TENNIS COURT QUEENS FOR OVER 40 YEARS
REPORTER DAVID MEDCALF SPOKE TO GERALDINE AND ASHLEY WYNNE, THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER COMBO WHO HAVE BEEN TOP OF THE RANKINGS AT WICKLOW TENNIS CLUB IN AN RUN WHICH STRETCHES BACK TO 1975
IT HAS ALL the trappings of a dynasty, a two-woman dynasty. The duo’s reign as at the top of tennis in Wicklow LTC goes back to the mid-1970s and is completely unbroken to date. It was 1975 when Geraldine Duggan – later Geraldine Wynne – first collected the Liam O’Mahoney Cup as winner of the ladies’ single title.
A few weeks ago, her daughter Ashley Wynne was presented with the same trophy after a straight sets victory in the final of the same event. And in between, each summer since that day back in 1975, one of the pair of them has been called up to receive the cup. No one else has had a look-in, though many challengers have tried to break the stranglehold of mother and daughter on the crown.
It is a remarkable and formidable run of success reflecting not only their talent but also their ability to steer clear of serious injury for decade after decade. And would-be successors should take note that, though Geraldine is long retired, Ashley shows no sign any intention to step down just yet. At this rate – 43 years and counting – the two-woman dynasty could conceivably hold court until they have racked up a combined half century.
‘We should be in the Guinness Book of Records,’ laughs the older of the two, now aged 62 years old. The run of success continued this year with the younger woman dismissing club mate Alexandra Pickerell 6- 0, 6- 0, after coming through a similarly one-sided semi-final. The champ stresses that she normally expects Alexandra to give her a much closer game but on this occasion she (Ashley) had just got married a few days before. The result was that, while waiting to set off on honeymoon, she had more time to train and practise than usual.
Tales such as this make it clear that tennis is more than just a pastime to this pair – it’s serious. Geraldine grew up in Enniscorthy where the sport was just one among many she tried her hand at. Her older sister Marie Duggan was more interested in badminton than in tennis when they were children. And Geraldine was also drawn to camogie, a member of the legendary Buffer’s Alley’s team which racked up five All-Ireland titles.
Nevertheless, she clearly also enjoyed the days spent at Hillbrook LTC in Enniscorthy where she first turned up with her Maxfli racquet at the age of eight. It was timber framed and had to be kept in a press when not in use, to prevent warping. How quaint!
The balance of her sporting interest swung more towards tennis in 1974 when she moved to Wicklow as a young civil servant with the Department of Post & Telegraphs. She joined the local club with its cramped green shed of a clubhouse and the new left-hander quickly made an impact. The following year Geraldine Duggan was queen of the four tarmac courts in Wicklow for the first time and the dose was repeated each August or September up to and including 1999. The sequence of success was maintained into the eighties and throughout the nineties, even when she was pregnant carrying the baby who was fated to de-throne her. Y
OUNG Ashley could hardly avoid tennis as she grew up at Friars Hill: ‘ The house is only 700 metres from the club and it’s like I was wheeled on to the courts in a pram! I could play as soon as I could walk.’ Geraldine recalls how she encouraged hand-eye coordination at home: ‘When Ashley was small, I would throw a ball to her, a soft ball, in the hall. Then we brought her down to the tennis club to do volleys and smashes.’
The changeover from one generation to the next came in the year 2000 when Ashley assumed command – with some considerable show of reluctance. The word went around Wicklow Town in advance that something special was due on court in the semi-final of the ladies’ championship. So there was quite a crowd present as the veteran title holder confronted the young 13 year old pretender.
Ashley recalls edging ahead in the third and deciding set. The teenager then gained the upper hand, no doubt with cunning use of her trademark drop shots to unsettle her baseline hugging parent. At match point, Ashley offered to concede in a bid to permit her rival and mentor bid to reach a quarter century of dominance. But mother was having none of it, gracefully allowing her upstart progeny win the semi and take over the reins.
Geraldine adds more detail of that decisive point when Ashley pretended that she had done something to her injure knee. She came up to the net to shake hands and wish her maternal opponent well in the final. However, Geraldine could see that the knee was fine and sent her daughter back to the service line to resume combat. Ashley sent down a ‘dolly’ of a serve rather than her usual thunderbolt, expecting to have it returned with interest. Instead, the old-timer batted the ball out of play and vacated her long held throne, proud of the young whippersnapper who had brought her down.
‘It was a good time to get out,’ muses the veteran. ‘I never played in the championship again.’ She has, however, certainly not severed her ties with the game as the two Wynnes believe firmly that tennis is a sport for life. She has travelled the world in recent years with Ireland veterans’ teams to venues as far away as South Africa and Turkey, besides criss-crossing England and Wales. She is currently non-playing captain of the Leinster veterans, an outfit who have been imbued with their leader’s winning mentality. And though accumulated wear and tear have curtailed the power of her serve, she continues to be in demand as an accomplished doubles partner. G
ERALDINE has enjoyed seeing her daughter progress from being one of the best juniors in the country as teenager, to become a well-respected player and a coach. Ashley, now resident with her husband at Oulart in County Wexford, cuts a familiar figure not only in her native town of Wicklow. She is also in charge of bringing on talent at Hillbrook LTC in Enniscorthy as well as at the tennis and sailing club in Wexford Town.
She looks back at her decision not to look for a scholarship on the far side of the Atlantic in some USA college. Her pedigree at under-age level was very impressive. She enrolled to prepare for the Leaving Certificate at the Institute of Education in Dublin where the flexible timetable suited her purpose better than the regime at the Dominican Convent. As a teenager, she played on the junior European tours during summer holidays, slugging it out with her peers in Spain, Austria, Bulgaria and so on.
The highlight was competing at the Youth Olympics in Murcia at under 16 level where she and her partner – Stevie O’Connor from Northern Ireland - had match points for a bronze medal. The result did not go their way: ‘I cried for six days afterwards.’
Instead of heading Stateside, after sitting the Leaving, she attended UCD where she graduated in sports management: ‘I have some regrets at not going on scholarship to the United States,’ she admits, ‘ but I was more of a home bird.’
The sport her mother began playing in the 1960s has changed a great deal in the past half century. Where Geraldine used to follow the exploits of Billy Jean King and Jimmy Connors, her idol nowadays is the Spanish clay court king Rafa Nadal.
The wooden racquets have long since been
replaced by equipment made from high-tech materials such as the titanium. The battered green shed at Wicklow LTC has made way for a proper clubhouse built in 1983, while the number of courts has grown to six – all state of the art and fully floodlit. The club caters for at least 450 players.
As a coach, Ashley has been looking at ways of extending the appeal of tennis to people with intellectual abilities or people in wheelchairs.
She also continues to enjoy competing in her own right: ‘I hope to have a few years left.’ She is a mere 31 years of age after all. ‘As long as I am fit I will play.’