PATAS - Pinoy Barkada Tennis Club

It all started in the early 1980’s in Sydney, Australia when a small group of friends played tennis together. They played tennis every Saturday night in Glebe (a suburb northwest of Sydney) until they became known as the Glebe Tennis Boys. When they started having problems with the court management due to increased court rental, they ended up playing regularly in Beaman Park tennis courts on Saturday nights in the late 1980’s. This is located in the suburb of Dulwich Hill, southwest of Sydney. Being frequented by boys from nearby suburbs, this group of tennis players then became bigger than before. They eventually called themselves as the Barkada Club.

In 1994 however, a small band of tennis players from another club decided to form their own tennis group. They called themselves the Pinoy Tennis Club. Most members from this batch of players are good friends of the originators of the Barkada Club. Being competitive in attitude, the Pinoy Tennis Club members wanted to join the Philippine Australian Tennis Association of Sydney (PATAS). This association promotes a lot of inter-club competitions. The only problem was that they were a scanty mob. PATAS regulations require that a club must have at least 20 members to be able to acquire membership. They therefore decided to combine forces with the Barkada Club and started playing in PATAS tournaments against all the other member clubs.

At each tournament, they started to gain more and more reputation and respect in the local tennis circuit. From then on and up to this day they are known to be as the PINOY BARKADA TENNIS CLUB.

The Pinoy Barkada Tennis Club has synthetic grass courts booked from 7.30pm to 11.00pm every Saturday at the Beaman Park, Vera Lane, Undercliffe (Dulwich Hill).

No elected officers, but was founded by Mr. Rossbee Benitez and Mr. Gerry Benitez.

Way back in 1981 a gentleman from Taytay, Rizal, Philippines under the name of Freddie Dolores arrived in Sydney for the first time looking for the legendary pot of gold, hoping to find a good future for his young family. He ended up renting a place in a block of units in Glebe. Then at almost the same period that year another young gentleman from Olongapo City, Philippines called Eric Abdon arrived first time in Sydney looking for a bright future, action and adventure as being a single young man. Eric went to live in the place of Pong Mendoza, an old time chum from his hometown Olongapo City. Freddie already knew Pong since they both live in the same group of units in Glebe, so it was a great pleasure meeting a new found friend-Eric.

Life in Sydney during those times was a little boring - shops closed early, no weekend shopping, not much night life, etc., so these three new friends got together for drinking, picnics and whatever. Being sports minded and athletically built, they all decided to try playing squash and basketball together for some time. Freddie’s cousin Noel Gonzaga came to Sydney and also joined them. Later on Freddie’s brother Jess Dolores came to Sydney in 1982 and joined them as well in their activities, giving more zest and fun to the friendship. While playing basketball one time they met two more new friends - Boyet Villena and Freddie Cadiz through Dodo Gutierrez. This is how Freddie, Eric, Pong and Jess have been introduced into tennis - since Freddie Cadiz also loved playing tennis. Excited and overjoyed at their new avenue of sports they started buying a tennis racket each. Wooden racket was the go during those days because the graphite and aluminium rackets were not yet really that popular then.

Another character came into the life of these friends while Pong and Eric were eating out at the Filipino Restaurant in the city of Sydney. They met a waiter called Efren Reyes, an outgoing dude who plays it cool all the time. He is a great addition to the group. Meanwhile all this time these friends have started playing tennis regularly with a small group of other Filipinos - Rely Pasco, Jun Banan, Rey Galang, Godofredo Javier, Bernie Irazo, and a couple of ladies called Irma and Epang. They were renting a council owned tennis court in Glebe every Friday night close to their homes. Efren would regularly go to the tennis courts not to play but only to watch and enjoy the company and the drinks. The courts were booked from 7:00pm to 11:00pm every Saturday night but sometimes (or most of the time) the players stayed until past 12:00am to finish the drinks, and this of course also went for Efren.

