7 November 2012 | Tennis Queensland

After more than 50 years of dedication to the sport he loves, Tennis Townsville’s Vic Bayer said he was honoured to be named a life member of Tennis Queensland.

 Bayer joined some illustrious company by becoming one of just 12 life members to the state body and was presented with the honour at the Queensland Tennis Awards night in Brisbane in early November.

He started playing the game as a 12-year old in Sydney and over the years has made a number of contributions as an administrator and still continues to play night fixtures.

Since arriving in Townsville more than 20 years ago, Bayer has been on the local management committee, as well as serving on the board of Tennis Queensland.

During his two stints as club president at Tennis Townsville he introduced a number of annual tournaments including the NQ Junior Age Championships, wheelchair championships, corporate night fixtures, Xstrata Regional Development Squad and Elite Junior Touring Squad.

Bayer was also heavily involved in bringing a Davis Cup tie against Thailand to Townsville in 1998. “It took a lot to get a Davis Cup tie to Townsville and it took a lot of work to host it.”  He said that he felt these were amongst his proudest achievements during his time in Townsville. 

Other achievements include the redevelopment of Tennis Townsville, securing more than $1 million in grants and funding to help upgrade the facilities.  “That’s a lot of money to be put into the site over 10 years so we’ve taken it from a low level to a fairly successful site,” said Bayer.

Bayer was awarded his life membership at the same time as former number one, and multiple grand slam winner Ashley Cooper.