MCHTC Race Night - May 18th 2024

Morpeth Cricket, Hockey & Tennis Club (MCHTC) held the first of hopefully many race nights at the clubhouse on Saturday 18th May, with the action kicking off at 7pm. The evening was a great success, boosting the club coffers and providing raucous entertainment for the punters.

Social and Presentation Evening - October 13th 2023

Friday 13th October saw the second running of the club's annual End of Season Social Evening.  A healthy cohort of club members and their nearest and dearests came along to the refurbished clubhouse to indulge in an array of buffet delicacies provided by Janet Robinson and Lilian Brown, and to groove along to the classic sounds pumped out by the West Coast Band.  There was also the opportunity for everyone to put their hands together to applaud those who came out victorious in the club championship and other competitions.

The accompanying photograph collage gives a flavour of the evening, showing some of the trophy winners, proudly posing with their trophies.

Amongst the trophy winners shown are:

• Jill Taylor, winner of the ladies open doubles title in tandem with Tracey Gaskill,
• Lilian Brown and Ian Robinson, winners of the mixed handicap doubles,
• Joan Shutt and Janet Robinson, ladies handicap doubles champions,
• Alex Laude, retaining his men's open singles title,
• Paul Ward, winner of the men's over-55 open doubles title in partnership with Alan Hewson,
• Janet Robinson and Jake Fewell-Williams, winners of the President's Day competition.

As the evening progressed so the drinks flowed, and eventually the dance floor filled up, once Paul Meigh and his wife had set the tone with some expert moves.

Hopefully everyone enjoyed the evening and will be keen to repeat the experience in 2024.

President's Day - August 27th 2023

President's Day on Sunday 27th August 2023 at Morpeth Cricket, Hockey and Tennis Club brought with it a social tennis tournament, preceded by a coaching session and the official opening of the new dugout.

Intermittent rain attempted to dampen everyone's spirits, but failed, with many repairing to the clubhouse and sampling some of Steve Watkins's wares from his barbecue facility, which was skilfully sheltered with an umbrella or two.

When play got underway, the 11 pairs fought it out over 16-point tie-breaks, with the pair amassing the most points being declared the winners.  A deluge at about half-way through proceedings put a halt to play, and reluctantly it was agreed that no further play would be possible.  So, organiser Alex Laude totted up the points and declared the following results:

• 1st - Janet Robinson & Jake Fewell-Williams
• 2nd - Tracey Gaskill & Paul Meigh
• 3rd equal - Helen Ball & Trevor Herron
• 3rd equal - Brian Ortmann & Shay Whitfield

For further details, see this news item.

For details of previous tournaments, see 2022 tournament and 2021 tournament.

Curry Night - May 15th 2023

On the evening of Monday 15th May 7pm, the club had its first social, non-tennis event of the year, a curry night at Manzil's in Morpeth town centre. Close on 40 people attended, and had an excellent time eating, drinking, socialising, exercising their brain power with the devious quiz, and, above all, raising £421, which will help us with our plans to replace the bedraggled dugout on the bottom courts. Thanks are due to Janet Robinson for organising the event and to Ian Robinson and Lilian Brown for providing admirable support.

Launch Event - April 30th 2022

The crowdfunding campaign to raise £20,000 for the planned improvements to the courts and infrastructure has now come to a successful conclusion.  Thanks to fantastic efforts both within the club and from the wider community, we achieved a grand total of £21,290, and over £2,000  in gift aid from 145 supporters.  So, a big thank you to everyone who contributed.

Work on the new courts was completed in mid-April 2022, and to mark this great new facility we held a launch event on Saturday 30th April.

This was the itinerary on the day:

Massive thank you to the following companies who joined our crowdfunding and contributed exciting rewards for contributions:

• Peake Performance Sports
• The Electrical Wizard
• Lollo Rosso
• The Sun Inn
• Michelle Fowler Photography
• Fish and Chips at No. 10
• The Old Bakehouse Café
• The Head Shed Barbers and Male Grooming
• Morpeth Cricket Hockey & Tennis Club clubhouse & bar
• The Dyke Neuk
• Carr's Billington Agriculture
• Vertu Honda, Morpeth

and sponsorship:

• DurhamLane
• Warwicks Removals
• CoolCheck Refrigeration & Air Conditioning
• MJSport

Eric Winton Trophy - April 30th 2022

To celebrate the opening of the top courts, which had just had major resurfacing work completed on them, and to thank all those who contributed to efforts in securing finance for the project, including the mammoth crowdfunding initiative to raise extra funds, Saturday April 30th 2022 saw an all-day launch event at the club.  Part of this event was a doubles competition spanning both top and bottom courts.

To mark the stepping down of long-time servant of the club, Eric Winton, from his post as treasurer, having previously filled all the roles possible in helping guide the club from the 1980s to the present day, it was decided that the competition would be an annual event at roughly the same time of year, named in his honour.  And Eric was on hand to crown Nuan Armstrong and Ian Vasey as the first winners of the Eric Winton Trophy.  See this news item for further details.

End of Season Social - 11th November 2022

Morpeth Tennis Club's inaugural End of Season Social evening took place on Friday 11th November 2022 at the Morpeth Cricket, Hockey and Tennis Club clubhouse.

The evening included an excellent buffet, a live band, and a short presentation of awards to those who won events at the Club Championships.  A good time was had by all, and it is hoped that this becomes an annual event.