Beccles Tennis Club
Minutes of Committee Meeting
Tuesday 27th January 2026 at 7pm, 8 Homefield Avenue Beccles.
Present: Emily Drake, Sarah Payne, Lisa Bligh, Philip Tye, Lucy Foster, Lucy Goodman, Linda Green, Kate Murray and Beverley Barber Apologies: George Caplin
Minutes of the last meeting and matters arising: The LTA registration has been completed. Unfortunately the new coach Jamie Bretton could not be registered as he has no LTA Number. This will need to be rectified before Jamie can undertake any further coaching at the club. The replacement of the floodlights is on hold and will now form part of the resurfacing project.
Chair Report: Emily thanked Philip for once again hosting the meeting. The licence for car parking on the adjoining land is being chased up. Unfortunately due to work commitments Emily will not be available to chair the AGM and so Philip has kindly agreed to take the meeting in her absence. Emily will locate the LTA policy templates that require updating.
Treasurer Report: Accounts were produced. The grants and donations now total £23,381.72 and with a further £10,000 available from club funds we have about half the cost of the resurfacing project. Apparently despite attending the local Barclays Branch to complete the new Mandate, Linda has been informed by the Bank that the Mandate application has been closed because the time limit had expired!! She has been emailed the necessary forms so she and Lucy will need to start the process again from scratch.
There was then discussion regarding the best way to collect the subscriptions for the coming year. It was agreed that the way forward was for all payments to go through Clubspark and for the option to pay by BACS direct to the club be removed. Lucy G and Lucy F will change the subscription forms to reflect this. Although there is a small % charge for each payment and some delay in receiving the money from Clubspark it was considered to be easier and less time consuming to keep a record of current members. All members should then automatically receive the welcome letter. It was proposed that the subscriptions be increased by £5 as follows: Adults £110, 60+ £90, Family £220 and Juniors £25. Parents of a Junior and Students are to remain the same at £35 and £40 respectively. The subs were not increased last year so this small increase is felt necessary and will offset the charges incurred by Clubspark. However next year following the upgrade of the facilities a further increase may be required.
Membership: Current membership stands at 87 broken down as follows: Adults 24 60+ 17 Juniors 34 Students 4 Parents of Juniors 3 Honorary Members 3 Coaches 2 Sarah Wells and Kate Smith are to be given Honorary Membership.
Coaching: There was some discussion regarding the payment of guest fees and floodlight payments and the difficulty of keeping track of these especially as some are paid by BACS and some by cash. Some sessions too should be more expensive for non-members and it was agreed that if Committee members were present they would remind the non-members that the extra cost should be paid to the Club. It was felt worth reminding George and Ross of the extra payments due. Welfare: No matters have been raised.
Resurfacing Sub Committee Report: Tim Morton is waiting for updated electrician and resurfacing quotes in order to submit an application to Sport England for a grant of £15k. Once the outcome of the application is known the necessary paperwork can be submitted to the Feoffees. It was agreed that we would not sign the contract for the resurfacing work until the grant application had been determined. It may delay the project but we will work round the company’s availability. Although there has been an amazing response to the need for donations it was felt that it was worth sending a further reminder to members. Lucy G will organise this. Team Results and League entries. In the Winter League the team have lost 2 matches and drawn 3. The draw against the league leaders on Sunday was particularly pleasing. It was agreed to enter a second team in the Lowestoft League this summer to give more members the opportunity to play matches. Graham Richardson has agreed to be Captain. Proposed date of the AGM: It was agreed to hold the AGM at the Sports Club on Tuesday 17th March 2026 at 7.30pm. Philip is to book the venue. We will supply some nibbles but this can be organised nearer the time. We will run a raffle for half price membership again in the hope of encouraging more attendance. Emily will draft and send out the letter to members. AOB: It had been proposed that we hold a tournament in conjunction with Southwold in Tess Blower’s memory. Emily offered to liaise with Beth.
Date of next meeting: A provisional date of Tuesday 14th April 2026 at 7pm at the Clubhouse. Meeting closed at 9.05pm
Current membership stands at 87 broken down as follows: Adults 24 60+ 17 Juniors 34 Students 4 Parents of Juniors 3 Honorary Members 3 Coaches 2 Sarah Wells and Kate Smith are to be given Honorary Membership.
