As the summer gives way to autumn there’s still lots going on at Knebworth Tennis Club. In the last few months we have completed our summer competitions, held our first “Serge Cup” - a new tournament dedicated to our dearly missed friend and former Club Secretary Serge Dronov who passed away last year, and switched on our new floodlights. Looking forward, the Club is preparing for autumn and winter competition, holding our Barn Dance and Christmas meal, as well as carrying out maintenance to keep our courts in tip-top condition.
The very sad news that our friend Serge Dronov unexpectedly passed away just before Christmas was a great loss to the Club. Serge was a fine player, an excellent Club Secretary, and the kindest most helpful person you could wish to meet. His passing has been sorely felt by all who knew him. The Club wanted to make sure that he would be remembered and so commissioned a memorial bench and created a Serge Cup tournament to be held annually. The first Serge Cup was played on Sunday 16th August when the bench was unveiled and the new trophy, kindly donated by Danny Charles, presented to the winning team of Mark Clifford, Neil Stevenson, Alison Johnson and Jenny Milne. A great time was had by all who played, and it was a fitting way to celebrate the enthusiasm for tennis and friendship that Serge will be remember for.
I am pleased to report that our new floodlights were finally switched on back in September and the Club held a ‘Fish & Chip’ Grand Opening on the 1st October to celebrate. The new lights are really fantastic and will allow more tennis to be played, especially during winter evenings. Encouraging more people to take up the game and to increase the number of hours played are key objectives of the Sport England grant and the Club is keen to use its upgraded facilities to support these aims. As a start we will now run our popular Thursday evening Club Nights and Tuesday evening adult coaching sessions into winter.
And so into autumn and winter. After mixed results in summer competition, the Club is already playing Datchworth Autumn League matches, and looking forward to Winter League tennis later in the year. Also at the end of this month our popular Friday night Club sessions indoors at Gosling will re-start. On the social scene the Club is preparing to hold our Christmas meal at The Chequers in Woolmer Green in mid-December.