Port Alfred Tennis Club officially announced the Port Alfred Corporate Tennis Cup at a special sponsors’ evening and media launch hosted at the Royal St Andrew’s Hotel recently. Participating teams are named after their sponsors, BS Sport, Leach Pharmacy, Buco, Pam Golding Properties, Stenden South Africa and Build it.
“The committee’s goal for 2022 was to provide floodlights for the remaining two courts,” Port Alfred Tennis Club captain Adriaan Potgieter said. “Port Alfred Tennis Club exists as a service to the community of Port Alfred and to make the club accessible to people from all walks of life, we keep our annual subs to a bare minimum. These subs allow the continuous operational commitment to be met but does not fortunately allow for capital outlays such as additional floodlights.”
Potgieter went on to say that the corporate league was their main project to raise funds to install those floodlights. To present a unique tournament, they needed to raise the bar by hosting a tournament of high quality. That was achieved by having on board quality stakeholders, six strong sponsors with well established brands in Port Alfred, a world class hotel as the venue for their launch and providing continuous value for money exposure by means of their local printed media and regular social media content on tournament activities.
“Along with an action-packed of six days of tennis, we are hopeful the tournament will soon become a regular and well-known sporting fixture amongst established events such as the Pineapple Cricket Week, Amanzi Festival and Mad Hatters Golf Tournament,” Potgieter said. “To allow us the opportunity to learn and develop a top-class event and not to be overwhelmed by it we decided to limit the playing teams to six,” he said.
Potgieter said that would enable them to control the quality of the event, ensure all stakeholders would be happy and identify the areas where they could improve for the next year. He added that would like the event to increase to eight teams for the 2023 and future revenue would be sent on making sure playing surfaces were top notch and hopefully improve their clubhouse facility. He also asked their sponsors to communicate and let them know where the slip up and how they can improve that tournament going forward.
Port Alfred Tennis Club Chairperson Jo-Anne van Rensburg ascended the stage after Potgieter. She said with the vision and support of their previous chairperson, Dave McCowen and his committee, they had been encouraged to revive the Club and find younger, energetic and enthusiastic members.
She acknowledged her husband’s help Jaco for resurfacing and painting the courts as well as fixing the court lights.
“We have encouraged people of all levels and ages to come and join in. Our social tennis days are on Wednesdays and Saturdays from 2pm. On Wednesday evenings we play under lights and braai together, and enjoy drinks. We have a safe area for children to play and they too have a lot of fun. Family is very important to us we are a family club,” she said.
Van Rensburg said that they had grown from 25 to 60 members. The courts were used by Port Alfred High School, Kowie Foundation School and for Playball and individual coaching. She also mentioned that they had started their development coaching run by Pulani Potgieter and a group of about 8 teenagers attended every week.