Newsletter March 2016

The days are getting longer, GB are winning Davis Cup ties and it’s finally stopped raining, this can mean only one thing, it’s getting towards the summer tennis season.

Last season was great fun with some excellent tennis, great improvements in play and a welcome to several new members. Hopefully this year can continue in the same vein. So here’s brief update as to what’s coming up.

A few dates for your diaries:

2 April Wine Tasting Evening

Whalley Wine will be hosting a wine tasting evening for us on 2 April from 7pm in the Ribchester village hall. Tickets are £10 and available from Keith Flood (01254 878479) or by emailing the club (ribchester.tennis@gmail.com. We will get the chance to taste seven wines of various styles and origins and will get introduced to how wine tasting is performed, without going fully Jilly Gouldon (if you’re getting cut grass, strawberries you’re probably at Wimbledon).

17 April Club Spring Clean

With the new courts we don’t need to do the usual remedial work on the surface this year. Attention instead turns to the clubhouse and surrounding area. Please come along and lend a hand to sprucing up the clubhouse in time for the new season. With enough volunteers we’ll try to get the whole place cleaned and some fresh paint on. Meet at 10:00.

25 April Ribble League starts

24 September Presentation Evening

26 September AGM

Tournaments

This year’s tournaments will run as follows:

Fun Doubles                       5 June

Handicap doubles            11 September

Main tournaments          29 August to 17 September

League tennis

We have entered four adult teams and one junior team into this year’s Ribble summer league. Unfortunately we’ve had to drop the E team due to a reduction in the number of ladies. We still have more teams than any comparable club and there’ll be plenty of tennis to go round. In order to keep everyone playing we have also entered a team into the East Lancashire Open Division this year. Home matches will be played as follows:

A – Monday

B – Tuesday

C – Monday

D – Tuesday

U16 – Sunday

East Lancs – Saturday

Winter league has gone well again with lots of folk getting a run out in the bubble, at present it looks as though both teams will be safe in their divisions. Thanks to Bernie and Liz for captaining the teams.

Other opportunities

As ever our regular play continues:

Coaching – Wednesdays, 5-6pm mini tennis, 6-7pm juniors, 7-9pm adults

Social tennis – every Sunday from 2pm, it’s time for the hardy winter players to be joined by a few more sensible folk.

Membership & Subs

Membership subs are now due for 2016/17. The AGM raised annual subs for this year, but introduced a reduced price (early bird) for those paying before the end of April. This is to encourage everyone to pay on time to be included in the Ribble League registration. 2016/17 membership fees are as follows:

Family membership  - £120 (£100)

Adult - £60 (£50)

Junior - £5

Student – £30

Social – £20

Most other clubs in Lancashire have fees at least twice ours.

This year we are able to accept payments over the web, you can pay by debit card through:

https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/RibchesterTennisClub/join

You will also receive an email invitation from Ribchester Tennis Club (Clubspark) which goes to the same place. Make sure you join before 30 April for the reduced early bird membership rates.

This is a payment system like PayPal and is provided to us through the LTA as part of a new membership and facility management tool. The easiest way for the membership secretary to manage membership is through the tool, but if you would still like to use the paper form and a cheque or postal order then please complete the attached form and send with payment to Aileen.

In order to join through the online tool you’ll need to register as an LTA member, this helps the club in showing that we have a strong membership and in getting Wimbledon tickets. You can also join the 100 club through the online tool.

The focus for our fundraising this year is looking towards replacing the floodlights, more energy efficient lights are available and replacing them a bulb at a time is an expensive option as scaffolding is required for access.

In the run up to the season the team captains will be holding practice evenings and we’re hoping to get some social play going on Thursday evenings.

There’ll be plenty more to come, including another open day and more information on the league season, but in the meantime, see you on court.