Summary of the past year's (2024-25) activities at Holt Sports Courts

• Tennis: We have a well established tennis community of ~50 regular weekly players. We hold the a range of competitive and enjoyable summer tournaments (Men’s, Women’s and Mixed Doubles; Men’s, Women’s, and Over 65 Men’s Singles), culminating in the annual trophy presentations in October. The courts are also used by our men's and women's teams for their matches in the Chippenham and District League.
• Junior Tennis: Under our coaching agreement Jamie Butt has successfully grown junior tennis coaching on Saturday mornings from 3 groups to 5, with a total of some 40 children currently enjoying small group coaching.
• A Walking Tennis programme was introduced in 2024 which has established a regular group of 25 players, all new to walking tennis and who wanted a re-introduction to physical activity following illness, injury or other life issues. The sessions are led by our coach, Jamie Butt. We have secured grant money from Wiltshire Community Foundation to sustain and grow our walking tennis programme specifically for older people (over-65).  This will provide free walking tennis during 2025 to people locally and we are actively promoting this to engage with nearby towns and grow participation. This is a unique offering in the local area to benefit older people.
• Pickleball has really taken off this year. We now have a community of around 30 players of whom 15 are now regular weekly players and this is increasing. Two of our HSRC committee members have recently gained a Pickleball Leader coaching certification enabling them to deliver beginner Pickleball coaching sessions. We are now registered with Pickleball England as a registered venue.
• Netball: The women’s netball teams hold their practice at the courts on Tuesday evenings.
• Maintenance: costs were significantly less than the previous year mainly because we did not need the same level of court cleaning, and routine maintenance was undertaken by members of the Committee. Our maintenance representative Andy Slade, supported by members of the Committee, worked hard to ensure that the Courts are clean and safe to play on.
• Resurfacing: Following advice from independent consultants, HSRC have engaged a contractor to resurface Court 1. We were successful in being awarded a significant grant from Sport England towards this. The resurfacing is scheduled to take place in September this year, using the grant and HSRC’s own funds. We will need to raise further funds to resurface Court 2 in the next 2-3 years.
• Finance: The ongoing costs of maintaining the Courts and the cost of resurfacing them every 10 -15 years require us to generate sufficient income and external funding to ensure that the Courts remain fit for use in the future. To this end we are seeking to grow our membership in tennis and pickleball by actively promoting the Courts on our website, social media,word of mouth, membership incentives, open days and fundraising events. We also increased our categories of membership this year to provide tennis players with greater choice and will be reviewing this together with our charges in January 2026.

Future plans for the year ahead 2025-26 Looking forward, we plan to:

• Build on this year’s success by maximising the use and enjoyment of the facilities and increasing memberships in tennis, pickleball, and walking tennis
• Ensure that the courts remain fit for purpose in the longer term by increasing income from growth in pay and play and memberships, external grants and fundraising activities
• Oversee the resurfacing of Court 1 this summer and plan for the resurfacing of Court 2
• Ask Holt Parish Council to resurface the small MUGA, which is used for pickleball
• Work with our tennis coach to maximise the benefits of our coaching agreement
• Explore arrangements with the bowls club for shared use of their facilities

I wish to thank all our committee members for their energy, commitment and brilliant work in enabling us all to make the most of these excellent facilities. We have made great progress this year on a number of fronts.  

Special thanks to Andy Slade, a founder member of HSRC, who is stepping down after 29 years of dedicated service to the community in establishing both courts and running them - including 25 years involvement in organising our annual competitions! We are indebted to Andy and Meg who have given so much of themselves in realising their vision to have a MUGA in Holt.  We will be honouring Andy with a special celebration event further details of which will be confirmed soon.

Ian Gibbons, Chair HSRC