March 2023 Newsletter

The snowdrops and daffodils are breaking through the hard frost, while swallows and tennis balls return to the Chagford skies. Welcome to your bumper Spring Chagford Tennis Newsletter!

Coaching

We are still very fortunate to be able to call on the services of Grant Notten, who recently reported that he has been named ‘Development Couch Of The Year in the Devon Awards 2023’. We hope that this was a typo, and that he has not spent the year being sat on in IKEA or DFS.

It seems his coaching chops have been recognised at county level. Many of you will have written and recorded testimonials for him and will agree that his award is richly deserved.

However, he is a busy man, and much in demand across our fair county, so we will have to make do with less of him this year. That said, less is often more, and we are aiming for him to provide excellent focussed sessions for the league teams this summer.

Meanwhile, we are delighted to announce that our Chairman, Martin Brady, will be stepping up to the plate to provide coaching for the kids and non-league players (formerly Rusties and Silvers). You may know that Martin is already a highly respected rugby coach who has coached internationally, and general all-round mensch. He will begin supervising sessions this spring, before taking the Level 1 coaching course in Cornwall in the summer, so expect him to return with some eccentric jam-first Cornish tactics. Watch this space for more details.

Winter League

Chagford’s much-heralded return to the lofty heights of lower league tennis is now complete, with both men's and ladies teams finishing their first full season.

The men’s team finished mid-table; a great achievement, given how few of us had played competitive tennis before. Most of the teams above us play in much higher divisions in the summer, and were surprised by the standard of tennis they came up against. Having travelled far and wide across Eastern and Southern Devon, playing in hurricanes, floods and Beasts From The Easts, into blazing floodlights and low winter suns, we emerged, Shackleton-like, bloodied, wearied, yet battle-hardened and with natty new club shirts, Masters of the Dark Arts, ready to ascend the Olympian heights of Division 8 this summer. The only way is up. Most home games will take place at 10.30am on Sundays, so do come along and support.

The ladies, meanwhile, despite struggling to put out a full team every week, did a brilliant job at getting the team going, fighting hard in all matches, and winning several. All the while blooding some promising youngsters (OK, they are Nottens, but they can’t all be brilliant sportsfolk… can they..?) and showing the rest of the league that Chagford is back and ready to play.

Many thanks to Ian and Liz who have worked so hard to sort out competitive matches over the winter. At the same time, we are very excited to enter into the summer league for men, ladies and mixed doubles, and that Rachel will be added to the captain ranks as she plans the rise and rise of the Mixed Doubles team.

We are always keen for new players at the club, so if you know anyone who would like to play competitively, even if they never have done before, please tell them to get in touch with Ian, Liz or Rachel.

2023-4 Membership

We are delighted to invite you to now renew your memberships for the 2023-4 season, starting April 1st.

Whilst we have had to move with the times, and adjust our pricing to reflect recent increases in costs, we trust you still feel it will be excellent value for the full year. In particular, we have new nets, a new logo (reflected on the clubhouse – also recently repainted) and will be cleaning and repainting the courts themselves shortly, amongst all our usual offerings.

Not only that, but we can, for the first time, offer the option to pay for your subs over a period of 6 months, should the one-off payment not be possible for you. This option does attract a slight overall increase in cost, but we hope you find this valuable at a time where we are all feeling the pinch slightly.

So, here are the new fees for the full year.

Please renew your memberships on the ClubSpark website moving forwards, where bank transfer and card payments are both now possible. The monthly payment plan is also only available through this method.

If you have any issues with ClubSpark or membership, please contact us. We will be sending reminders to existing members closer to April to check if memberships want to be continued.

Court booking app

It’s worth noting that court booking is also now possible through the Booker app, where members can book, amend and cancel bookings easily through their phones.

Communication

You may have noticed that we have decommissioned email, these newsletters excepted, and are now operating solely by Whatsapp (click here to join if you haven't already). This seems to be working well, bar a couple of photos of Nick looking somewhat surprised.

If you would like to find someone to play with, use the Find a playing partner channel. All other information will be provided by the relevant group.

If you have not yet joined this group, please do so – in particular, the club sessions on a Wednesday and Saturday are also coordinated through this group.

If you need any help with this, please contact Ian.

Repainting

As mentioned above, after last having our courts painted over 7 years ago, the Committee has decided that the time has come to revitalise them and ensure they remain fit for purpose a few more years yet. Therefore the courts will be repainted on dates TBD, but likely the end of June, keeping the same colours as they are now.

Kindly note in advance that during the period of cleaning, treating and repainting, the courts will likely be out of action – this shouldn’t be more than a few days, but we will keep you posted.

Fridge

Ben is donating his small fridge to the clubhouse. We encourage you all to come and relax on the rubber-matted terrace of our racing green clubhouse, drink a cool beverage from the fridge and watch some great tennis. But please don’t leave any milk in the fridge!

Club sessions

Club sessions remains Wednesday and Saturday afternoons.

Coaching with Grant and Martin will recommence every Friday from March 24th.

Committee

Lastly, a small note of thanks and an appeal. Your committee of Martin, Ben, Ian, Gus, Jackie, Rachel and Ian have worked hard this year to build on and improve what Chagford Tennis Club has done over the last few years. We will be holding the next AGM at a date TBD, where anyone else who has some great ideas about how to keep the momentum going is very welcome to come along and raise suggestions as well as sit on the committee. More details in due course.

That’s all for now. If we don’t see you at any of the training sessions, we hope you can find some partners to play with and enjoy your tennis!

Chagford Tennis Committee