Newton & Noss Tennis Club AGM:
27 March 2025
Attended: Richard Holman, John Denny, Simon Pearson, Stewart Barnes, Jason Vosper, Karen Jaggs, Liz Pearce, Phil Davis, Mike & Lesley Johnson, Peter Leman, Ruipeng Sweeting, Graham Edwards, Sue Ansell-Edwards, Steve Smith, Zoe Liu, Pete Leman, Barbara Bultmann, Helen and Mark Phillips (20).
Apologies: Jane Jordan, Laura James, Gill & Clive Woodyear, Jeremy Humphrey, Jo Booth, Jayne Loader, Olivia Wilson, Danny Evans, Andrew McGraham
Minutes from AGM 2024:
No matters arising. The minutes were approved unanimously.
- Chair Report
Richard thanked everyone for coming attending. We are a small club, but naturally like to do things properly and having you here does make a difference.
He felt that 2024 was another good year, based on:
- Number of members remains consistent (fees went up).
- Continued activity around junior players.
- Having some fun.
- Matches played by 4 teams and their results.
But none of the above can happen without people getting involved. So I would please like to thank everyone who has been involved in one or more of those areas. With particular thanks to:
- The committee as a whole – nearly all of whom have agreed to stand again.
- Team captains.
- Laura (although her time keeping has dropped a little recently).
- Jane Jordan for organising club tennis.
- Stewart & new volunteers for keeping on top of the maintenance.
I would also like to specifically mention two others:
Liz Pearce - who had done a fantastic job on the social side
John Denny – who has been more than a Treasurer -he is an assured sounding board, with the club’s interest always at heart. For those of you who haven’t read the Agenda, John is leaving us. Please join me in thanking him for many years of helping the club.
We are always looking for more people to get involved. Please do volunteer, if you have some time to give back to the club.
There are more detailed comments about certain sections to follow, but it would be remiss of me, not to mention three things:
a. Court One update - many of you have noticed a deterioration in court one, which is a surprise and a little frustrating. It is our intention to do some holding repairs on this court for this year. Replacement of the courts will then still sit within an 18-24 month plan, provided there is no further damage. We will put up new nets shortly.
b. Shelter - thanks to all involved in putting this up - it provides us with much needed shelter for players and equipment.
c. Junior tennis - We are conscious that our juniors are very much reliant on Laura, so we are working with her on a clear plan to develop this group, where relevant. We want to have a parent as a representative on the committee; so please volunteer if you can help.
Richard paid tribute to Peter Glanville who passed away recently; he was a staunch supporter of the club for many years, and will be missed.
So the aims for this season are similar to last, I hope to be reporting back to you next year, with new faces involved, and an enjoyable 2025 behind us. Thank you and enjoy your tennis.
- Treasurer Report
John Denny provided the EOY accounts for 2024.
Income for the year was £11,553, a large increase of just £3,387; due to an increase in Membership fees, and £800 profit from social events.
Court Fees were lower at £1,041.
Coaching fees were lower at £629.
£1,378 was earned in interest from the funds deposited at Lloyds.
Expenses for the year were higher at £3,621; this includes the cost of match balls.
The club spent £90 less on court maintenance during the year.
There was a small increase in the cost of the All Risks insurance policy of £59.
Other expenses increased to £408, which included the purchase of a gazebo (£250) for social events, and the cost of DBS checks for committee members.
The surplus of income over expenditure was £7,932, which leaves the club with a net surplus of £50,527. This is represented by £10,069 in the Lloyds current account, £40,218 in deposit account.
Richard thanked John for his contribution as Treasurer and presented him with a bottle of port.
- Membership Report Current membership numbers:
|
| 2024 Paid | 2024 Unpaid | 2023 | 2023 Unpaid |
| Adult | 187 | 31 | 184 | 62 |
| Inter | 9 | 12 | 13 | 15 |
| Junior | 31 | 26 | 57 | 42 |
We will end the year with very similar Adult and Intermediate member numbers to the previous year. However, the Junior numbers are noticeably down. We have started a plan to review and adapt this, although a high percentage of drop-offs are from those who are mid/late teens, a classic time for them to move to other interest.
We have done well to attract new members to cover for the members we have lost; the attrition rate may be due to a post-Covid correction; but we anticipate a 10-20% turnover annually.
We will continue with our Open Days, and aim to improve our general advertising, but someone to assist with communications would be a great help.
We have agreed to keep membership fees at the same level after last year’s increase. The new membership packages for next year have been circulated, thank you to those of you who have re-joined already. Thanks also to those who have their membership on an auto-renewal at their bank – this really reduces the amount of admin we need to do.
I have had reports from one or two people that they have not received the invitation to re-join email, if you know anyone in this group please let me know ASAP.
2025 Fees – will remain at £30 for adults; £18 Intermediate and £12 for Juniors; this is well below the cost of any other local club. Richard proposed these amounts for the 2025 subscription year; approved unanimously.
