Postcard from the Courts
I am a tennis nut, I love it, I’ve played it my whole life and while I don’t profess to be very good, I do profess to be very passionate. As a newbie to Roses in the Ocean, I wanted to do something that might show my appreciation for what Roses in the Ocean has done for me in such a short period of time. And so, the 24 hour tennis game was born.
Taking place on Saturday 30 November at the Hills District Tennis Association Courts in the Hills District in Sydney, we set out to have a continuous game on a court for 24 hours. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I started the game at 10am on the Saturday with a fellow member of Roses in the Ocean Lived Experience Collective member, Tania Tuckerman. The tennis wasn’t great but the enthusiasm was high. As the players started to cycle, the snacks we diligently prepared were selling like hot cakes {in this case hot scones} and the donation buckets were rattling.
Early evening saw a few rain drops but undeterred, we continued on until midnight. To my surprise the busiest time of the whole event was from 10pm to 1:30am, when we had 4 courts of enthusiastic players battling it out for midnight tennis supremacy. When 6am arrived, I and a few others had played all through the night and with only 1 hour sleep in the last 24, I must admit I was feeling the effects physically, shoes were quickly lost as my feet swelled to a point were I was on the court barefoot.
At 10 am I came off the court having played 13 of the 24 hours and with an hour sleep I was a little groggy and more than a little sore. The end result was that we raised $6500 for Roses in the Ocean and more importantly we had raised some awareness in the Hills community around suicide prevention.
As with any of these things it was a team effort, from the fundraisers, to the tennis association, to the volunteers who cooked and sold baked goods to the players who put in a massive effort to make it a success. I am eternally grateful to all of them for making it such a success.
Talk at the tennis centre has turned to next year and making the event even better. My response…let my feet recover first.
Sam Fewings