The Union Club of Victoria hosts two Rotary Clubs.  The Rotary Club of Victoria was established in 1913 and the Harbourside Rotary Club in 1980. 

The Rotary Clubs’ membership represents the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Greater Victoria community.  As the service club of choice, Rotary comprises leaders from all vocations and institutions.  With the motto “Service Above Self”, Rotary has a reputation for integrating the resources of the community to support the disadvantaged.

Its youth programs support children of all ages and serves to prepare young people for the future through enhanced nutrition and literacy, developing leadership, and providing educational and travel opportunities. 

For more than a century Rotary has undertaken programs to enhance and build the Victoria community and affect conditions throughout the entire world. As a Rotarian you can mingle with 1.2 million Rotarians in more than 35,000 clubs in 130+ countries. 

If you are interested in joining the fellowship of Rotary or for more information visit www.rotary.org, and www.rotaryvictoria.org/ You are welcome to join. 

The Victoria Club meets at noon on Thursday (lunch) and the Harbourside Club at 7 a.m. on Wednesday (breakfast).

The London-based h Club has touched down in Los Angeles, the latest in a wave of social clubs kicked off by the debut of Soho House here in 2010. HKS Architects, led by architect Luciano Mazzo and interior designer Russell Sage, have transformed the former Redbury Hotel on Hollywood and Vine into a five-story destination that includes a rooftop garden and restaurant. Hidden behind a sleek blue facade, the renovation suggests that this new incarnation will write a future every bit as compelling as its rock-and-roll past.

Certainly that was the intention of the club’s founders—the late Paul Allen, global philanthropist and co-founder of Microsoft, and musician Dave Stewart—when they opened the London outpost in 2004 in a converted Victorian hospital in Covent Garden. With its unique resources, including a television studio and an art gallery, it quickly proved a magnet for the city’s creative class. The Los Angeles branch seems poised to repeat that success.

It’s the h Club’s out-of-the box thinking that sets it apart.

The h Club clearly offers all the expected luxuries of a high-end private club—open-air pool deck, beauty salon, gym, plush bedrooms and numerous lounges and bars offering chef Kris Morningstar’s richly layered food. But it’s the h Club’s out-of-the box thinking that sets it apart. That starts with its arts foundation, which has not only curated work for sale by artists such as Anja Neimi, Gina Osterloh and Freize star Lisa Anne Auerbach but has also invited them to become members. The club’s partnership with neighbor Capitol Records manifests in a collection of rare photos from the Capitol archives displayed throughout the property. An app encourages members to share projects, and a state-of-the-art recording studio welcomes singers, musicians and podcasters. An Artists’ Lounge can morph to host a band, a comedy show or a screening. This cornucopia of amenities is set against a dynamic backdrop that Luciano Mazzo characterizes as “British, but with a twist.”

“We wanted to create something that would become almost an icon in Hollywood,” says the Italian-born, UK-based architect. That began with his reimagining of the formerly blood-red Redbury Hotel as something bright and welcoming. Light-filled open-plan rooms partner with small, cozy spaces, nodding to the varied sensibilities of Los Angeles and London as well as to the different phases of the creative process. “There are moments that, as creatives, we want to communicate, and there are moments that we want to be alone,” Mazzo explains.

Mazzo’s classical framework contrasts with Russell Sage’s whimsical visuals. That translates into a potpourri of joyful, provocative details that delight the eye with rich colors, vibrant wallpapers and exuberant patterns dancing throughout the rooms. An Asian tea room intertwines a half-dozen hand-painted Chinoiserie wallcoverings; upon close inspection, a bedroom’s wallpaper pattern is revealed to be made up of frolicking naked bodies; a gentry over the bar packed with colorful liquor bottles provides a glittering rainbow of color. (“I’m always looking for a free sparkle, the ability to turn something into a chandelier,” Sage admits.) This exuberant whirlwind is kept in check with a strong foundation of clear blues, deep greens and polished woods.

