A Sporting Life

Difficult to just sit on the sideline

•  Victor Harbour Times (SA : 1932 - 1986) 

•  Fri 15 Feb 1985 

•  Victor Harbor Times Sports Round-up

When people ore members of sporting families and, indeed, hove been prominent in sport themselves, It con be difficult to just sit on the sideline.

Such was the case with Kay Ewens, Victor Harbor, one of the best tennis players this area has produced. 

With a sporting career that involved not only tennis but table tennis, golf and badminton, it was a blow to be forced off the court because an insulin problem prevented her from extending herself. 

After a few years lay-off, Kay began her comeback into sport by taking up lawn bowls with the Encounter Bay Club two seasons ago. Although enjoying the game immensely, she admits Dowling is a lot more physical than I gave it credit for.' 

She also re-started golf recently, making use of her son's mini bike for easier movement around the fairways. Kay, then Kay Rosser, began her tennis career at the age of 10 when she started playing in her home town of Port Elliot. At 13, with no junior tennis available, she played her first A Grade game. The next six years saw her a member of several Port Elliot premiership teams and a prominent member of Great Southern Association sides. She won the South Australian under-16 hardcourt title at Goodwood in 1961 and was fortunate to gain selection in the Slazenger sponsored team which visited New Zealand in 1966. But it was in the Country Carnivals that Kay really made her mark, winning the singles titles in 1964, '65, '66, 70 and 71, and reaching the semi-finals on four other occasions. 

She also represented South Australia in the Interstate Country Teams competition eight times. Kay was also reasonably prominent in Country doubles play, both women's and mixed, and her singles success in '64 was a double in itself, winning both junior and senior titles. Before marrying former Victor Harbor Golf Club professional, Graham Ewens, Kay played tournament-level table tennis but was more successful as a badminton player. She won the State singles and doubles titles in 1965. In golf, Kay was runner-up in the Victor Harbor club championships three times before her lay-off. 

Her return to the sport came about the time Graham was re-instated as an amateur last year. Despite her string of successes, Kay's memories of titles are a little vague now and to be sure she turns to scrapbooks and albums faithfully kept by her mother. 'You remember the people more than events,' said Kay, recalling how she' immediately recognised a recent customer to her ceramics business as a former competitor at the Country singles in 1966. ' 

We hadn't seen each other for years and yet we immediately knew who the other was and realised we had almost 20 years to catch up on,' she said. 'When you actually win an event, it's exciting for a half hour or so but then you just go on. 'It really comes back to the people you knew and made friends with,' Kay said. During her break from competition, Kay turned to supporting her family, just as her mother and father supported her and her brother, Glen, who went from junior grade at Port Elliot to playing league football for Norwood, where he is now a reserves coach. 

With her children involved in tennis, sailing, football and gymnastics, among others, Kay remembered how her mother had recorded her successes in her scrapbooks. 'So I went out and bought two large scrapbooks and am doing the 'motherly thing' by doing the same for my children.'