Queen’s Event – report by Alastair Mackeown
The Railroad Club met up on Saturday 26th October at The Queen’s Club for a hugely enjoyable day of tennis and catching up with old friends. Having two courts meant that there was a lot of tennis played and everyone had a few matches each. Handicaps ranged from 12 to 80, with stars like Charlie Defries on 12, and ages that weren’t far off that range either, with current students, and even former Blues from the 1970s like Fred Satow.
It was a wonderful opportunity to see fellow players from the past, meet new people, and share stories from Oxford days. It was noted that Horatio Cary will be giving the Blues match speech at Lord’s this year, and was looking for any embarrassing tales about the pros, which had Andrew Davis looking nervous. I am sure he would be grateful for any suitable contributions.
On court, there were some superb volleys from Izzy Marshall, some sublime off-the-tambour forehands from leftie Rob Walker, and it was heartening to see that Ollie Hawkins’ self-invented method of hitting it high onto the back walls for a combo of chase the line followed by hazard chase the line is still going strong. Thanks to some clever pairings, everyone was able to play off level, and half an hour matches meant a full set could be played.
A big thank you to Andrew for organising such a wonderful day, and to The Queen’s Club for generously allowing this event to take place there. Everyone left with big smiles on their faces, even if lack of regular play meant some of us were also aware of creaking joints as we hobbled happily home. Roll on the next Railroad event!
Varsity update
The Varsity matches are coming up soon with the first teams playing at Lord’s on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th February, with the second teams playing at Oxford the previous week. Please see below for previews from Leon Kashdan-Brown and Hannah Wilson-Kemsley, the men’s and women’s captains.
Please come and support. Doing so is free and does not need a reservation. It you would like to join for lunch on Friday, Saturday or both, please let the pros know by Thursday 26th February. This will be £17 a head. Reservations are required for this.
We will also arrange casual drinks at the Lord’s Tavern on Friday evening. Again, there is no need to make a reservation for this but if you are thinking of coming please let us know so we have an idea of numbers.
We are also holding some alumni spaces at the Saturday dinner. The event is black tie and tickets are £95 per person. Railroad Club members are first in the queue (after the players’ families). First come, first served, so please let us know as soon as you can. The Long Room is being renovated so the dinner will be held in Pelham’s[in the Warner Stand] this year but we are confident it will be a memorable occasion. The speech will be given by Horatio Cary – we understand that he would welcome any embarrassing tales about the pros…
Please also feel free to come and support the second teams at Oxford on 20th and 21st February. There is a direct cost to the club for the seconds match at home and if possible we would like to raise funds to contribute to this from Railroad Club members. Our target is £1,000. If you are willing and able to help with this, please contact the pros.
Railroad events
Next up is an OUTC / Railroad club dinner at Merton College on Saturday 5th September, with past and present members of OUTC not only eating together but also playing together over that weekend. Again, more details will follow in due course.
Membership and support
If you are not already signed up as a member of the Railroad Club, please consider joining. The annual fee of £50 (or £30 for recent graduates or those based overseas) is used to support Oxford real tennis at all levels and we hope that the club will be an increasingly vibrant means for alumni to stay in touch. More details here: Signing up to the Railroad Club – OUTC Railroad Club
The new committee is considering how best to raise and deploy our funds and will be in touch later in the year with new ideas.