Keswick and Braithwaite LTC AGM
Minutes 13.2.2022
Present Neil, Julie, Dougal, Ivan and Helen, Colin and Anne, Lucy, Anne-Marie and Gill.
Apologies received from Martin D, Marion, Catherine C, Rachel B, Gary, Pete, Ed, Jane, John C, Tom and Halle, Helen Y, Janaki, Sally, and David Sawday.
Chair’s Report
A Big thank you to everyone from our Chair Julie. She reported the club continues to grow, especially the junior membership.
We were in lockdown for the beginning of the year, with the courts re-opening for tennis on the 29th March 2021. This time was not wasted however. Thank you to Sally and Rachel for securing funding from Allerdale, the LTA and Braithwaite Institute to allow improvement works to go on at the Braithwaite courts later in the year and new coaching equipment to be bought. A new licence was also agreed with Keswick Town Council, securing the grass courts for Tennis Club use until at least 2026.
As restrictions lifted in April it was possible to start
- matches in the West Cumbria Tennis League
- Gary's coaching programme covering all categories, Minis, juniors, rusty rackets, adults, teams, plus individual coaching. Thanks to Gary for all his efforts with coaching and growing our membership this year.
- Club nights and social play
June saw work on the new path and weed barriers completed under the supervision of Ed. Another big Thank You to Ed. Thanks also to Martin for organising a fun tournament on the grass courts at Fitz Park, a beautiful sunny day, enjoyed by all who attended.
In July – The West Cumbria Tennis League Men’s and Ladies doubles leagues concluded. The Ladies 1st Team won there league and retained the trophy from 2019.
August – We were very pleased to entertain Dave Rawlinson, President of the LTA, plus several committee members from Cumbria LTA at both Braithwaite and Fitz Park and to showcase how the funding they provided has gone towards improving our facilities. We were able to put out a good press release about the visit.
September – The mixed leagues were completed. Our 1st mixed team won the 1st division and our 2nd and 3rd teams performed admirably in the 2nd division.
October – The club held an end of season party at the bowls club. Attendees brought food to share to go with the drinks available at the bar. A good time was had by all to celebrate a very successful summer season. Our ladies played in the annual Cumbria Cup for winners of the various leagues in Cumbria. A close match against a very strong Chatsworth team ended in a win for Chatsworth but our ladies showed the strength of tennis in West Cumbria.
November – We entered 2 teams in the newly resurrected West Cumbria winter league to run from October to March. The weather resulted in the postponement of several matches but we look forward to the second half of the season in the New Year. Thank you to Neil, Janaki and Gill for captaining these new teams.
December – Not much tennis as the weather deteriorated. However, despite the increasing levels of Covid the Christmas party was held on 10th December at the bowls club. Food was again provided by the attendees and another fun evening rounded off a strange but successful year for our club. Thank you to Donald and the bowls club for hosting us for both meetings and social events through the year.
Treasurer’s report Dougal will send you a copy electronically to add to the minutes.
Election of Officers
Chair- Neil Proposed Julie, Seconded by Dougal
Secretary- Rachel
Treasurer- vacant
Dougal is leaving the role and was thanked for all his hard work over many years. The role has been split to produce two further roles as follows.
Website manager- Julie
Membership Secretary- Janaki
Social secretary- vacant
Welfare Officer- Rachel
Braithwaite Institute liaison/Maintenance rep- John Cain
LTA rep/Coach- Gary
Captains Ladies 1st Team-Julie
Ladies 2nd Team-Timi
Men’s 1st Team- vacant
Men’s 2nd Team- Pete
Mixed 1st Team- Julie
Mixed 2nd and 3rd Teams Janaki
Other committee members, Timi, Ed, Lucy, Dougal, Pete and Ivan.
West Cumbria League Tennis
There was a long discussion about how to invigorate the men’s team tennis. A message will go out to all men in early March to see who would be interested in playing and to try to encourage participation in competitive team tennis.
