FOUNDING FATHER TOM BIJLMER LOOKS BACK

First published in the Pinkster Tournament booklet in May 2007

In the spring of 1993 a small add in the Dutch gay magazine Gaykrant was the prelude to pink tennis activities in Amsterdam. The add called for participants for a “Pink Tennis Tournament” on Whitsunday 1993. Tom Bijlmer and Ed van Betuw organised this event for 32 participants: 16 women and 16 men. Matches were played according to time, rather than for won sets. The summer following the 3rd PINKster Tournament a group of participants kept playing tennis together on Saturday afternoon. The day after the 4th PINKstertoernament in 1996 this group got the name Smashing Pink during the meeting in which Holland’s first gay & lesbian tennis club was officially founded. Read the full story