BANK HOLIDAY TOURNAMENT – MONDAY MAY 27TH
We will run a Bank Holiday Mixed Doubles tournament on May 27th. Start time 1pm and it’s open for booking now.
We can take the first 24 people that apply but if you’ve missed out you can be put on a reserve list by contacting Dave on davewattstennis@hotmail.com Cost is £10 and there will be refreshments and food provided.
You can sign up in the COACHING section of the website or by clicking on the following link:
Spencer Lawn Tennis Club / Coaching / Class (lta.org.uk)
NB: There will be no coach organising Sunday social on Sunday 26th but the clay courts will be left open for anyone who wants to come and play.
WOODEN RACQUETS TOURNAMENT – SATURDAY JUNE 1ST
This is the annual Wooden Racquets Doubles tournament for advanced and intermediate players. It's open to the first 20 players who apply. It's free to enter and players are required to bring their own wooden racquets if possible. Dress code is 70's Wimbledon so whites please with extra marks for Green Flash trainers, headbands, bandannas etc.
You can book on the website in the COACHING section or click on the link below:
Spencer Lawn Tennis Club / Coaching / Class (lta.org.uk)
GRASS COURT BOOKING
Our grass courts are open and booking is available. To ensure that they last the entire summer, we only have 3 courts open at any one time and we rest and water one on an ad hoc basis.
To keep things simple, court 10 is marked as closed (even though it may not be) so if you book court 7 you should just use the first court with a net, court 8 (second court with a net) and court 9 (last court with a net). To be super clear, the first one "with a net" is the closest grass court to court 6 which has a net up.
Once the club championships have finished, we generally open all 4 courts if we can and this will be reflected on the court booking system.
We will use the Spencer LTC Court Booking WhatsApp Group to advise when an extra court is available as well as a way to notify members if the courts have been closed due to bad weather.
If you wish to join this group, please send your details to Chris Hanage at Chair@spencertennisclub.com or 07973267619 or, and this is technical stretch on our part that we're not sure will work, try clicking this link!
ADULT SOCIALS
We will continue to run our Wednesday evening socials as normal with people able to book for the early session via the usual email and link. Sunday social and the Monday and Friday off-peak sessions will continue as normal. All socials are on the clay courts but we can move pairs to a grass court if they wish and if a grass court is free. We are leaving the grass courts bookable for tournament matches only during the social sessions and request that members adhere to this please.
SPENCER LTC CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024
Entries are now open for the 2024 Spencer Club Championships!
The tournament will begin on 18th May, with all finals to be held on Saturday, 20th July – this will coincide with our annual Summer Party as well. Fingers crossed the weather gods will bless us with a non-rain interrupted finals day this year!
In an exciting development, we are going to run things differently this year to make it easier to enter results and organise matches. No system is perfect, but we have decided to use the Matchspace app to run the tournament, which is already being used by over 40 clubs in Surrey. We’ve already used this app for the box leagues and feedback was very positive from members on the ease of use.
As usual, we will be running both Singles (Men’s and Women’s) and Doubles (Men’s, Women’s, and Mixed Doubles) tournaments. All tournaments are open to full and off-peak members. More details are in the Tournament Rules below.
Also, this year, for the first time, we will be running a “Plate” competition for all first-round losers in the men’s and women’s singles, to guarantee more matches. This will be available when all the first round matches are completed. The Plate finals will also take place on Finals Day 20th July.
ENTRY INSTRUCTIONS – DEADLINE MAY 17th
1. To enter any tournament, you MUST download the Matchspace app. It’s available in both the Apple and Android app stores, is free and very easy to use. Links to the app and website:
Apple http://apps.apple.com/gb/app/matchspace/id1588501362
Android http://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.matchspace.mobileclient
Website http://www.matchspace.co
2. Once downloaded, simply enter the Spencer Club Code BGSFL-6135.
3. You will then be asked to update your profile and add contact and other details.
4. Once done, please navigate to the ‘Shield’ icon in the app. Please then choose the tournament(s) you wish to enter to be automatically included in the draw. The draw will be published on 18th May once the entry deadline is past and the seedings for each tournament has been determined.
