Oxton Tennis Club AGM
Minutes for Monday 19th November 2018 @ 8.00 p.m.
Venue: Clubhouse
Present: Caroline Child (CC) Teresa Hodges (TH) Kate Wiggett (KW)
Kath Hopkins (KH)) Matt Webb (MW) Richard Azurdia(RA)
Apologies: Mike Withy (MW) Becky Lindesay (BL) Andy Robertson (AR)
Chairman’s Report
The season of 2018 has had its positives and some disappointments, but overall a successful year for Oxton, with both the 1st and 2nd teams maintaining their place in the 2nd and 3rd divisions respectively. It was disappointing to see the third team relegated from the 5th division after their promotion the previous year, despite hard fought matches. Due to limited availability of players, unfortunately we also saw the fourth team expunged from the league. Hopefully we can look towards being able to sustain the reintroduction of a fourth team in the future.
During the last 12 months we were also represented in the main and ladies winter league, the winter floodlight league at Port Sunlight and the men’s and ladies summer leagues and friendly interclub friendly matches.
Thanks goes to all captains for ensuring that fixture were met were possible. This is not always an easy job and recognition should be given to the time and effort that is required – Thank you!
The Men’s and Ladies’ winter season 2017/18 ended in April 2018:
- Men’s A Team - 7th/8 in Division 3
(Captained by Matt Webb)
- Men’s B Team - 10th/12 in Division 6
(Captained by Darren Hough)
- Women’s A Team - 7th/8 in Division 2: relegated to Division 3 for 2018/19 season
(Captained by Becky Webb)
- Women’s B Team - 10th/12 in Division 4
(Captained by Zoe Morris)
The Mixed Summer League ended with:
- 1st team – 6th/8 in Division 2
(Captained by: Teresa Hodges)
- 2nd team - 7th/8 in Division 3: to remain in 3rd division after success in the playoffs
(Captained by Sam Hercules –Lloyd)
- 3rd team - 8th/8 in Division 5 - Relegated to division 6 for 2018/19 season
(Captained by Louie Snell)
- 4th team - Expunged from Division 6 as we were unable to fulfil our fixtures
(Captained by Darren Hough)
Men’s summer league
- A team Finished 3rd/8 in the 2nd division.
(Captained by Matt Webb)
- B Team was expunged from the league as we were unable to fulfil our fixtures
Ladies summer league: Finished 2nd/5 (Captained by Becky Webb)
Coaching
Prior to the start of the season we had a change to our coaching set up, with our coach from Adam Melling (level 3 LTA coach) stepping down and a move to a coaching team, provided by Tennis vision. This has been a success in terms of providing consistent coaching for both adults and junior in groups and 1:1 basis.
At present we have offered two levels of adult group coaching and two age groups for juniors on a Saturday afternoon, and a drop-in session for juniors on a Friday evening.
Looking ahead to the remaining winter season 2018/19 and through to the summer season 2019, I hope that the coaching programme can be maintained and allow for the development of all players of varying abilities and ages.
Tennis vision organised an open day which had a positive turnout, but unfortunately, did not translate into any new members, so hopefully this is an area that we can continue to work with Tennis vision and linking in with local schools.
Tournaments / Social tennis
The club held its annual Open tournament, with thanks going to Teresa Hodges and Kath Hopkins for organising this.
Due to a high number of non payment of entry fees for the open tournament, the committee decided that as this was unfair on the members who did pay, fees will be returned and the engraving cost of the cups will come out of the section’s funds (£64.83). Next year the committee/organisers will ensure that the entry fees are paid before anyone can participate in the tournament.
Unfortunately this year the Plate did not run alongside this. Hopefully this will be re-introduced next year.
Thanks goes to Louie Snell, who organised Oxton’s very own a Davis cup themed tournament, that demonstrated great potential, drawing great enthusiasm and fantastic costumes and patriotism! It would be great to see a similar themed tournament next year.
Unfortunately Social play has not been one of Oxton’s strengths this season. There was only one social tournament early in the summer. Reflecting upon how we can ensure that we have greater success in this area next year I hope we could have some named volunteers to support and co-ordinate the tournaments. This would be a very valuable contribution to the section, as previous years they have been excellent allowing for both social tennis and competition with great food!
Saturday social tennis also sadly lacked numbers and is an area I would like to see develop further, and could incorporate a further review of time / day. We did survey members and the afternoon was chosen, but this unfortunately did not translate into numbers. Towards the end of season a Friday evening was proposed and it would good to trial this in 2019.
The Internal Club Tournament was held this year with the finals day held on 24th September. The winners were:-
Ladies Singles - Jackie Snell
Men’s Singles - James O’Connor
Ladies Doubles - Kath Hopkins & Teresa Hodges
Men’s Doubles - James O’Connor & Sam Hercules-Llloyd
Mixed Doubles - Jackie Snell & Sam Hercules-Llloyd
Developments
As a club we have seen some positive improvements to our facilities but are aware that are still a number of areas that need addressing. The courts have been cleaned and there is an ongoing communication with the ground staff in order to keep the moss and vegetation under control by External cleaners will be used as required. We have also had an upgrade to the electrics of the training floodlights presently in place.
