for ignition.

SHOE TAGS? In the 1980s and 90s tennis members were required to wear shoe tags when using the tennis courts to indicate that they were indeed members. There are stories out there of older members telling younger members to vacate the courts immediately as they were not wearing shoe tags!!

As usual Duncan MacKenzie is ready for anyone demanding to see a shoe tag...

- no matter what year!!

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PADDLE TENNIS:

John Buckley wrote from England to tell us that he started up the Paddle Tennis in 1983. John was the Head Tennis Coach 1983, 1984 and 1985.

With his British Connections John had his relatives send me over Slazenger sponge balls and was able to obtain sheets of plywood from which to make the paddles. The wooden paddles were cut out by the woodwork teacher at Semiahmoo High School where he had graduated in 1981. Johnʼs assistant coaches were Chris Armstrong, Colin Campbell and Eileen McKenzie and Rob (canʼt remember his last name). DO YOU KNOW?

Mary Larkin Nordby think that her son Anders was one of the first Paddle Tennis medal winners (year?). There was an actual set of skills the kids had to master with a paddle and Anders received a medal because he progressed so well! Later the wooden paddle award (then later the Higgins trophy) was started in 1994. Talented Anders would go on to be Head Tennis Coach in the 2000s.

original award

Oliver Botelho won the Higgins Paddle Tennis Award in 2011 ! ! ! ! ! ! ! (with coach Alison Binley).

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Tennis Court Dance

Mary Larkin Nordby recounts that “It was held in the court on Sullivan Street when I was very young (it's one of my earliest memories) - so that would be in the late 50s or early 60s but I don't know when it actually started. As I recall, it was on the Gala Day evening - we would all dress up and go down to the court. It was led by an older lady in a square dancing outfit. Afterwards, we'd get a Dixie cup”

Others have similar memories of the Tennis Court Dance “we had ice cream too (in little plastic cups with those wooden flat spoons. And back in the 70s, long dresses even for the little girls, were worn. I love CBSC for its traditions”.

Al the “clown” Edworthy has been hosting the Tennis Court Dances since 1989.

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Adult Tennis (special thanks to Duncan MacKenzie for a lot of the following information)..

Adult tennis was already up and running when the MacKenzie family came to the beach in 1972. Duncan remembers that there were certainly trophies for both the Ladies Doubles (Mainwaring) and Mixed Doubles but there was nothing yet for the men. A trophy was purchased in 1973 and named the “Clyde” trophy. Duncan was fortunate to win this trophy 2 or 3 times.

By 1974 Duncan was co-chair of the tennis committee along with Tom Fawsitt and had an 8 member committee which in 1975 expanded to 13!! Familiar names who are still club members include Joan Anderson, Marion (Pepper) Dyck and Heather Risk.

Mairi Coulthard remembers the ladies league in the 1970s. The CBSC Ladies would play the Vancouver clubs (Arbutus, Jerico, Vancouver Lawn) as well as West Vancouver. Play started in May at the CBSC and included sweeping the courts, putting up the nets and all the wind-sheets that went around the courts before matches.

Mairi also remembers that as there was no clubhouse or washroom near the courts that when the clubs visited Crescent Beach they would meet at someone’s house. After the matches they went back to the house for lunch. Mairi remembers that the league was very competitive. Other courts were also used (thanks to the Mathisens, Richies and Mainwarings)

Adult tennis was very popular in the 70s and we had to restrict court use in July and August so that there was always a court available for children. Seahorses used to list the four courts and daily times for lessons and for adult play as the courts were very busy. It was at this time in 1975 that shoe tags were instigated as many non members were using our state of the art CBSC courts! Duncan had a complete set of shoe tags on his tennis shoes from 1975 to 1998 when they were discontinued , although they were brought back one year for nostalgic reasons without a date – probably 2000. Duncan still has the original printer’s proof for the shoe tags.

To give you an idea of how popular adult tennis was – in 1974 the CBSC introduced the CBSCLWIMOMDT (CBSC Long weekend in May Open Mixed Doubles Tournament) which attracted an entry of 20 teams. “We split the entries into 4 groups playing a round robin in each group with the winners progressing to the semi-finals and final. In 1975 entries were made in advance and were handled on a first come first serve basis and we restricted the entry to 20 teams.” Also in 1975 CBSC entered a team in the Spring BCLTA Ladies League. The ladies were very successful and got to the 2nd top league in the Lower Mainland.

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Mary Thompson, Carol Genn, Mairi Coulthard, Herbie Mainwaring, Lyn Pohlman, Maria Bettauer, Val Harper, Margaret MacKenzie, Jay Donald and Margaret Gordon.

cbsc ladies tennis team 1976 third Division winners.

As an aside note Eileen MacKenzie (now Neapole) and Kyle ??? won the mixed doubles trophy maybe about 25 years ago. As Eileen was leaving the country Duncan “delivered” the trophy to Kyle’s house or at the very least his next door neighbour’s house. As the MacKenzies were also leaving the beach Duncan left the trophy on the doorstep - it has never been seen again and we are still looking!!!

Adult League Tennis continued for many years. Unfortunately in the 1980s tennis, especially adult league tennis, became less popular – golf took over to some degree and others began playing year round somewhere else (Hazelmere). Tournament entries dropped and such things as the May tournament were dropped.

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Art and Issie Van Wart have been involved in tennis at the club since they arrived at the CBSC in the late 1970s and they rounded out their major contributions to the club by running the CBSC adult tennis program for about ten years in the 1990s. Danny Goldsmith then suggested that CBSC should be encouraging new players to become involved. Art and Issie maintained the competitions for the traditional trophies but always had a gimmick to get new people to come out and play. Each Sunday they organized a preregistered tournament, mostly mixed doubles except when there was a trophy tournament for men's, women's, or mixed doubles. The format was rounds of 8 games on each court with a change of partner after 4 games followed by semi finals and finals. A $2 or $3 entry fee was charged. Balls, pop, and food was provided.

A good example of a tournament that Art and Issie organized was the Sunday morning Strawberry Tea tournament (what was in that punch??). They also organized one tournament where regardless of whether you won or lost all the other players could vote you out of the tournament!! - the original Survivor Tournament I guess! Only a couple as affable and well liked as Art and Issie could get away with that : )

In addition each Wednesday and Friday evening they hosted drop in tennis and rotated players about. On Fridays the players and friends went to a player's home for an after party. This popular event lasted many years. Art and Issie enjoyed the opportunity to be able to meet many great people as they attended all of these events.

Currently the adult tennis at the CBSC revolves around Wednesday and Friday night socials with three tournaments held in the summer. These are Men’s Doubles (Clyde trophy), the women's doubles (Mainwaring trophy) and a Mixed tournament.

Ladies teams 1976 - email me if you know some of the names!!

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I am positive that many of you out there have more stories and information about tennis at the CBSC and that you have more PICTURES we could add !!! - the older the better. Ultimately all of this info will be compiled and a summary of our colourful tennis history will be created.

Please send me a story and some pictures - perrydunnett@shaw.ca

Bookmark this page as we will continually be updating this site and streamlining the information we receive. It is very much a work in progress . You can also log into this website as a member, and share your tennis story in our "Share Your CBSC Story" discussion forum.

Thanks Ted Perry

Seahorse Cover 1973 (getting ready for two additional courts). Skyjumpers celebrating Western Canada Summer Games in New Westminster..

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