Having formed a small group of tennis players they have been known as the Glebe Tennis Boys. They were also joined by another avid tennis player Gaddie Soriano who also hails from Olongapo City. Becoming popular in the local Filipino tennis circuit, Gaddie has been invited by a small group of local Sydney Filipino players in 1984 to play in Melbourne. This was during the early stages of the annual PATAS/PATAV Sydney/Melbourne Classic. He decided to bring along Jess Dolores to play tennis for the Sydney contingent and at the same time see Melbourne. This was where Jess and Gaddie met a very happy-go-lucky extroverted character in the person of Gerry Benitez who basically likes wine and songs. Gerry was also part of the Sydney team playing against Melbourne.

Gaining more popularity than ever before and having met Gerry, the Glebe Tennis Boys started to be regularly visited by players from another club. They are Gerry’s friends - Rene Opilas, Benjie Nicodemus, and Jorge Villaroman among others. They were also additions to their friendship. Camaraderie, understanding and mutual respect was always the order of the day for such a lasting friendship.

In 1988 problems started cropping up with the renting of the Glebe tennis courts. The courts started to be managed by a new mob which was council appointed. They put up the rental price by a marginal amount and the players were not happy with it. So Eric Abdon, Jess Dolores, Ding Espino, Jun Mendoza and Luis Dolores ventured out to find another tennis court where the group can play. They found the Beaman tennis courts to be free on Saturday nights. After some deliberation and consultation with the members they finally decided to rent the courts from 7:30pm to 11:00pm every Saturday night. After this day they called themselves the Barkada Club.

Later on a small group known as the Garnet Boys started frequenting the courts during bookings and socialized with the members. People like Roy Manglicmut, Benjie Bautista, etc. came from this group which greatly added to the number of members. Another group brought along by Boyet Villena were Dennis Pangilinan and Francis Pangilinan. They are a batch of singers and guitar players, thus contributing a lot to the higher morale and merriment of the club, especially when accompanied by musical buffs like George Espino, Rouel Gatbonton, etc.

Then in 1994 a band of players from another club started to form their own new tennis group called the Pinoy Club. Some of the more popular figures from this gang in the local tennis circuit were Rossbee Benitez, Gerry Benitez, Esfinar Balila, Jorge Villaroman, Willie Jauco, Rizal Okol and Joey Buan. This group was founded by Gerry and Rossbee Benitez and comprised only of less than twenty (20) players. PATAS (Philippine Australian Tennis Asociation of Sydney) regulations specify that for a club to join this organisation, it must have at least twenty (20) members. Being highly competitive by nature, the idea of wanting to join the PATAS to be able to compete with other clubs churned in their minds. Being old buddies with Barkada Club, they joined together as one team to have more than twenty (20) players and comply with the regulations.

These two clubs played together against all the other local tennis clubs in PATAS tounaments, showing their prowess and gaining respect from other clubs through their increasing strength as the years go on. They branded themselves as the Pinoy Barkada Club and to this day onward they are known as the PINOY BARKADA TENNIS CLUB.

PATAS Singles Tournament at Barton Place, Parramatta Class C won by Rouel Gatbonton and runner up was Ariel Sebastian.

March 1, 1997

Yugyugan 97 at Granville Bowling Club - finger food preparation and serving were excellently handled by Dennis and Francis Pangilinan, George Espino and Gerry Benitez.

Tickets were distributed to be sold by each tennis club and Pinoy Barkada won a carton of Hahn Ice beer for selling the most number of Yugyugan tickets.

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A new Pinoy Barkada t-shirt has been produced to be worn by the club members at all official tournaments. This white t-shirt takes the place of the green one issued a year before.

Summer team tennis tournament. Won by Yellow team composed of Gerry Benitez, Luis Dolores, Jess Dolores, Sonny Pangilinan, and Jay Jay. Runner up team was Red composed of Tony Simbul, Warner Escuadro, Rudy Pascual, Jun Kulot, and Kiko Pangilinan.

Sydney - Melbourne Tennis Tournament - Pinoy Barkada members contributed largely by handling the lunch for all players during the games. These were made possible by the likes of Efren Reyes, Freddie Dolores, Jess Dolores, Allan Avanzado, and the other galamays like Dennis, George, Ray, Kiko, Bong (now in Phil), Sonny, John Harwood, and Gerry Benitez.

