TURKISH antiques, some in use when the ANZACs landed at Gallipoli 100 years ago, will be trophies at this year’s ANZAC Day tournament at one of Perth’s largest tennis clubs.

In what’s become a tradition over the past 30 years, Demir Bükey will present the winners of the Blue Gum Park tennis club tournament with antique copper trophies brought from his Turkish homeland, where they were once used as trays, food dishes and water jugs that wouldn’t look out of place in an Aladdin movie.

“Some of the copper trays are over 200 years old,” says Mr Bükey, a household name in Turkey in the 1970s as a champion rally driver and TV presenter. “Many of the pieces are special because they have a date or a Sultan’s signature stamped on them, or because of how they were made back then.”

Mr Bükey moved to Bunbury after meeting local gal Gayle Best on the last leg of his epic 1977 London to Sydney rally, and the couple married shortly after.

• Demir Bükey presents a copper jug from Gallipoli to Blue Gum tennis club president, Pauline Foster, with his own collection of bullets, shrapnel and other war relics from the Gallipoli peninsula in the foreground.

His passion for tennis began when he was about seven, growing up in Ankara and winning his first major tennis competition when he was 14. “My father started the first tennis clubs in Ankara and in Istanbul. After moving to Australia in 1980, Gayle and I decided this was a fitting way to commemorate ANZAC Day.”

“Demir and Gayle are bringing some pretty special prizes for our club’s own 40th anniversary this year,” says Blue Gum president Pauline Foster.

“Some of their copper antiques are exquisite and having our own, private connection with Turkey on ANZAC Day is something we’re really proud of.”

With about 460 active members and the largest junior coaching program in WA, Blue Gum is one of Perth’s largest tennis clubs.

Mr Bükey will present the trophies at the awards ceremony at Blue Gum’s Disney Street clubhouse in Brentwood around 5pm on April 25.

by DAVID CURL