Kinsale Open Speech and Photos..

The following is the speech of Kinsale Tennis Club President, Phil Lynch, on finals day of the tournament.
Apologies for the delay in the photos, should have them posted with this article soon.

"Welcome to players and supporters to the 5th Kinsale Open finals day. Welcome especially to Cliff Carroll, President of Tennis Ireland Munster Branch

We started this tournament 5yrs ago with 120 entries and this year I’m proud to say we have had 224 players representing 13 clubs throughout Cork. We really appreciate the support of all our neighbouring clubs and our old friends from the city clubs and welcome to new friends from Clonakilty, their first year of entry and it’s great to see them do so well in the tournament.

We have enjoyed and had been even thrilled by the tennis matches played here during the week – especially in the rain of Sunday and Monday – deservedly a lot of them are here today. We have had an extremely entertaining display of tennis here today – congratulations to all the finalists.

I would like to thank the Kinsale Tennis Committee who is constantly working to ensure the smooth running and development of our club. In particular I’d like to thank sincerely the Open Committee, Fiona Doran, Noreen Collins, Giles Norman, Mick and Rose Scully who have collectively run another successful tournament. Thanks also goes to Michael Buckley, who has kept us fed, making all our dinners throughout the week and with Neil Hogan, the delicious BBQ today. His support throughout the year at all our functions is very much appreciated by everyone here in the club.

In Kinsale we are fortunate to have an enormous team (headed by Rose Scully) who volunteer their time and culinary skills, providing and serving food during the week which you will all agree is exceptional – thank to each one of them.

I would like to especially mention two people – Jim Good for his continuous support to me and to the club and for being our No.1 trouble shooter. The second is Mark Butler for his design and woodwork skills helping to transform the clubhouse and making the kitchen work so much better this year.

Now, on to the prize giving, with a huge thank you to our Sponsors, Giles and Catherine Norman, of Giles Norman Photography. It’s becoming a tradition and always a bonus for the finalists to receive a Giles Norman photograph as a prize. Thank you to them for their continued sponsorship of the tournament.

Also thanks to past members Ashley and Jane Esterhuizen for giving each of our winners a bottle of liquor to enjoy after a hard weeks work.

Finally, On behalf of the club I wish everyone success and great tennis in the summer tournaments, safe home and hope to see you all here next year."