Pinoy Barkada/Maharlika Tennis Invitational at Auburn. We also won with a score of 12 wins against their 6 wins. Rey Oruga and Belinda Benitez played really well and won a memorable match.

May 25, 1997

A big mark for the Pinoy Barkada Tennis Club. We almost held a history record in the PATAS doubles tournament when we won the Class A division with Ross Benitez and Rizal Okol, we won the Class B division with Tony Simbul and Nards Agorto partnership and we were Runners Up in Class C division with Luis Dolores and Ding Espino partnership.

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PATAS won the Shield with the strong contribution of our stalwart players in the likes of Ross Benitez, Joy Buan, Espie Balila, Willie Jauco, Nards Agorto, and Jefferson Carcasona.

September 1997

PATAS Annual Team Tennis Tournament -

Remarkable result for Pinoy Barkada for being the Team Tennis runners up (compared to previous year's first round exit)

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December 1997

Christmas Party for family and members held at Lees Park tennis courts.

A one day tournament has been held for Class A, B and C divisions. Class A Doubles winners were Willie Jauco and Rizal Okol and Runners Up were Gerry Benitez and Rex Okol. Class B Singles was won by Benjie Nicodemus and Runner Up was Ding Espino. Class C Singles was won By George Espino and Runner Up was Pando Dolores.

Another feature of the day was a big lechon donated by the president of the club Mr. Jorge Villaroman and chopped by the courtesy of the vice-president Mr. Gerry Benitez.

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PATAS Singles Tournament for Class A division was won by Willie Jauco and Runner Up was Gerry Benitez.

The First Quarter 1998 Team Tennis Tournament was won by the White Team - Willie Jauco, Belinda Benitez, Warner Escuadro, Jorge Villaroman and George Espino.

Runner Up was Yellow Team - Gerry Benitez, Boyet Benitez, William Zaguirre, Pando Dolores and Dennis Pangilinan.

May 2, 1998

Pinoy Barkada Tennis Club has done it again. Sold the most number of tickets for the PATAS Yugyugan 98 and won a carton of Victoria Bitter for the good effort. Club members Gerry Benitez, Pando Dolores, Dennis Pangilinan, etc. have again done a good job of assisting in preparing finger food for the guests.

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A new grey t-shirt embossed with the club name has been released under the patient organization of Mr. Jayjay Javier.

Willie Jauco And Espie Balila were Runners Up in Class A division (did their best against Blacktown’s Don Giron And Chad Relova). However Class C division was won by Pinoy Barkada Club players Arnie Sebastian and Nino Calugay in the Finals.

Pinoy Club players even though not playing came to give moral support and as usual had BBQ at the venue. They were all wearing the new grey track suit adopted as the new winter uniform.

The 1998 Pinoy Barkada Singles Tournament was won by Gerry Benitez for Class A, Willie Jauco was runner-up. The Class B winner was Greg McCarthy, Luis Dolores was runner-up. The Class C winner was Andy Dolores, Efren Reyes was runner-up. The Ladies division winner was Trish Levelle, Belinda Benitez was runner-up.

Abdon, Eric	Dolores, Jess	Pangilinan, Dennis
Ago, Roland	Dolores, Luis	Pangilinan, Francis
Arezo, Serge	Escuadro, Warner	Pokic, Luke
Balila, Espie	Espino, Ding	Reyes, Efren
Benitez, Belinda	Espino, George	Reynolds, Roger
Benitez, Boyet	Fernandez, Jun	Rydent, Patrick
Benitez, Gerry	Gatbonton, Rouel	Sebastian, Arnie
Benitez, Ross	Jauco, Willie	Tantillo, Sam
Bourke, David	Javier, Jhun	Taylor, Brian
Buan, Jose	Kawabata, Mako	Villaroman, Jorge
Calugay, Nino	Lazell, Phil	Walther, Matt
De Lara, Manolo	Levelle, Trish	Zaguirre, William
De Leon, Danny	Manescu, Dan	Zamora, Annie
De Leon, Edward	McCarthy, Greg	Zamora, Baby
Dolores, Andy	Mercado, Mer	Zamora, Manny
Dolores, Fernando	Nicodemus, Benjie	Zamora, Ricky
Dolores, Freddie	Oruga, Rey