- Coaching Report
Richard reported that Laura was sorry not able to attend this evening; over the summer last year, we had just under 50 juniors attending coaching each week aged 5 - 17. We had 2 teams playing in the Plymouth & District Junior League. Our ‘older teens’ team found commitment to matches hard with studies, GCSE’s, Ten Tors etc which was a shame. But our younger junior team had some fantastic successes! All friendlies were for match practice in both singles and doubles, and building confidence, so a great thing for us to offer. Thank you to all parents involved who helped on match days.
Moving onto adult coaching, we had a great weekly programme of beginners, improvers, advanced group coaching, cardio sessions and events running all year. Always with a great atmosphere on sunny mornings and into the evenings on our beautiful courts. We ran a training session for our Mixed and Ladies teams at the start of the season last year, which was fantastic and really well attended. We are repeating team training sessions again this year with a focus on serving in doubles and a recap of how to work well tactically with your partner on court. Whilst I am on maternity leave, I’m so pleased that our coaching programme is continuing in some capacity thanks to our Tennis to Love coach, Mike White.
Laura is hoping to return in just a few months-time, but will confirm all details soon. Looking forward to seeing you all on court in the sunshine.
- Team Captain Report
Jason Vosper thanked all the team captains, Danny, Jane, Barbara and Gill for organising and running the club teams. Without their dedication we would not be able to run competitive team tennis at the club. For a small club we deliver plenty of opportunities for people to play competitively if they want to at all different levels.
The mixed team run by Barbara played nine matches in the South Devon League division 2 last season. They won 6 and lost 3 matches, finishing second in the league behind Ivybridge; a great improvement from the season before when they were bottom. The team has 31 potential players of which 12 covered most matches, plus a couple who only played once.
The team exists to allow all willing club members to experience league play, therefore spanning a wide variety of abilities. The club-sponsored coaching session was fully booked, well received and appreciated. We were fortunate to have a couple of first team players step in and help us, when necessary; this did not only affect the overall outcome but also improved respective partners match play abilities. It is very positive to see players improve year by year. All games were held in amicable spirits. The mixed team is in a good health with 2025 seeing new players join. We are looking forward to the upcoming season.
The ladies team run by Jane also play in the South Devon league. The ladies league only has one division which means the standard can be very high as other larger clubs have more choice of better players. It can be a challenge but that means when we win it feels special! We had 10 ladies playing last season and I thank them all for their commitment. We played 8 matches, won 1, and 4 were drawn, leaving us third in the table; very respectable. It was really the season of nearly there but not quite! We were lucky to have two new team members who contributed greatly, as some of the regulars were either away or injured.
The South Devon, and Plymouth and District, mixed cup teams are run by Gill Woodyer consisting of our A team players. The P&D Cup first round match was against Looe which we won, a first ever win in this competition. Unfortunately, success was short lived, next up was Tavistock, and although fielding a strong team we lost to a stronger team.
The South Devon League mixed cup, of which we were holders had a disappointing entry. When Totnes C withdrew, we were straight into the semi-finals against Totnes A which we won 8-0. Only 5 days later we made the trek to Carey Park, the venue for the final, our opponents Torquay. It was not to be, they were just too strong for us. Although we didn’t retain the cup, it was great to reach the final for the third consecutive year. A big thank you to everyone involved.
We have entered ladies, mixed and KO Cup teams in the South Devon League for this season and 2 men’s and a mixed KO cup team in the P&D leagues this season.
The Men have two teams in the Plymouth and District League. The A team were up against strong opposition in Division 2, finishing in 5th position; Oscar Bultmann’s performances were a personal highlight. The B team played in Division 5 and the highlight of the season was Oscar and Phil beating St Mellion 6-0, 6-0.
Thank you to everyone who represented the club and made themselves available; we are always looking for new players, please contact any of the team captains if you wish to play in the club teams.
- Welfare Report – Karen reported that there were no welfare issues to report. All committee members had been checked by the DBS (Criminal Record Check) system.
- Election of Officers:
Richard had reported that John had resigned from the committee; he nominated Graham Edwards, as Treasurer, seconded by John Denny. Approved unanimously.
He proposed that the current committee be re-elected: Chair – Richard Holman; Membership Secretary – Simon Pearson; Welfare & Safeguarding – Karen Jaggs; Coach – Laura James; Social – Liz Pearce; General members: Jane Jordan, Stewart Barnes. Elected unanimously.
- Resolutions from Members: None received.
- AOB:
Questions from floor:
1. Barbara asked that members do not forward emails with all addressee details visible; instead, any bulk emails should use a BCC address, so email addresses are not notified unnecessarily.
2. Stewart asked members to ensure that the nets were lowered after play. Leaving the nets under tension for long periods puts excessive strain on the wire, two have broken in the last two years, and the concrete anchor blocks are starting to loosen, which will be costly to repair.
Meeting closed at 7.15pm
Richard Holman, Chair NNTC