{"id":16038,"date":"2020-12-04T14:49:18","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T06:49:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/?p=16038"},"modified":"2020-12-04T14:49:21","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T06:49:21","slug":"ocean-ridge-tennis-club-stalwart-acing-life-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/news\/2020\/12\/04\/ocean-ridge-tennis-club-stalwart-acing-life-at-86","title":{"rendered":"Ocean Ridge Tennis Club stalwart acing life at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longstanding Ocean Ridge Tennis Club<\/strong> member, James Hough-Neilson<\/strong>, is proving that age is no barrier with the 86-year-old continuing to ace life both on and off the court.<\/p>\n

Involved with the Ocean Ridge TC for almost 40 years as both a player and dedicated committee member Hough-Neilson who played pivotal roles as Club President and Captain, continues to be involved with the club, tasked with heading up this season\u2019s Sunday afternoon social tennis.<\/p>\n

A late comer to the game, Hough-Neilson was almost 50 when he first stepped on to a court. Taking to the game with ease, it wasn\u2019t long before he became a regular player in the Northern District Tennis Association (NDTA), a league he still continues to play in to this day.<\/p>\n

\u201cI eventually reached a time in my life where I decided that it was my turn, so I started playing socially to build up my skills before joining the Ocean Ridge Tennis Club where I\u2019ve been a member and player ever since,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOver the years I\u2019ve taken on committee roles as the Club President and Captain. I\u2019ve always enjoyed doing my bit for the club and having an effect wherever I can,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI currently host the club\u2019s Sunday afternoon social tennis. We play a bit of tennis before I bring out the cheese and crackers, and then we play a bit more,\u201d said Hough-Neilson.<\/p>\n

In line with the 2018 Mayo Clinic findings* which attributes both the physical and social aspects of the sport to extending a player\u2019s life expectancy by 9.7 years, Hough-Neilson is a strong advocate for the many and varied benefits of tennis, which he says is a fantastic sport for so many reasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis is a great sport because it exercises all parts of the mind and body. It\u2019s such a wonderful combination of physical, metal and intellectual exercise,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good fun. I love it and it\u2019s because of tennis that I never know how old I am unless someone asks,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think you should ever switch off and tennis is a good game for that,\u201d added Hough-Neilson.<\/p>\n

A professional actor who still engages an agent and continues to direct theatre productions at the Limelight Theater in Wanneroo, Hough-Neilson remains committed to both of his passions claiming he has no intention of giving up on either of them any time soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was sidelined late last year when I needed surgery to remove my gallbladder and I\u2019ve been building my strength back up throughout the year so as to get myself back on court,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got no intention of giving up on my tennis which I make sure fits in around my commitments to the Limelight Theatre,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI head down to the club to practice my serves a couple of times a week and enjoy playing socially, and then sometimes I fill in for the clubs mixed team which plays in the NDTA Saturday competition,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve enjoyed getting back on my feet and swapping lies with the everyone around the club,\u201d said Hough-Neilson.<\/p>\n

Current Ocean Ridge Tennis Club President Natalie Dellamarta says that Hough-Neilson is a wonderful club member who\u2019s had a significant impact on the club over almost four decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cJames has been involved with the club since the early days when we amalgamated with a number of surrounding clubs to become Ocean Ridge Tennis Club,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he first joined there was just a demountable shed as a clubhouse while the Guy Daniels Pavilion was being built,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s held a number of different committee positions over a number of different periods and whilst he\u2019s no longer an active committee member, even at 86 James is still a reliable volunteer and a stalwart member of our club,\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJames now manages mixed social tennis on a Sunday afternoon and loves nothing more than putting out some snacks and opening the bar for everyone to have a good ole chinwag on the balcony,\u201d said Dellamarta.<\/p>\n

A sport for any age and for life, you can find out more about your local club and playing opportunities by heading to www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/clubs <\/a><\/p>\n

*Mayo Clinic Study findings: https:\/\/www.mayoclinicproceedings.org\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longstanding Ocean Ridge Tennis Club member, James Hough-Neilson, is proving that age is no barrier with the 86-year-old continuing to ace life both on and off the court. Involved with the Ocean Ridge TC for almost 40 years as both a player and dedicated committee member Hough-Neilson who played pivotal roles as Club President and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6203,"featured_media":16044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6203"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tennis.com.au\/wa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}