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Tournament History
This tournament was revived in 1971 as a result of an approach by Mr W.Bruce
McGregor, at the time Chairman of the S.L.T.A. Cup & Committee, to the
committee of the newly reconstituted Oban Tennis Club. Although no specific
records were available it appeared that the Championship Tournament had been
held over the years between the end of the First World War and the beginning of
the Second according to the evidence on the four trophies which had lain
forgotten in the Burgh Surveyor's Office. Two of these elegent silver trophies
had been presented to the men's and ladies singles events in 1922 but had,
apparantly been superceded by two grander silver trophies which had last been
presented in 1937 to the winners of the same events. It is probable that the
Tournament took place in 1938 but had not been inscribed. The 1922 trophies were
adapted for presentation to the winners of the Under 21 singles events in the
revived Tournament while the larger trophies were retained for presentation to
the winners of the main Open singles events. Further trophies were donated for
the competition in the Gents, Ladies and Mixed Doubles by various bodies - the
Tourist Association (Mens Doubles), Oban Town Council (Mixed Doubles) and some
business and private donors.
There were 8 blaes tennis courts built to tournament standard next to the
bowling green on Dalriach Road. This was due to the fact that the original
tournament had been run under the auspices of the Town Council. However, in the
post-War years the maintenance of these courts was becoming too expensive for an
amenity which, in 1968 was little used, and 4 of them were temporarily converted
into a car park. This spurred a few of the regular users to re-constitute the
Tennis Club which subsequently made representation to the Town Council to
re-instate the car park to it's previous use. This was agreed and subsequently
enabled a Committee comprised of 4 representatives of the Tennis Club Committee,
the Tourist Office, 3 Councillors, the Burgh Surveyor and Mr Bruce McGregor
(ex-officio) to convene to make arrangements to re-establish the West Highland
Lawn Tennis Championships to run from the 6th - 11th of September 1971.
These dates were chosen so that the West Highland Tournament would run
immediately prior to the Highland Tournament which was already well established
at the Atholl Hotel at Pitlochery. Mr McGregor felt that 2 such holiday
tournaments would attract County players from South of the border as well as
Scotland to open events and club players to the handicapped events. It was also
agreed that social events should be organised for each evening prior to the
finals on Saturday - this would compensate for the misery and boredom for the
inevitable rainy delays! As it turned out the finals were reached in 1971
without a drop of rain!
Bruce McGregor used his influence to encourage
County players to enter to such effect that David Lloyd and Graeme Notman (No. 1
in Scotland) agreed to come to contest the Men's Singles (which David won) and
both returned the following year! They certainly didnt come for the prize money
which was £5 for the winner and £2.50 for the runner up but at least the same
amount was awarded for the Ladies' Singles which was won by Eileen Johnston from
Lockerbie. However, the hospitality given to a number of the visiting players by
club members and patrons more than compensated for the paucity of the prize
money.
The social events were a great success - Town Council reception, swimming gala
at the Lancaster Hotel, Ceilidh, Sailing Club 'Regatta' and culminating in a
more formal dinner/dance and this aspect certainly earned the tournament a very
good reputation among players around the country. This was just as well because,
although there was very little rain during the 1972 tournament the luck didnt
hold for the subsequent years and thereby hangs many a tale!
One of the
many features of the tournament for a good number of years was the welcome
presence of Spike (Ches Spychala) the Slazenger representative who encouraged
and entertained the Referee, organisers and players with his marvelous stories
delivered in his Polish accent and idiom. He was greatly missed when he
retired.
Many changes occurred in the following years which caused the Tournament
organisers a few headaches. The change of the organisation of Local Government
was probably the biggest factor because this resulted in the new Council going
ahead with it's original plan to build a much needed swimming pool in Oban and
the site that was chosen? Yes - on the tennis courts! However, the Council
agreed to allocate part of the football pitch at Lochavullin to the Club's use
and marked out 5 courts on very uneven blaes. The Council promised a grant to
the club towards the eventual building of new courts beside the swimming pool
but, contrary to this prediction, this did not happen for another 5 years.
Meantime, the Committee soldiered on running the tournament successfully in
somewhat adverse circumstances - no one will ever forget the year when
Lochavullin (this name is not without significance!) was completely flooded to
such an extent that some keen types were actually canoeing on the roadside
beside the tennis courts which had been left high and dry!
In the
meantime Oban Tennis Club was kept busy raising funds to match the grants in
order to build the new all-weather tennis courts while a caravan, which had been
generously gifted, served as a clubhouse/referee's office. Further fundraising
efforts were required to raise funds to build a clubhouse and 2 squash courts
which have subsequently been further disguised having been incorporated in the
Atlantis Leisure building as you can see it today. The Tournament itself has
always been generously supported by local businesses and patrons and for 5 years
enjoyed the sponsorship of Scottish Mutual Assurance.
Since then there
have been changes - the timing of the Tournament, the prize money but the
friendliness and the hospitality experienced by the visiting contestants remains
steadfast.
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