2009 CTC Magdalena Group, October 2-4, 2009

Organizer: RST La Magdalena (A)
Participants: ICLTK Prague
Carrickmines CLTC
RC Polo de Barcelona
Rochusclub Düsseldorfer TC
Real Sociedad de Tenis la Magdalena (B)
Real Sociedad de Tenis La Magdalena (A)
Winner: RST La Magdalena (A)

The first weekend of October, our Club, Real Sociedad de Tenis La Magdalena, hosted  one of the groups of the Centenary Tenis Clubs Competition for  this year , 2009.  

Since we joined this exclusive Association (CTC), we were expecting the opportunity to be able to organize one of the groups of the CTC Competition.  Last year we had a first step in the Association, by participating in the group that the Carrickmines Club of Dublin kindly organized.  We carefully took note of all the details they prepared for the organization and their warm reception and we tried to be as good as them this year. 

We were lucky enough to have four teams from abroad from the following Clubs:  Rochusclub Dusseldorf, Carrickmines Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club, Dublin Chelsky Lawn Tennis Club, Real Club de Polo de Barcelona.  In order to improve the organization of the Competition and give opportunity to more of our senior members we decided to have a second team from our Club join in the Competition.  Therefore we had an “A team” and a “B team “from La Magdalena, which ended up being really successful for everyone.  As expected, our second team proved to be weaker than any other team but they made it up with their enthusiasm and enjoyment of the sport.
 Right after drawing the teams, the Competition started Friday afternoon, the teams were divided in two groups: Carrickmines, CLTK, La Magdalena A, and on the other group RC Polo and Rochusclub and La Magdalena B.  A total of six ties were played Friday afternoon with a great level of tennis and sportsmanship.  Some of the teams wished at some point to have some extra players on the teams stating “we are seniors”.  We should take advantage of the total amount of players allowed to participate in the Competition, ten, when we sign in for this kind of Competition. 

Two teams, one from each group got into the final: the RCPolo with its outstanding six players and our A Team who had to fight each point to finally get a win in the final.
 On the social side, our guests had a chance to enjoy Spanish wine with some typical “tapas” in our new “Lawn Tennis Tavern”. Even though some of the players decided to go and sample the restaurants in the area.  On Saturday we had a gala dinner were some typical gifts where exchanged and our job in organizing the competition was recognized by the different captains of the teams.  On Sunday, once the tennis was over , a typical meal with “Cocido Montañés “ was waiting, with the prize giving ceremony following immediately afterwards on the pool area of the Club. 
Friendship and sportsmanship were at all times the centre of the Competition.  We also have to thank the weather with the Sun and the high temperatures that allowed our players to swim in the sea, pool, go on by boat and canoe on our bay area.
Our friends from the different Clubs went back to their cities with great memories of our city and some of them even took advantage of the opportunity and went to visit our prehistoric caves and the area of “La Rioja” visiting some wine cellars.