President’s Report (January 2023)
2022 was a transformative year at Blackhall Tennis Club both on and off the court. There have been significant changes to our courts - the Artificial Clay court surface has been replaced by Advantage Pro Artificial Grass and our previous Halogen Floodlights have been switched for more efficient LED lights with the additional benefit of extending light to Court 3.
The court surface change was primarily driven by cost as unfortunately the club was unsuccessful in grant applications to support the funding of this. However – we have been very pleased with the performance of the courts so far. As a club and with the support of Sportex (company that laid the courts), we will need to try to look after the courts as best as possible to extend the longevity of the surface. We did have more success with funding applications for the floodlighting and practice wall area improvements where half the cost was put up by sponsors EB Scotland and CSET.
Particular thanks from the club goes to Colin Reid, Ally Blyth, Billie Croan, Peter Gordon & Advantage Sport, Sportex and Halliday Lighting for all their efforts on the project.
Off the court, the big change saw Billie Croan step down as President of the club after 12 years of great service! Billie’s energy and enthusiasm were relentless and very difficult to replace. Whilst I’ve taken over as club president until January 2025, I’ve really appreciated the efforts from the Committee to take on more responsibilities.
Susan Gee, as our Treasurer, has done a great job keeping the club on top of our finances – particularly complex this year with the large expenditure on the courts and rising inflation. Rising costs is potentially our biggest challenge into 2023.
To help us with this, membership retention and growth is critical. Catherine Brunger as our Membership Secretary has been keeping the club membership informed of what events are happening at the club and managing membership renewals efficiently.
Tennis Scotland have seen the safeguarding efforts by our Welfare lead Mandy Gentleman as a benchmark for other clubs to follow.
Elspeth Primrose and Sheila Hoyle have stepped up as our Facilities Managers and also to lead the club’s liaison with Sportex. However, the courts require maintenance beyond this and the club also really appreciates the support from members during clean-up days and extra working groups led by Stewart Methven, Colin Reid and Tony Harrison.
There’s been more social tennis integration recently with Sean Harrison organising regular iterations of Handicap Doubles. Although we have been defeated recently by the Winter weather. From a personal perspective, I appreciate Sean taking on the leadership of future Club Championships, with support from Ian for the juniors.
Thanks also to Helen Colhoun for volunteering to try and increase the number of off court social events and there’s an exciting number of events to look forward to later in 2023.
From a coaching perspective, there’s a lot of good activities through the week, including private lessons, team coaching and beginner blocks. Peter Niccol and Ian Mackinlay (Head Coach) are collaborating well to review what further additions can be made to the coaching calendar for 2023 and how to promote visibility of these.
Finally thank you to all our volunteer captains of our Adult and Junior Teams throughout 2022 – it’s not always an easy role to pool together players to fulfil matches. Although without your efforts, it wouldn’t be possible for us to enter and enjoy competition.
With all businesses including Sports Clubs facing uncertainty on costs for 2023, targeting membership growth is a key aspiration for the committee to try and reduce the impact of price rises. This would also have second benefit from a competition perspective of a larger Adult and Junior player pool to choose from. However with the new courts and floodlighting in place combined with a loyal member base, driven committee and expanding coaching programme, the club has a great opportunity to achieve this!
Hope to see you on the court soon!
David Brunger
BLTC President