We are pleased to be able to update you on our ability to open the courts at the club under clear rules and guidance set by the LTA. We have attached the LTA guidance for players with this mail and included the link to the LTA website so that you have all the information.

As instructed by the LTA the committee has completed our local risk assessment and can confirm we are re-opening courts on Saturday May 16th at 9am. We will email all members on Saturday morning with the new access code for the padlocks.

In order to re-open the courts we must comply with the LTA rules and the broader government guidance on social distancing. We must also point out that our local policies, and the LTA guidance need to be able to be changed again should government policy change, so we are trying to be flexible and accommodating while supporting government policy and the desire to open up the courts. It is hugely important that members comply with guidance in order that we can keep the courts open.

Key points:

There can only be a maximum of two players per court, unless players are all from the same household. That means players can play singles with people who are not from the same household (i.e. any other member), but only same household groups can play doubles. Players playing singles are urged not to change ends and to ensure social distancing or to change ends by each player going to opposite ends of the net. We will be opening with Court 1, 3 and 4 as we feel this is the safest configuration of courts to protect social distancing. We would encourage members to access Court 1 through the gate next to the clubhouse. Please access courts 3 and 4 via the football club car park.
There will be no immediate return to Club tennis, Match tennis or other formats. The committee will discuss if it is appropriate to commence some elements of the Club Tournament in the Single’s draws in the near future. The LTA point out that the re-opening of courts is for recreational tennis.
Players must bring their own rackets and tennis balls and are encouraged to think very carefully about the hygiene of these.
Coaching can be undertaken – but only on a one to one basis – anyone wishing to arrange coaching can do so via Dan Palmer and anyone wishing to take this up is encouraged to discuss any safety concerns with Dan before attending the club.
There are to be no social events at the club – unfortunately for us that means the postponement of several events. When we can return to full tennis access, we will revisit the schedule for 2020. We have to postpone, (1) the Don Gill Tournament which we had hoped to hold on 16th May, (2) the Family Fun Day scheduled for 27th June, (3) the Mike Stenton Singles Tournament scheduled for 28th June and (4) the Mr & Mrs Tournament scheduled for 28th June.
Players must follow the guidance in the attached LTA advice on equipment, travel and so on – in particular the request to bring your own hand gel and to avoid congregating when not playing.
Spectators are actively discouraged – please only attend the club if you are playing tennis.

Online Court Booking: The LTA guidance encourages Clubs to set up online court booking – this is something that we have been building in the background via our new website which will use the latest LTA ClubSpark platform. While it is tempting to try to rush this, we want to get this right as we don’t want to have technical hiccups and cause frustration – so our proposal is that we will reopen the courts without online booking – but over the next two weeks you will start to receive emails from us to get you set up for the online system. When this is all done and we have tested the system – we expect this to be in the next two weeks – we will turn on the online booking system including having given you clear guidance on the system and the tools. In the meantime, we will need all members to be patient and considerate of others if courts are full – and continue to follow the social distancing guidance.

Re-opening without online booking needs all members to be considerate – please do not excessively use the courts in the early stages of re-opening. We know that a lot of members will want to play – so please think about your use of the courts, please be aware that weekends and early evenings are likely to be busy, and please don’t be frustrated if courts are busy. If people arrive while you are playing we would ask members to conclude their play in 30 minutes to make courts available for people. People must not contravene social distancing while waiting for courts – so please either wait in your car, leave and return etc – but do not congregate around the courts.

Clubhouse and Toilets: We will be opening the courts but not opening the clubhouse or toilets. We realise this is an inconvenience, but our risk assessment confirms this is the safest approach for this phase of re-opening. We will look to open the clubhouse and toilets at the earliest point we think it is safe and low risk to do so. Members are therefore encouraged to bring their own water and are of course asked to leave the courts to make suitable other toilet arrangements. All benches and chairs have been removed from around the clubhouse and members are asked to respect this and not move or use them.

It is important that we comply with the LTA guidance and are comfortable with our risk assessment.

The link to the LTA guidance are shown below:

https://www.lta.org.uk/…/lta-guidance-for-tennis-players---…

If you are displaying any of the follow symptoms, please DO NOT come to the club:

• A high temperature – this means you feel hot to touch on your chest or back (you do not need to measure your temperature)
• A new, continuous cough – this means coughing a lot for more than an hour, or 3 or more coughing episodes in 24 hours (if you usually have a cough, it may be worse than usual)