But it is the h Club’s rooftop that may be its crowning glory, blending fantasy and refinement in equal measure. Jarman’s restaurant, in one corner, is the club’s most elegant dining space, accented by lampshades created from Hermès scarves and palm-frond fans spinning languidly overhead. This high polish is in madcap contrast to the rustic wooden shed and desert garden (complete with an old ruined speedboat) just outside its door. Nodding to British filmmaker and political activist Derek Jarman’s legendary oasis in Dungeness, Kent, inspiration for it struck Sage like a bolt of lightning.

“I suddenly thought, Everyone in L.A. wants a rooftop garden,” he explains. “But there’s the sheer impossibility of it—water restrictions, the baking sun. This captures that spirit of total inventiveness. It’s stupid and crazy and fun, but it just works.” The spirit of h Club Los Angeles in a nutshell.

For any tennis fan there’s a certain point in the year when the sport becomes hazed in romance: the start of the grass season.

After months of play on hard or clay courts the arrival on our TV screens of luscious green stripes feels like a return to the sport’s roots.

The biggest opener of the grass season is the week-long tournament at Queen’s Club in West Kensington, now called the Fever-Tree Championships, which starts on 17 June. The annual men-only competition is one of the key warm-up events for Wimbledon, and this year has the added draw of a comeback appearance from Andy Murray.

For these professionals grass is the ultimate test, but for club players and amateurs, too, the surface has an appeal all wrapped up with an era personified by Fred Perry and John Betjeman’s Miss Joan Hunter Dunn.

The smell of the grass and its natural appearance is part of its attraction, says Graham Kimpton, head groundsman at the 133-year-old Queen’s Club. “It might sound a bit twee, but it’s the feel of it underfoot. The fact it’s a natural surface and that it reacts with the elements. A hard court or artificial grass is the same every day,” he says.

On grass, a tennis ball bounces faster, and lower, forcing players into a leaping athleticism but providing a softer landing on the turf if they do slip. Some detractors complain that balls can bounce unpredictably; Wimbledon champions like John McEnroe have said that’s exactly why they love it.  This, coupled with its fast pace, means the professionals are desperate to clock up hours of drills on grass before Wimbledon rolls around.

Tantalisingly, there are only three months of the year when you can actually play on the surface. From May until September, the high-end tennis clubs that maintain grass courts are inundated by members who want to book an hour or two’s play. For the rest of the year grass is off-limits.

This strictly limited period of availability, added to the cost and labour of maintaining turf, means that a game on grass is a more exclusive pleasure than ever. That’s if you can even get into a club to play.

A major barrier-to-entry for any wannabe Roger Federer or Serena Williams is the waiting list for any of the leading lawn tennis clubs. Queen’s, which has 12 grass courts, has now closed its waiting list for full memberships.

There is a 1,000-strong waiting list join the All-England Club in Wimbledon, which has 20 practice and 18 championship courts. As Tim Henman once said, “The easiest way to get in is to win it.” (Wimbledon singles champions get honorary membership.) Meanwhile, the Hurlingham Club in Fulham, whose members include Jeffrey Archer and Pippa Middleton, has a 30-year waiting list.

Could the answer be to build and install your own lawn tennis court? For a keen player or family of players with a country home and spacious grounds, a private simulacrum of Centre Court is possible, according to sporting turf experts.

You’ll need at least 34m x 17m of spare garden, but a more modest space can work too. “They can be squeezed into a slightly smaller area,” says Steve Pask, a project manager for specialists Fineturf. “We’ve just done one in Suffolk inside a walled garden which was very tight but the owners were happy.”

Pask builds one or two high-spec domestic grass courts a year, but says the demand has grown over recent years. Fineturf recently completed one such for the Cotswolds home of the British-Australian hedge fund billionaire Sir Michael Hintze.

“Once a client decides they want a grass court, they never put anything else in,” says Pask. Artificial grass or all-weather courts may be easier to keep, but have none of the poetry of lawn. 

“A natural grass court is an English thing and it’s about tradition. It tends to be people who’ve got a property that lends itself to it. It goes hand-in-hand with a quintessentially English way of life.”

