This time last year we were resurfacing the courts and replacing the damaged front court fencing. This year’s improvement project is the clubhouse. The work, including roof insulation, plastering the walls, installing double glazing and fitting new doors, is almost finished and in about a week, we will be able to start decorating. The resurfacing cost was £40,742 and the clubhouse cost estimate is £9,120. As shown in the attached statement of accounts, completing these projects and the recent purchase of 72 tins of balls has exhausted our investment reserves. To safeguard the future upkeep and continued development of the club, it is now important that we begin rebuilding our reserves at a target rate of £6,250 per year and we greatly appreciate the continued support of our members in helping us achieve this

The low point of our year was the very sad loss of Jo Dinnie in December. Jo was a huge asset to the club. A superb player who captained the Ladies A team for many years and who regularly played in the Mixed A team. She was not only a great player but also a lovely person with a wonderful sense of fun. She is greatly missed.

No league trophies to report this year although our Women’s A team are riding high in the Hereford and Worcester Winter League having dropped only two points with two matches to play. In the Summer League both the Men’s A and Women’s A teams finished runners up in their respective divisions. Well done and thank you to everyone who played in all of our teams. This year we will once again enter six teams in the H&W Summer League (2 x Men, 1 x Women, 3 x Mixed).

This year our first Club Sunday wasn’t affected by rain and Luke Mason and Paula Highley took top spot in the President’s Tournament with Alastair Glover and Debbie Mason the runners up. Our thanks once more to Phyl Dinnie for organising our Sunday events.

In September Chris Seavor introduced a new event to the club by organising our first mixed singles Box League. Twelve members competed in three divisions and the winners were, Div 1 - Leon Crockett; Div 2 - Phil Towle; Div 3 - Andy Evans. Thank you Chris for getting this going. It is good to see some organised singles play taking place at the club.

Paula Higley was our new Floodlit League organiser and her team emerged victorious in the Autumn Floodlit League.  A close run competition with 5 points separating the 4 teams. Many thanks to Paula and the Team Captains for organising their respective matches and all the players who participated. It is hoped that the League will take place again in the Autumn and Paula is quite happy to organise it.

Steve Barnett of Activate Sports Education once again ran weekly open tennis coaching sessions for local youngsters throughout the year. This year we asked that external participants become Junior club members.

The bookstall at the Woolhope Fete raised £152. A big thank you to all those who donated books and to those who helped set up and run the stall on the day.

WELFARE & SAFETY

All LTA registered clubs are subject to a safeguarding inspection by the regional LTA safeguarding team.  In November we completed the LTA Venue Safeguarding Self-Assessment and although court bookings for under 16s are made by their parents, the LTA requirement is for us to specify an age at which children can access the venue without parental supervision. Accordingly, we are introducing the Unsupervised Children Policy which adopts the LTA recommended age of 13. A copy of the policy can be found here.

Don’t forget that copies of all our Welfare & Safeguarding policies are available in the Clubhouse and on the website.

Please remember that the contact and location information for the emergency services is displayed on the clubhouse external notice board.

AGM SUMMARY

The increase in subscriptions proposed in the Treasurer’s report (previously circulated) was passed at the AGM and membership renewal emails will be sent out later this month.  The AGM minutes and Treasurer’s report can be found on the website - click here

The existing committee were re-elected en-bloc and our committee for 2026/27 is:

                Chair:                    Raymond Highley            

                Vice-chair:           Vacant

                Treasurer:          Alison Quant                     

                Secretary:            Brian Chipping                  

                Committee:       

                Val Barton, Georgie Limb, Jenny Lloyd, Bob Quant, Phil Turner, Duncan Betts

Team captains for 2026/27

Men’s A              Andrew Pickup                 

Men’s B               Phil Towle

Women’s A         Georgie Limb                    

Mixed A               Paula Highley                    

Mixed B                Phil Towle                          

Mixed C                Jola Seavor

Club Sundays – all start at 2pm

Presidents Tournament                 10 May

Club Sundays                                     7 June, 5 July, 2 August, 6 September (Nick Waters Cup)

Thank you for your support and continue to enjoy your tennis,

Brian Chipping

Secretary