SPITAL UPDATE JANUARY 2023
Hope everyone has had a good start of the new year, and look forward to play more tennis.
Here are some updates from our club.
We started the new year with a fantastic short (3 hour) club tournament. We had c. 20 participants playing doubles in a round robin format. Congratulations to Jan and Vali who topped the mini leagues points tables, and thanks everyone who was involved and in particular Andrew Flynn for making it happen.
We will repeat this. Would be great if we could have a volunteer or two to organise the next event!
Thanks to everyone who supported the fund raising. A training session was held in the clubhouse on 7th Jan with Spital members and local residents attending. If there is demand we will run a further training session
Support Your Club Coach
In this communication we are profiling our club coach Matt Bode. Many of you will have met Matt and attended his group coaching sessions or cardio or had one to one coaching. Please support Matt by attending sessions when you can.
Did you know;
- Coaching is Matt’s full time occupation. He does this under the umbrella of Microsports Ltd and in addition to working with Spital, coaches at Alrewas Tennis Club and works with a number of local schools
- He has been playing tennis since he was 12 and coaching for 8 years
- Matt is a member of Spital and captain’s the Men’s B team in the Burton League
- He is a member of the Spital Tennis Committee
- Matt delivers Sat morning coaching at Spital, plus holiday camps, schools and junior tournaments Monday Cardio and Thursday eve adult group sessions
- These sessions are a great source of new members for the club. Folks often come along and try group and or individual coaching before joining.
- What his friends say about him … “always up for a laugh”
- What Spital members say about him …… “relaxed and easy going”
- Outside of tennis Matt is a huge motorsport fan and has been to Donnington, Silverstone and the Red Bull Ring in Austria
- He’s a Burton Albion supporter, likes watching football and going to the pub (including after Spital B team fixtures)
Court Surfaces and Lights Project
The courts were sprayed with an anti moss solution in late November. Thanks to Dave Pyburn and Andrew Flynn for giving their time. This treatment seems to have been pretty effective. We will review the position again in March. It might be that we will need to jet wash the courts or that a further anti moss treatment will suffice in the Spring.
Our court surfaces and floodlights are 30 years old and well beyond their expected life span. Our medium term strategy is to move to an astro turf surface. In the short term, we are working up a project to resurface and re-paint the courts, replace the net posts and convert floodlights to LED.
We have a tennis sinking fund to invest in facilities but it is not sufficient to cover the cost of these projects. We are presently seeking grant support from a number of organisations to bridge the gap and enable us to move forward. If we are successful we would like to convert floodlights in the summer and resurface courts in mid September.
When we are clearer on the funding position and project timelines we will provide a more detailed communication. Meantime, please come along to a tennis committee if you want to hear more and or ask questions and share views about this project and the future of Spital.
Next Committee Meeting is 8pm on Thurs 12th Jan in the Clubhouse and we will be discussing the courts and lights project. Why not join Matt’s coaching at 7pm and then pop in the clubhouse for 30 mins!
Membership Development
You may have seen our winter offer including coaching with Matt Bode. Pleased to report that we had eight new members join in December! We will likely run some further incentives for new joiners in March / April.
Coaching courses and existing members are our best source of new joiners. Please do encourage friends and acquaintances to try Spital – all our coaching programmes are open to non-members.
Check out the Spital web site which has been updated with info and pictures – thanks to Dede. You will also find on the website links to Spital social media – please follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and share our posts.
Feedback
We welcome feedback and ideas. E mail us at info.spitaltennis@gmail.com or speak to a Committee member or better stil come to a Committee meeting.
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