Construction of a brand-new, fully irrigated, LTA-standard court will cost around £200,000 but it is less expensive to refurbish an existing court gone to seed.

“The lowest budget we could resurrect a court would be £5,000,” says Pask. “But the variation is driven by how much you aspire to use it, and the amount of maintenance you want.”

Even those who hold precious lawn-tennis club memberships may still yearn for their own back-garden court. Kimpton says that some of the members at Queen’s ask him for advice on how to replicate the grass experience at home.

 “I get calls from members who have a country pad and who want that. If it’s only used by family or friends, it’s do-able, but don’t expect it to be like here or Wimbledon,” warns Kimpton, who works year-round at Queen’s with a team of eight. “They can still have a nice game with the family on a Sunday afternoon in July.”

Once the grass has grown in, a groundsman or specialist gardener will be required to take on the duties of routine mowing, fertilising, weed-control, aeration, scarification, top dressing and over-seeding; carried out by staff, this would cost around £3,500 a year to maintain, according to Pask.

For a select few, a lawn court has become not just an amenity but a valuable property add-on. Charlie Ellingworth of the buying agent Property Vision notes that clients regard a tennis court as a safer investment than a swimming pool. “Even if the buyer is not a committed tennis player themselves, as long as the court is not impinging on the house, most people look at it as part of the pleasure of country living.

“A grass court is less intrusive, and if there is detachable temporary netting, it is something that blends in to the garden rather than looking as if a supermarket carpark has been dropped into the landscape.”

If all that sounds like too much trouble, don’t despair. Roger Federer, the king of grass, last year confessed to a Swiss media outlet Blick that he actually avoids excessive practice on lawn.

“I prefer to play on a hard court than on a half-wet lawn,” Federer said, adding that the natural surface gives him backache. “You have more soreness.”

Secrets of the world’s best tennis groundsmen: how to get Grand-Slam grass:

• Soil with clay content is important. “This is what makes the ball bounce correctly,” says Steve Pask of Fineturf. The grass courts at Queen’s were relaid with Onger loam, a heavier, harder clay, in the mid-1980s.
• Think about the position of your court. You need a reasonable amount of sunlight and air movement, to prevent diseases and to grow strong grass (Queen’s is often said to have a superior Centre Court as the seating stands around it are temporary, maximising sunlight).  
• Technology has bred grass seed that is now more tolerant of pests and drought. Queen’s uses a mixture of ryegrass, fescue and bent. Ryeseed is the choice of  Devonshire Park, specifically Limagrain MM50, according to Danny Negus, head groundsman at the club where the Eastbourne International is held.
• A new grass court needs to be grown in; if it is sown in autumn, the surface should be playable by spring. Steve Pask of Fineturf estimates growing-in costs at £6,000 for the first year.
• For a fully-blown domestic court, plan for a drainage layer and automated pop-up irrigation.
• Expect to cut the grass every day, ideally at 10 or 11am, in growing season. “The more you cut it, the finer and thicker it gets,” says Kimpton. He advises using a cylinder mower that you can adjust.
• The Centre Court at Queen’s Club is cut to 7mm for the Fever-Tree Championships, but 10mm will play well in a domestic setting.
• You’ll need to regularly scarify your court (essentially, raking it to remove dead bits of grass and debris) either by hand or machine, and aerate it (targeting puncturing of the turf, using either a hand fork or mechanical device).
• If dried-out patches emerge, soak the turf, and re-seed it, says Kimpton. “If you’ve got one in your back garden and you want to use it anyway, just do your repairs at the end of the season.”

Upon the conclusion of the Union Club’s 140th Annual General Meeting, which took place in the Centennial Ballroom on Thursday, June 6, 2019, the following members were acclaimed to the General Committee:

GRACE VAN DEN BRINK, PRESIDENT

LYLE SOETAERT, VICE-PRESIDENT

KERRI GIBSON, GENERAL COMMITTEE

TONY JOE, GENERAL COMMITTEE

HEATHER KOHLER, GENERAL COMMITTEE