Liz Ellis Adds New Title to Illustrious Career Total

NSW Corporate Games' kickoff Celebrity Tennis Day Benefits Diabetes Australia-NSW

Double Drummer picked a bad month to run a major outdoor sporting event… but the gods smiled and rain stayed away just long enough for the successful launch of the NSW Corporate Games via a big Celebrity Tennis Day that raised over $13,000 for Diabetes Australia-NSW.

The miserable weather didn’t dampen the spirits of 16 high profile stars, many of them from Manly and surrounding suburbs, who drove through the puddles to the Tennis Valley Club in Chatswood. Half the courts were still under water when we arrived at 7:30 on the Sunday morning… but the satellite pictures showed a window of opportunity from 9am ‘til 2pm and with the club’s great drainage system working overtime, we made the call to go ahead.

Urgent text messages were sent to all the stars. Guy Leech sent back the reply (practising his McEnroe): “You can’t be serious!” Liz Ellis said she’d bring flippers and snorkel. But Leechy and Liz, along with Layne Beachley, Kerri Pottharst, Nici Andronicus, Trevor Chappell and M.C. Simon Westaway left their cosy Northern Beaches homes and trekked forth to Tennis Valley.

So too did jockeys Corey Brown and Allan Robinson (the latter driving down from Newcastle!), Socceroo goalkeeper Mark Bosnich and Channel 9 sports presenter Stephanie Brantz.

Guy Leech & Liz Ellis shape up before a big crowd in the Semi. of the NSW Corporate Games  Celebrity Tennis Day

Stephanie’s husband (and Foxtel Football commentator) Simon Hill got the 5am ‘red eye’ flight from Adelaide to take his place and Three Time Ms World Figure Shaping Champion, Lindy Olsen flew in from Brisbane. The event even featured stars from overseas in the shape of World No. 5 beach volleyball pair Angie Akers and Tyra Turner from the U.S. (who were staying and training with our own golden girl, Kerri).

State Member for Willoughby, Ms Gladys Berejiklian MP gave the opening address and together with Ms Nicola Stokes, CEO of Diabetes Australia-NSW, officially opened the event at 10am. Matches were played in good spirit, but given the quality of the athletes involved, there was always going to be a competitive edge, despite playing a sport that was outside their comfort zones.

One semi-final pitted Guy Leech and his partner from Tennis Valley, Kim Rowland against Liz Ellis and Kim’s husband James! The former netball player used her height and knowledge of the angles to her advantage to just edge out the Ironman Champ… (of course it didn’t hurt to have a partner with an A2 grade in her corner).

The other semi. pitted former Northern Eagles half-back Jason Taylor against Fairlight’s Kerri Pottharst with the footie player coming out on top (despite his favourite shot being a lob and Kerri being well over 6 foot on the old scale!).

The Final was a see-sawing event played in the only heavy rain experienced on the day and it eventually took a sudden death tiebreaker to separate the two teams. Liz Ellis and James Rowland took the trophy, but Jason Taylor (pictured right) was competitive to the end, chasing several balls into the courtside fence!

Layne shows a classic style on court!

Seven Time World Surfing Champion Layne Beachley partnered Sharks and Souths NRL legend David Peachey to win another close contest over Channel 9 sports presenter Stephanie Brantz and Melbourne Cup winning jockey Corey Brown in the consolation All Star Showdown.

Members of the public had bid via GraysOnline to play with their favourite celebrity in the lead up to the event and a second auction was held for specially donated items. When proceeds from these were added to court sponsorships, entry fees and a raffle, the final tally raised for Diabetes Australia-NSW exceeded $13,000.                   

The President and the CEO of Tennis NSW, Mr Steve Healy and Mr Glenn Tasker respectively, were present at the event, as was the Mayor of Willoughby and five of his fellow Councillors. Post-event feedback from all involved has been universally positive. It seems the Celebrity Tennis Day was a big success and is likely to become a permanent fixture as part of Sydney’s sporting calendar. 

Celebrity Tennis Day participants (from left to right) Guy Leech, Jason Taylor, Trevor Chappell, Angie Akers (U.S.), Tyra Turner (U.S.), Mark Bosnich, Simon Westaway, Corey Brown, Allan Robinson, Layne Beachley, David Peachey, Simon Hill, Stephanie Brantz, Kerri Pottharst, Liz Ellis, Lindy Olsen and Nici Andronicus

The beneficiary of the Celebrity Tennis Day is Diabetes Australia-NSW - a non-profit, non-government, 99.7% self- funded charity, dedicated to helping all people with diabetes throughout their entire lives. This wonderful organisation provides educational programs, awareness campaigns, funds research into diabetes management and helps protect the rights of people with diabetes, all the while searching for a cure.

To read Dave Keogh’s blog, go to: http://doubledrummer.wordpress.com/

Dave Keogh

Our Manly columnist Dave Keogh has been a professional writer for some 30 years, contributing to publications as broad as Modern Fishing and Outdoor. He honed a passion writing a regular column – Talking Tennis – for The Manly Daily. With a varied history including work as a music industry publicist, theatrical agent, band manager, poet, editor and tennis coach, he found his niche in advertising, and with loads of awards under his belt, Dave went into business on his own and now runs several very successful businesses, including an online community connecting sport-loving people – http://www.doubledrummer.com/ Most importantly, Dave loves sport, and is an avid supporter of The Manly Sea Eagles…