Hello again. I hope you are all well. We are pleased to welcome back those of you who have been able to take advantage of our partial re-opening. 

5 days on, we thought it would be a good time to review how things have gone so far, to respond to some of the queries we've had and to change some of the rules that we communicated on 12th May. We have received much positive feedback to date on our speed of response and the effort that went into establishing rules to ensure safe play within the constraints of Govt. and LTA guidelines. Thank you for your kind words of encouragement and understanding. I know it must still be frustrating for many of you that we are not yet able to get back to normal or even 'new normal', ...myself included. I'd forgotten how much harder it is to play a singles set, but remember that you can always just have a gentle knock ! We have also had lots or support from members of the public passing down Church Landway, welcoming us back. ...Oh, and we've seen a surge in new member applications !

COURT BOOKING SYSTEM

This appears to be working really well. As you will appreciate, it was impossible to predict how much court pressure there would be, especially with the singles restriction and individuals' health concerns. Many thanks to Kim who has been keeping a watchful eye on this and has analysed usage. In the last 5 days, court bookings have been less than 40% of available slots, and there have been only a handful of these where all 5 courts have been booked. In light of this, we have here a new set of rules, with further clarifications in response to queries raised:-

1. You may now book a court for up to 4 hours per week (previously 2hrs).
2. This is your personal allocation for bookings, not attendance. With bookings in your partners' names you could play much more than that.
3. Your 4 hours' bookings could be 4x1hr or 2x2hr bookings.
4. It is ok for adults to book on behalf of a junior.
5. If empty slots are available on the day, you may make a booking in addition to your 'weekly allowance'.
6. We will maintain the 2 week max. booking horizon.
7. Please do remember to cancel your booking if you have a change of plan.

We will of course continue to monitor, let us know if you have other queries.

COACHING

1. We need to amend our previous assumption that coaching would be ok for household groups together (LTA guidelines since received is 1:1 only is permitted.)
2. As coaching may be quite expensive for individuals (eg£30/hr) it has been agreed that 2 people to share a 1hr slot (30m each).
3. Court 1 has been pre-allocated for coaching between 9am and 1pm, see separate email instructions on pricing, availability and how to arrange.

This is a golden opportunity to brush up your skills.

BALL MACHINE 

This presents a great way to improve technique or if you are finding it hard to find a partner. 

1. Our trial has shown that the ball machine can only be used 2x 1hr per day due to battery life. 
2. You must be trained and issued with a store room key to access. Please contact Mervyn LeRoy if you need training
3. The machine must always be put on charge after each use.
4. It must be used only on court 1 (also used as our coaching court).
5. 8-9am to be blocked out for ball machine (or practice wall)use. There is usually plenty of other courts at that time).
6. A second slot is available on request from 5-6pm every day. This slot must be booked via Kim who will enter as 'Ball machine / Your Name'
7. Members are requested to avoid this slot if other courts are available.

OTHER INFO

1. LTA suggest not locking (with the slide bars) court gates to reduce surface contamination risk. For court gates that open away from the court (2-5) we see this as a personal safety issue so we do not recommend this. But we do recommend to ensure your hands have been cleaned or to avoid touching here with hands if possible.
2. Clearly the main entry gate must be locked 'last man out' (clean hands).
3. LTA advice is also not to change ends. We prefer to leave this to players' discretion if done safely with social distancing. 

I hope that you find these modifications / clarifications helpful, we will keep the situation under constant review. Please do try to make use of the club if you can and as is appropriate to your situation. I personally believe that fresh air, sunlight, exercise and some safely distanced social interaction has to do us some good.

Staying Alert

David Burton
Chairman