Med Hat Tennis Club’s Father’s Day classic starts today
By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on June 12, 2024.
sports@medicinehatnews.com@MedicineHatNews The Medicine Hat Tennis Club is adding to the Father’s Day weekend with a three-day tournament. The club will host 54 tennis players this weekend with a Father’s Day Classic tournament geared toward celebrating families on and off the court. The play gets underway Friday evening at 5 p.m. with men’s open play. The women’s open gets going Saturday at 9 a.m. and the men’s intermediate class starts play on Saturday at 10 a.m. Tournament co-ordinator Sandy McIntosh is looking forward to the tournament and the atmosphere it will bring to the club. “It’s still going to be real family orientated tournaments, running along the same theme as the Barrie Shave tournament,” McIntosh said. “We have kids of parents that are playing in it, and the parents as well, so it’s just a nice family event and nice we can get together with some activity.” This year’s tournament marks the first under the name of the Father’s Day Classic, formally known as the Barrie Shave Classic. That tournament, started in 1999, was named after Barrie Shave, who played in the event before passing away six weeks later from pancreatic cancer. Last year’s tournament was the 25th rendition of the Barrie Shave Classic and featured Barb Shave and her son Brad, who made the trip from B.C., as well as Brian Patterson, an original founder of the tournament. McIntosh says the 25th tournament was well represented and says the tennis club board decided after the 25th Barrie Shave Classic they would transition the tournament into a Father’s Day Classic. “It’s kind of sad to see it come to an end but we just felt that the 25 years was a good run at it,” McIntosh said. Tennis fans are encouraged to come out and the watch the tournament that will run all weekend, wrapping up on Sunday. 11-10
