Club Scout gives his own take on the member suggestions for the Club's new restaurant

I love to travel and make plans to stay at, or at least visit, Hurlingham's reciprocal clubs.  Probably the least well known is the Ecali Club in Athens, so when we recently went there for a friend’s ‘Destination Wedding’ we looked to expand our horizons beyond the wonder of the Old Town and its Ancient Greek ruins.

I will admit to initially worrying that the distance to the Ecali Club – a 45-minute taxi ride from the centre of Athens – might ruin the day out for us. But my fiancé, being older (and apparently wiser), reminded me of the days when you could choreograph a few moves to the music involved in the time it took to connect to dial-up internet. Surely, we could muster the patience for a journey of under an hour. His argument was persuasive, so we called ahead and organised our letter of introduction, speedily provided from the Hurlingham Membership office.

From the get-go, everything at the Ecali Club was perfect. The staff could not have been kinder or more helpful. We had decided to spend an entire day at the Club and arrived early to set ourselves up on the sun loungers at the pool. The pool side area is at the centre of the Club and has been done in a delightful Art Deco style across the terrace. By lunch time some of the members began to trickle in – tennis whites aplenty. The Ecali has a good number of courts, I didn’t take an exact count, but they seemed to be mostly clay courts, which one would expect given the task of keeping grass courts in a safe state for play in the scorching summer sun.

Lunch at the Ecali Club was an absolute delight. We started off with a traditional Greek salad and moved on to cocktails and sweet treats. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we decided to ask at the front desk if they’d mind terribly if we came back the next day (the inconvenience of taxi journeys by now a thing of the past). ‘Not at all’, they said, in fact, ‘would we like a tennis lesson, and to meet their head coach?’ This seemed like a wonderful idea but alas we had no racquets – happily no problem was insurmountable for the wonderful staff, and they organised two extra racquets, at no extra cost. We enjoyed the lesson and while I’d love to credit my painfully slow improvements in tennis to Hurlingham's wonderful Simon Huddart, I think it was actually Giorgio at the Ecali who finally fixed my serve. Giorgio also managed to impart great tips on strategy and how to be a good doubles partner – my fiancé and I now no longer argue on the court and so Giorgio might even be credited with the fact that we are now to be married...

As a result, I am now planning my honeymoon this year, we are looking at suitable Reciprocals – so watch this space!

KATIA ROELE