Old photos, old racquets and old friends combined at St. Anne's-Waterford tennis Club Reunion on Saturday, 19^th January 2008 for what proved to be one of the most sparkling events of recent months.

One-hundred-and-forty former tennis and badminton players attended the reunion and met up with friends from times past.   There were stories galore of past glories (and a few disasters) loads of laughter, and even a few tears for some of those now playing on the court in the sky. Travelling from Cork for the reunion was Monica Cinnamond (nee Thompson), Bernadette Lyons (nee Walton) came from Dublin and Michael Barry from Limerick.

The highlight of the night was a slide show of old photographs compiled by Club Chairman, Robert Leslie.   Many of the photos dated back to the 1950s when the St. Anne's Tennis Club and Waterford Lawn Tennis Club amalgated and a former chairman of that era, Mr. Tom Heine, was present on Saturday night looking fit and well as was Mr. Tony Kelly who succeeded Tom Heine as chairman in 1958.   A very popular guest was another former Chairperson, Mrs. Beryl Boyle, who attended with her son, Robert and daughter, Leonie Rogers.    Beryl's husband, Noel, was also Chairman of the Club for a number of years and appeared in many of the photographs in the slide show.

In his speech welcoming all the guests back to the Club, Chairman Robert Leslie said that the committee is trying to collect archive material of the Club's history and asked that anyone who had old photographs or anything of interest regarding the history of the Club should contact him or any member of the committee. It is hoped to erect a board in the Clubhouse with the names of Club Chairmen and Club Captains from the formation of the Club in 1954 and the committee would welcome assistance in compiling these lists.

Paddy Murphy, who has served on the committee of the Club in every capacity over the years and who first started playing tennis in the 1940s, told how the photographs which formed the slide show had been sent for burning and were rescued by the late Joe Shalloe who put them away in his attic.  When Joe Shalloe died, Paddy Murphy took them to his attic where they remained until last year when they were digitised by Robert Leslie.   Robert made copies of the slide show on CD, all of which were sold at the reunion and there have been requests for further copies to be made. These should be available at the bar in the Clubhouse in the very near future.