Northleach Tennis Club – Chairman’s Report – 10th March 2025

Well, that’s 2024/25 done and dusted. Another year in the long and illustrious history of Northleach Tennis Club. In many respects, it was business as usual – no drama or major changes, but as ever, the club is slowly changing and evolving through the years.

The most significant change has been the end of what historians and geologists will come to know as “The Tyler Epoch”. After 17yrs, Mike has passed on the baton. We thank Mike for his lengthy chairmanship and his continued support as we enter the Holmes period. You’ll be glad to know I’ve refrained from bringing in a billionaire to fire committee members, throw out our club rules and burn all bridges with Chedworth Tennis Club.

Club Membership has bounced back a little from a drop last year. Numbers as below.

Total Adult - 29

Adult - Male - 17

Adult - Female - 12

Total Youth - 5

Youth - Male - 3

Youth - Female - 2

Male - 35

Female - 35

We are getting more ‘rusty returners’ coming along to Tuesday evening sessions, which is great to see – most of them making great progress and really enjoying it which is, as I’m sure we al agree, what it’s all about.

Casual Bookings have once again, proved very popular. At time of writing (6th march 2025) we’ve taken in £1,046 over 88 separate bookings (£878 excl fees from 86 last year, 81 in 2022/23). We are in discussions with the Town Council to put a sign informing passers buy and visitors how to book on the actual gate to the courts. With any luck, the weather in 2025 will be better than the two previous years and we will see this continue to grow.

In terms of Competitive Tennis, we had another successful season in the Gloucestershire Summer League as El Capitan will soon outine, and we managed one very successful internal tournament last year, played in the weeks running up to the grand Finale – well done and thanks to Stewart for organising. Rich & Stew overcame Sam & Tom in the doubles tournament – proper high quality, that was!, and Rich and Sam also fought it out for the singles title, with Sam just nudging it. Sam and Graham won the American Doubles tournament which followed the Grand Finals. Well done to all!

Coaching - In 2024/25 we teamed up with Kingsley Harris who is based at Bourton Vale Tennis Club and he organised some good, if poorly attended lessons. Kingsley has also taken some private lessons at Northleach and is in for the long haul, looking to organise the children’s coaching earlier, advertise more widely and also get a relationship with the Primary School. This bodes well after so many years of unreliable and short-lived coaching relationships.

Court Maintenance-wise, the damp weather of the last couple of years has not been kind to us. Last pressure washed in December 2023, the courts are now very mossy and we’re in the process of booking in another clean for March before the season starts. Last time it was too wet to apply the Moss-killing herbicide, and so it’s come back with a vengeance. Fingers crossed the weather is better this spring and we can properly treat it an secure good courts for the next couple of years.

We did secure the services of Ben Hilder after the sad passing of Fred who kindly weeded the courts. It didn’t work out with Ben, so we’re back to square one, with the likely scenario being that we members will have to muck in occasionally.

We have also had a meeting with the Town Council aimed at resurrecting and resolving discussions about a ‘lease’ agreement which will give us all clarity about roles and responsibilities. Key in this is how far our maintenance role extends and so we are drawing up a list of all maintenance activities and who we think should cover them. The meeting was positive and, crucially, we all agreed to push on and get this arranged ASAP – no one wants this dragging on for another 20 (or 30… or 40 years!).

This ties into our Financial Report which, for the last few years we’ve been sharing with the Town Council for transparency. We have continued to put a significant amount into our ‘sinking fund’ aimed at covering all our maintenance responsibilities. I will let Pete give his report on the finances in more detail.

Thank you to everyone for their continued support and involvement – there wouldn’t be any facilities at all if it wasn’t for us spending our hard-earned spare time keeping this club going.

Here’s to a warm and sunny summer of tennis!

Colin