Coaching: There was some discussion regarding the payment of guest fees and floodlight payments and the difficulty of keeping track of these especially as some are paid by BACS and some by cash. Some sessions too should be more expensive for non-members and it was agreed that if Committee members were present they would remind the non-members that the extra cost should be paid to the Club. It was felt worth reminding George and Ross of the extra payments due. Welfare: No matters have been raised.
Resurfacing Sub Committee Report: Tim Morton is waiting for updated electrician and resurfacing quotes in order to submit an application to Sport England for a grant of £15k. Once the outcome of the application is known the necessary paperwork can be submitted to the Feoffees. It was agreed that we would not sign the contract for the resurfacing work until the grant application had been determined. It may delay the project but we will work round the company’s availability. Although there has been an amazing response to the need for donations it was felt that it was worth sending a further reminder to members. Lucy G will organise this.
Team Results and League entries. In the Winter League the team have lost 2 matches and drawn 3. The draw against the league leaders on Sunday was particularly pleasing. It was agreed to enter a second team in the Lowestoft League this summer to give more members the opportunity to play matches. Graham Richardson has agreed to be Captain. Proposed date of the AGM: It was agreed to hold the AGM at the Sports Club on Tuesday 17th March 2026 at 7.30pm. Philip is to book the venue. We will supply some nibbles but this can be organised nearer the time. We will run a raffle for half price membership again in the hope of encouraging more attendance. Emily will draft and send out the letter to members. AOB: It had been proposed that we hold a tournament in conjunction with Southwold in Tess Blower’s memory. Emily offered to liaise with Beth.
Date of next meeting: A provisional date of Tuesday 14th April 2026 at 7pm at the Clubhouse. Meeting closed at 9.05pm
Beccles Tennis Club- Minutes of the Club Committee
Tuesday 9th September 2025, At the Clubhouse
Present: Emily Drake, Kate Murray, Lucy Goodman, George Caplin, Bev Barber, Philip Tye and Linda Green.
Apologies: Lisa Bligh and Lucy Foster.
Minutes of the last meeting and Matters Arising:
LTA policies still require updating. Emily will locate the necessary documents on the website and
download those relevant.
Unfortunately the electrician has failed to return any calls or make contact with Philip so George has arranged for a new contractor to quote for the upgrade to the lights with the hope that the work can start soon. Some of the grants given are time sensitive so it is important that the work is undertaken with as little delay as possible. It was agreed that we should retain the current token system and review the cost of the tokens at a later date.
Chair: Emily reported that Solicitors have been instructed to draw up a licence for the car parking at the back of the courts. This should be a formality as we have already paid the increase in rent. However, the Nursery is having an Open Event on 25 th , 26 th and 27 th September so members will not be able to use the field on those days. Lucy G will put a message on the website and Bev will put a message out on the Whatapp chat to remind members.
Treasurer: Linda had been unable to produce a formal balance sheet but reported that the Bank balance stands at around £31,000 of which £9,800 is grants for the lights. The Solicitors bill of £1,400 and the recent water bill (The Football Club still contribute 4/5ths of the total) have been paid.
The recent electricity bill received was twice that of the previous month. With there being no
obvious reason for the increase Linda will be taking this up with the supplier. The Club has
experienced a number of difficulties with the current supplier but we are locked into a contract at
the moment. It was agreed that we should consider other suppliers when the contract expires.
Membership:
The membership stands at 79:
19 adult members
16 Over 60’s
33 Under 18’s
3 Students
3 Honorary Members
3 Parents of juniors
2 coaches
No family subs this year probably due to competition from local clubs that offer a free or cheaper
membership.
It was agreed that we would continue the Saturday Social mornings until October half term and that
we should advertise it on social media and the Website inviting non-members to come and play.
In order to encourage more people to try tennis it was agreed that we should reach out to the wider
community. We should consider offering taster sessions to groups such as the Scouts and Brownies, the Football and Cricket Clubs. George/Ross will look at the availability of the Scouts Hall so that we could offer indoor sessions to some adult groups such as U3A. We would look to identify disadvantaged groups where we could offer a subsidised session to encourage play. The Club has plenty of equipment that could be borrowed for the session. Clubs will be approached in the New Year to see how much interest there would be.
Tinsel and Tennis Social is to take place on Sat 5 th December 2025 from 10am-12.
