Dads on the ball

The controversy surrounding the Australian Open has overshadowed the real tennis story in recent times: the inaugural Stanny Cup! During last year’s lockdown, Stanwell Park resident Will Ives decided to get some of the fathers from Stanwell Park Public School involved in playing a tennis comp for the sake of their mental and physical health – following all Covid-related protocols, of course!

The Stanny Cup consisted of 13 Stanwell Park, Helensburgh and Coalcliff dads of all tennis abilities playing a round-robin involving one set played with a point awarded for each game won. All the matches were played at the Stanwell Park Tennis Courts starting in August and all scores and weekly standings were posted in a WhatsApp group that resulted in some, shall we say, ‘lively’ discussions.

Based on these standings a seeded finals series was held in December where everyone competed for the ultimate prize of coveted home-made 3D printer trophies (thanks Pat Reid!) awarded to the top two finishers and the wooden spoon (not to be outdone by our kids, everyone in our comp received a participation trophy).

The wooden spoon trophy was particularly spectacular and there were some controversial allegations made that ‘winner’ Gabe Clark may have had his eye on the prize during the whole comp. Gabe claimed to have never played tennis before, which may explain a lot of 0-6 results, but suspicions still linger.

Fittingly, the Championship Final was a thriller with Ross Biggar taking the Cup from Kurt Sorensen in a tight 7-5 match. Congrats to Ross, who went undefeated throughout the tournament, including coming back from a 0-4 deficit to triumph over Alain Adolphe, who I will personally never let forget about – you were up 4-0, man! The comp finished in style with a family barbecue following the championship final.

So why write this story about the tournament? Well, school dads are often not so good at getting to know one another and the comp resulted in some great new friendships. The humour and banter throughout was also a welcome relief from the stresses of the lockdown and several of us grew facial hair during Movember, raising almost $2000 for men’s mental health. Plus it was a lot of fun, great for fitness, our tennis games improved – and no one got Covid. Overall it was a huge success!

There’s plenty of tennis courts around so why not start your own comp based on parents (dads and mums) in your local school? Who knows, perhaps this can grow into a Northern Illawarra tournament one day!

If anyone is interested in playing in the 2022 Stanny Cup, please contact Will Ives via email at William_ives@hotmail.com