10th Anniversary of Russian IC: July 22 - 25, 2009, Moscow
Edith Powell, Kit Spencer, Tyrone Mapp, Tatiana Lapteva, Sue & Mas Kimball
From: Kit Spencer, President - Bahamas IC
Just a quick report on our recent trip to Russia which everyone enjoyed.
Our team, composed of those who had expressed interest in going, was myself with Tyrone Mapp of Barbados in the mens 60+ doubles, together with Mas Kimball in the 55+ mens singles and Mas with Sue Kimball in the mixed doubles. We were accompanied by Bahamas IC member and supporter Edith Powell and some of her family.
There were six teams taking part which were Russia, USA, Great Britain, Mexico, Luxembourg and our Bahamas/Caribbean team.
The biggest success on the tennis courts was Mas and Sue Kimball who won the mixed doubles event beating a combined British/Russian team in the final and with Mas also winning a "Sportsmanship award". Mas survived being 9-5 down in the first round of his singles third set 10 point tie break to overcome his Russian opponent, Mas then lost in the second round of the singles to Niall Sweaney of GB - the singles was won by the USA.
Kit and Tyrone split sets in their opening match against The Russians and lost on the third set 10 point tie break. We subsequently lost to the British in another third set 10 point tie break before beating Luxembourg in two sets in our last match..... I think we were afraid of third set tie breaks by then to let it go that far! In the final, the Russians lost in a third set tie break to Mexico. As you will gather the mens doubles pairs were all pretty closely matched with a lot of third set tie breaks.
Everyone enjoyed the event and the smaller size meant we really got to know the other teams much better. We toured Moscow City including visits to The Kremlin and Red Square which were very interesting. Their underground Metro is cheap, very efficient and with some spectacular stations which are themselves architectural wonders complete with marble, granite, statues and murals. We all felt that the city has an unfair reputation. Admittedly the people may be a little dour at first but everywhere was spotlessly clean, no graffiti, no hassle and we felt very safe moving around the city - even late at night on the underground Metro. People were very polite once approached and the ice broken.
All our team went to a performance at a Russian theatre by Chinese acrobats which was outstanding. The club we played at was a very pleasant clay court facility not far from the city centre where we were well looked after.
The traditional last night dinner was enjoyable and where friendships were cemented. Both Kit and Mas were made honorary international members of the Russian IC. Their President Yuriy Laptev and his daughter Tatiana Lapteva were made honorary members of our Bahamian IC. Tatiana did an outstanding job of handling nearly all the organisation herself ....and all the translating too!
Enjoy your tennis.
Kit Spencer
President
Just a quick report on our recent trip to Russia which everyone enjoyed.
Our team, composed of those who had expressed interest in going, was myself with Tyrone Mapp of Barbados in the mens 60+ doubles, together with Mas Kimball in the 55+ mens singles and Mas with Sue Kimball in the mixed doubles. We were accompanied by Bahamas IC member and supporter Edith Powell and some of her family.
There were six teams taking part which were Russia, USA, Great Britain, Mexico, Luxembourg and our Bahamas/Caribbean team.
The biggest success on the tennis courts was Mas and Sue Kimball who won the mixed doubles event beating a combined British/Russian team in the final and with Mas also winning a "Sportsmanship award". Mas survived being 9-5 down in the first round of his singles third set 10 point tie break to overcome his Russian opponent, Mas then lost in the second round of the singles to Niall Sweaney of GB - the singles was won by the USA.
Kit and Tyrone split sets in their opening match against The Russians and lost on the third set 10 point tie break. We subsequently lost to the British in another third set 10 point tie break before beating Luxembourg in two sets in our last match..... I think we were afraid of third set tie breaks by then to let it go that far! In the final, the Russians lost in a third set tie break to Mexico. As you will gather the mens doubles pairs were all pretty closely matched with a lot of third set tie breaks.
Everyone enjoyed the event and the smaller size meant we really got to know the other teams much better. We toured Moscow City including visits to The Kremlin and Red Square which were very interesting. Their underground Metro is cheap, very efficient and with some spectacular stations which are themselves architectural wonders complete with marble, granite, statues and murals. We all felt that the city has an unfair reputation. Admittedly the people may be a little dour at first but everywhere was spotlessly clean, no graffiti, no hassle and we felt very safe moving around the city - even late at night on the underground Metro. People were very polite once approached and the ice broken.
All our team went to a performance at a Russian theatre by Chinese acrobats which was outstanding. The club we played at was a very pleasant clay court facility not far from the city centre where we were well looked after.
The traditional last night dinner was enjoyable and where friendships were cemented. Both Kit and Mas were made honorary international members of the Russian IC. Their President Yuriy Laptev and his daughter Tatiana Lapteva were made honorary members of our Bahamian IC. Tatiana did an outstanding job of handling nearly all the organisation herself ....and all the translating too!
Enjoy your tennis.
Kit Spencer
President