5. Doubles: There is an extra step involved to enter the doubles tournaments. To enter you and your partner, simply click on the tournament, enter and then select your partner’s name (who must also already be registered on the app – they should appear on a list of players for you to click on). [This only needs to be done once for you and your partner].
If you don’t have a partner but wish to be involved, we will assign a partner for you from the list of players who are also requesting a partner. The only way to do this is to email Dave at headcoach@spencertennis.com and request a partner. Once you’re matched up you can then enter you and your assigned partner in the tournament.
TOURNAMENT RULES
The rules stated on the app are generic but there are a few things that are specific to our club championships:
1. It’s a grass court championship. Matches are to be played on grass unless both players agree to play on clay. As we write, the grass courts are not actually open yet but should be by the time the tournament begins.
2. Matches should be 3 full sets with a Champions Tie Break (i.e. first to 10 points) at 6-6 in the 3rd set. Players can agree to play a Champions Tie Break only in lieu of a full 3rd set by mutual agreement.
3. Play By Dates: We are usually quite lenient on matches being played by the dates given on each draw but in the case of the First Round we have to be strict due to court availability and also that we can set up the plate tournament on time.
4. The Plate tournament can be played on either grass or clay.
5. The maximum time for court bookings will be extended to 2 hours temporarily for the tournament. This is only for tournament matches. Please do not book courts for more than 1.5hours for non-tournament play.
6. If there is a contradiction between these rules and the ones in the Matchspace app, the rules for this tournament here will apply.
Please let either Dave or Viv know if you have any questions about the tournament.
SUMMER TERM AFTER-SCHOOL SQUADS
We are happy to announce that the summer term after-school squads are up on the website and available to book. We hope to welcome everyone back and thank those who attended our programmes in the cold and wet autumn/winter months. Here’s hoping for a drier few months! Our after school squads are open to members and non-members.
Due to the early Easter this year the summer term is a rather long 14 weeks with a break on the week of May 27th for half term. You are signing up for 13 sessions.
START DATE: Monday 15th April
LAST SQUAD: Thursday 18th July
Timings: We have kept to the timetable that we had for the Spring camps with only one exception. The Thursday Orange Ball session has been moved from 4.30pm and will now start at 4.45pm instead.
Pricing: We have left the pricing for most squads as they were but there have been increases of £1 per session for some squads where we have added another coach and for others where the small squad size meant that the session was not financially viable. We hope this is acceptable to you.
You can find the full list of our summer term squads in the COACHING section of our website under Junior Squads or you can use this link: Spencer Lawn Tennis Club / Junior Squads (lta.org.uk)
JUNIOR TENNIS
We have entered some junior teams for the Surrey Leagues this year and our coaches will be talking to kids and parents over the coming weeks to see if we can get some keen boys and girls to represent Spencer against other clubs. Feel free to contact any of the coaches if you're interested in your child taking part.
We are also hoping to organise some internal tournaments for juniors with a finals day taking place in May before the half term. Again, get in touch if you want your child to take part but it's likely that our squad coaches will be getting kids involved over the next week or so.
IN OTHER NEWS........
Huge congratulations to our club captain Viv Ngan who is now a Surrey Champion! Viv won a tough final of the Women's Over 35 Singles last weekend. These titles are very, very difficult to win so well done Viv on such a great achievement.
MEMBERSHIP ANNOUNCEMENT
The club is at full capacity and is no longer able to accomodate any new, off-peak or junior members. We are also closing our membership waiting list until a full review of the list has taken place.
Balls and Strings
Tennis balls are now available for sale behind the bar and cost £6 per tin. For those of you who don't know, Seb (coach) is our resident racquet stringer and provides an excellent service using top quality strings. If he's not around you can leave your racquet with any of the coaches who will make sure he gets it. If you need an overgrip or a replacement grip just ask Dave who can do it on the spot for you if he's not on court.
Also worth mentioning that we do have quite a few 2nd hand adult racquets, some new childrens shoes and some new junior racquets for sale. Proceeds from these will be sent to the Wandsworth Food Bank.