This year’s results were as follows,
Ladies 1st Team, played 12, won 11 matches-1st place
Men’s 1st Team, played 8, won 2, lost 5, drew 1- 5th place division 1
Ladies 2nd Team, played 12, won 5, lost 7- 4th place
Men’s 2nd Team played 8, won 1, lost 7 -5th place division 2
Mixed 1st Team played 5, won 4 , lost 1 – 1st place
Mixed 2nd Team played 5, won 2, lost 3- 4th place
Mixed 3rd Team lost 3, drew 1-5th place
Men’s singles Played 1, lost 1, 3rd place
Lucy reported that in the Carlisle league there is more flexibility within teams so that team captain’s have more choice over players and are more likely to be able to field a team. Our representatives will discuss at the WCTL meeting on 7th March.
Gary’s coaching report
Has been sent electronically
Gill suggested that the committee consider allowing Gary a subsidised rate for floodlights as £5/hr is a lot extras for members to pay on top of their coaching fee and some working members can only access their coaching after dark through the winter. It would encourage more players to get used to playing under the lights and may support expansion of the coaching programme too. There was some discussion to about the current inflexibility of £5/hr slots and the card machine, which is not currently working. Ivan had some ideas to reduce the need to use cash in the machine. The committee will consider further at a future meeting.
Membership Subscriptions
Subscriptions have been set to return to pre-pandemic levels. This year they have been 80% of this cost due to restricted play and general financial situation. However income has remained steady due to an increase in membership during this time. This has been partly a pandemic effect and partly due to the improved coaching programme.
Family £145
Adult £90
Couple £130
Veterans £60
Junior £25
Student £45
Visitor £40
Future Events
There was a discussion about perhaps changing club night. It was felt that Friday evening was not as popular as Monday evening and also if there should be a later start on one of the evenings during the summer. Dougal agreed to send out a doodle poll to members.
Social tournaments. Martin Duke has agreed to get these re-started. Aspiration is to have these on a monthly basis, as per pre- pandemic.
Bowls Club. Committee need to discuss with the bowls club whether the club should be paying a fee to use their facility or if they are happy to continue with just increased bar revenue, as now.
Juniors, to discuss with Gary about beginning to integrate some of the juniors into the Saturday afternoon social session after coaching.
Floodlights
Neil is keen to install floodlights on to Courts 2 and 3. He outlined the possible costs of the project and possible barriers to fruition.
Estimated cost would be £30,000. Problems to be addressed electricity supply, planning permission, getting quotes, funding, adding lighting to the pathway down to the courts.
There maybe other stakeholders interested, ie football and cricket clubs.
The first step would be a feasibility study, but after that committee or club members would need to help bring the project to fruition.
There was a discussion about how much the current lights are used and how much additional lighting would be used. Two courts together would allow club nights to continue through the winter and for Keswick to be a venue for the WCTL winter league matches.
AOB
Julie reported that the football club at Braithwaite are wanting to improve the pavilion as a social space and this would mean the club needing to move its kit out of that space and perhaps into a free standing shed.
Colin asked about the ball machine and whether it could be mended for use by club members. All agreed this would be a good ides, but no-one was sure of the exact problem. TBC.
Anne asked about the Wimbledon ballot this year. Clubs will no longer receive an allocation of tickets, but members can register their interest via the LTA website.
Ann asked whether there were any indoor facilities to play tennis in Cumbria. Chatsworth in Carlisle is available but there are no other venues currently.
Ivan asked about ways to contact other members and if this could be improved in some way. At the moment we have two ways, either via FB messenger group or via email out of clubspark which some committee members have access to.
Proposal of Thanks
As the meeting closed, special thanks were extended to Julie for all her hard work as Chair of the club and to Dougal for all his hard work as Treasurer, membership secretary and webmaster of the club. All agreed the club is now very welcoming, has grown, and is thriving under their tenure and is now in a strong position going forward.