TENNIS/SEVENS: Couple pulled off smash hit without swinging racquet

ANENDRA SINGH
People who organise sports events often put other's needs before their own.
They keep a low profile and graciously let everyone else lap up the lion's share of the fun.
Waipawa couple Betty and Ross Angus' mind-boggling labour of love went one step further.
In more than 40 years as administrators of the Waipawa Lawn Tennis Club's veterans' tournament, the Anguses never hit a ball and, today, are adamant they wouldn't have it any other way.
"We have retired now. We don't know what it's like playing in the tournament but we certainly know what the players received from it in the weekends," Ross, 63, explains from the lounge of their home of the 95ha sheep farm they have run for more than 40 years.
"The friendships that we made and the joy of seeing these people come back year after year - it's been marvellous."
To miss the annual tournament was unthinkable but one year they had to bow to the call of motherhood. On February 23, 1969, they beat a hasty retreat from the event when Betty had to give birth to the eldest of their three children, Donna.
"I followed her to the maternity unit. I had a roast meal and a Yorkshire pudding for tea that night and damned good it was, too," Ross says with a grin.
The impact the tournament has had on visitors at the 120-year-old Waipawa club is illustrated in Ross' account of a visitor who enjoyed the event so much that he took the concept to England.
"They play the tournament in Yorkshire. They didn't like the term 'veterans' so they just call it the Waipawa Tournament," says life-member Ross, who has served as chairman and was president from 1971 to 1977.
Napier-born Betty, 60, had her first tennis experience in 1966 when the then-registered nurse was handed a racquet and told to get on with it.
The two Waipawa life members retired from administration last year, satisfied they had achieved their goals, taking the club through highs and lows.
Betty also stepped down because she was running out of new ideas, and with some young blood coming through, felt it was appropriate to hand over the reins.
"You feel a bit sad with another tournament coming up (February 25-26).
"I haven't got the pressure of time on me but I'll be able to sit there and enjoy it," says Betty, who enjoys playing golf these days.
A trip to Christchurch for a Davis Cup tie with Irene (Rene) Hinton, of Hastings, was what inspired Betty in her initial years as secretary.
While Hinton, whose grandson, Trevor, is a Hawke's Bay tennis representative, was busy with the "elite people", Betty was stretching her legs during a break when she felt a tap on her shoulder. A player who had played at the Waipawa veterans' tournament had recognised her and insisted she have lunch with them and go to the horse trotting at Addington that night.
"Those guys looked after me for the whole week that I was there and that really gave me faith in people - you help them and they help you."
She was president from 1985-91 and secretary from 1977-85. The couple took the matter of juggling their tennis commitments with looking after their three children - Donna, Anna and Grant - in their stride. But Ross admits that once he became a rugby administrator, Betty had to tough it out.
"I gave up as a committee member in tennis in 1977 and Betty took it up. There was a bit of juggling there but when it came to rugby, I think Betty had the short end of the straw," he says, as Betty laughs.
The children were never neglected, although trying to ensure two important events on the same weekend went off smoothly proved a tall order.
It was daughter Donna's 17th birthday and Betty had arranged to have the cake ready at the club the day before and the birthday present wrapped up at home.
"In the car the next morning, I could hear, 'Mum, Mum?' 'Quiet, quiet!' I said. ' As long as you are all prepared for your sports, just leave me alone'," she explains, a tone of regret still obvious in her voice even after all those years.
Betty drove off to the club, preoccupied with the day's proceedings. As she pulled up at the club, out came club member Sylvia McCleary, singing Happy Birthday to Donna.
"Well, it wasn't only Donna who cried. I did, too. I had to come home to get the present because there are some things you don't forget. It's something that's never been forgotten since."
Incidentally, the Anguses and all their children are February babies, except the youngest, Grant, who missed out by just a day, with a March 1 birthday.
"I baked a lot of chocolate cakes in a month," Betty says. She relished - and still does - the Waipawa veterans' tournament each year and says she is forever indebted to her "marvellous" mother, the late Sally Hayes, for minding her children when administration duty called.
The Anguses wrote a book, Hot Shots and Aces, to mark 50 years of veterans' tennis in Waipawa last year. While it was Ross' brainchild, Betty had painstakingly extracted names of every player who had entered the event from the club's minutes and sports club books, going back to 1965. At times, Betty wanted to hurl the project out of the window.
"The finished product is what actually counts. I did say I'd had enough at one stage and I think that was after the fifth proof reading. I just said, 'that's it, print it!' "Ross has helped me with my achievements and I his and I don't think either of us would have done it on our own that well," says Betty, who had to come to grips with using a computer after a two-day introduction from son Grant before he headed overseas.
"Grant did leave a file for computer mothers to access when they find themselves stuck but I couldn't even find that on the computer," Betty says, as Ross laughs in the background.