It was agreed that once we set dates for upcoming events they must be adhered to. If it transpires
later that George is not available we would hope for cover from Ross or another or manage it by the
Committee.
Welfare: There have been no welfare issues reported.
Coaching: George reported that both junior and adult coaching numbers were good. Open Day although enjoyable did not attract a great deal of outside interest however of the 4 potential new members that did attend 2 have been along to the Tuesday evening group and hopefully will join as full members in due course.
The Wimbledon day again although not well attended was enjoyed by all. 18 players entered the Club Championship and after a morning of excellent tennis Gary and Lucy G came through as the winners. Thanks to George and his helpers for all their efforts in making these a success.
George has a new assistant Jamie Bretton joining him shortly. Although Jamie has a full time job, it is hoped that he will take over the Tuesday evening group freeing George up to maintain the Wednesday Club night sessions through the winter.
Kate asked if there was a reason no Holiday Clubs took place this year. George said that he had tried, but the previous summer but the uptake had been disappointing. It was agreed that these events needed more advertising particularly in the junior schools. He is possibly considering holding some event in October half term and will review the situation next year.
Beccles Tennis Club Minutes of Club Committee
10th June 2025 At the Clubhouse
Present: Emily Drake, Sarah Payne, Lisa Bligh, Kate Murray, Lucy Goodman, George Caplin, Beverley Barber and Linda Green.
Apologies: Lucy Foster and Philip Tye
Minutes of the last Meeting and matters arising: Philip and Beverley attended the Cluster meeting. It was a useful forum and a number of matters are being taken up by Suffolk LTA. Minutes of that meeting have already been circulated to the Committee members. Philip organised a CPR training session and 8 members took part. Unfortunately the new floodlights have not yet been installed. Philip is waiting to hear back from the electrician with a new date.
Chair: Emily thanked Philip for chairing the last meeting as she had been unable to attend. The lease has been finalised and the Solicitors have been paid. We may need to consider new Trustees when the lease next comes up for re-newel. It is likely that we may receive an LTA inspection so all the policies and documents need to be updated over the coming months.
Coaching: George reported that there was no prospect of a new coach at the moment although there is someone who may come on board in September as an assistant coach. Unfortunately George has a number of commitments in June and July which will cause some disruption to the coaching programme. With little time to properly advertise, it was agreed to defer the Open day until 30th August. It was also agreed that we would offer half price membership to anyone joining on the day. We should try to advertise in as many places as possible including Facebook and Beccles Community page, an A board near the entrance and possibly a board on the roundabout near Morisons. Some flyers too could be distributed to the local shops. Lucy Goodman has offered to update Facebook and the Website with photos and upcoming events and will be added as Admin to allow her access.
Resurfacing: George reported that the sub-committee had met and were currently pursuing a number of avenues. Tim Morton has prepared a presentation to put to the FEFES and hopefully this would secure much needed funds. However, it is likely that the Club would need to raise about half of the amount required. Lucy reported that there were a number of small pots of funding available and they are looking into the criteria required to access these. Discussion took place regarding the installation of a Smart gate and it was agreed that this may provide some leverage for asking for funds from the Council. If installed there would be an annual cost and it will almost certainly require the current fencing to be replaced with something more substantial.
Treasurer’s Report: Linda provided a copy of the up to date accounts. Not much change except for payment of the Solicitors fees of £1440 and the rent of £794. It was good to see that the electricity bills were much reduced for the month of May and June. Lucy Goodman will be taking over the position of Treasurer once all the necessary paperwork has been finalised. The Bank Mandate has been signed in readiness but it may be some time before it is all completed.
Membership; Nothing to report but the Committee agreed that we should look again at payment options before subscriptions are next due.
League position: Lisa reported that so far 5 matches had been played: Won 2 Drawn 1 and Lost 2. It is hoped to introduce some newer members to match play with the idea of entering a team in Div 3 next season.
Club Social: We have held a number of Saturday socials but although the first one was quite successful (mainly due to the delicious cakes and excellent coffee provided by Lucy G ) numbers attending had been disappointing. However, it was agreed that we should persevere for the coming months and reassess at the next meeting.
AOB: Lucy put forward the idea of a BBQ to raise some funds but a risk assessment will be required before hand. AGM minutes; Emily is happy for these to be forwarded to the committee members and Lucy will attach these to the website.
Date of next meeting: Tuesday September 9th at 7.30pm at the Clubhouse