There are continued plans for floodlights and potential court development. Fundraising for the floodlights has continued though the successful cake sales at the start of the season and the clubs cricket PCA event raising £81.15 and £320.03 respectively. Other than this there have not been any significant fundraising events this year. Other income is from winter and summer match fees.
I hope that as we move forwards obtaining quotes and submitting the planning application, we will reignite the focus on fundraising with a target figure for the project. The section continues to work with the club as a whole regarding the club’s longer term development aspirations, including increasing the number of all weather courts.
In the short term, we have seen a new toilet fitted in the tennis hut, and we are looking at new windows and potentially a new door for the hut and or an upgrade to the present lighting setup. There are funding opportunities through Cheshire LA which could allow us to improve the facilities for our members for the next few years.
Socially
An end of season event was held in October incorporating a meal and 10 pin bowling, For those who were able to attend this was a great evening and the open tournament trophy’s were presented to those able to attend.
Looking ahead to 2019 the section hopes to continue with:
- 3 mixed teams this summer league.
( We are unable to confirm a 4th team unless there was an increase in eligible players through an increase in our membership base to allow us to present a case to the Wirral tennis league to allow a 4th team, as rules require a year out following having a team expunged.)
- 1 x Main winter League team
- 1 Men’s summer team
- 2 x Ladies winter League teams
- 1 Ladies summer team
- Friendly teams (Thursday nights)
- Progress with floodlight funding – submit planning application.
- Support club in larger development plans
- Fundraising events – with a target amount
- Monthly Social tournaments
- Continue adult and junior coaching programme
- Create links with local schools and develop the junior section via tennis vision
- Tennis vision coordinated school holiday tennis camps if facilities can be co-ordinated.
I would like to thank everyone for their support and participation over the last 12 months, and in particular those who have volunteered their time to assist with events and work in the background to ensure that we are able to play both within the league and socially. This involves ensuring our registration and fees are up to date (Kate Wiggett), catering co-ordinated (Jackie Snell & Teresa Hodges), balls ordered (Matt Webb), finances managed (Andy Robinson), fundraising (Kath Hopkins & Teresa Hodges) teams selected and captained. All these things take time and can only continue with the support of these volunteers and all of our members.
Caroline Child
Tennis section Chairman
Financial Report
Tennis section account total : £6197.43 as at January 2019 (no o/s payments in or out due) up from £4909 as at January 2018.
Election of Officers
The following Committee nominations were passed:
Caroline Child Chairman
Kate Wiggett Secretary
Andy Robertson Section Treasurer
Matt Webb
Rebecca Lindesay
Kath Hopkins
Teresa Hodges
Richard Azurdia
Louie Snell
PLAYING RULES
Discussion was held around the updated playing rules re: amendment to include an election of a Tennis Captain to the committee. This amendment was passed.
New process for tennis and summer team captains, will be in force for season 2019/20 and is as follows:-
- A tennis captain will be proposed and elected at the tennis AGM. (The tennis AGM has to be held by the end of January each year in time of the Club AGM in February).
- The term of office for the Tennis Captain will be 2 years, as per team captains.
- The Tennis Captain and team captains must be different individuals.
- The Tennis Captain can be any ranked or non ranked member.
- The tennis captain will attend the tennis committee meetings. Currently and in the future team captains do not have to attend committee meetings but may do so if they wish.
- The tennis Captain will be a link between the team captains and the committe, one point of contact for people who wish to raise an issue/question about the teams, ensure all the administration of the captains duties are understood and in hand and will help with the committee to appoint team captains during pre-season training for the coming season. In the past team captains had been appointed at the AGM for 2 years which proved difficult as changes in the ranking/tennis members meant it was difficult to know who would be in which team when choosing the captains.
The committee hopes that this new arrangement will be a fairer way to rank/appoint team captains. We will review the approach after the first year and change/revert if approriate.
AOB
LTA registration is complete with the LTA minimum standards met. These cover safeguarding, diversity, appointment of a welfare officer, criminal record checks for coaches and annual risk assessment.
Posters have been put up and Deborah Lloyd has kindly agreed to be our welfare officer and undergone the required LTA training.
It was proposed that dates for events such as the Sunday socials, open tournament to be set at the start of the season so members can plan accordingly.
It was agreed that we would apply for a grant from an LTA fund by the end of January for a number of improvements to the facilities. This would be for floodlights and hut upgrade i.e. new windows and door. If the grant doesn’t cover the cost then we would look to use some of the money from tennis section account. (MW/CC to progress)