Welcome to September! Many of you have no doubt had a busy ‘return to school’ in the last few weeks and at the Club we have had a bit of a whirl of activity with Club Champs Finals Day, the launch of a new Coaching Provider, Everyball@BFTC and the kick off of the Winter League Season. Phew! So, please open Club News and begin……. (Sorry if that has brought back traumatic exam memories)

Coaching

Welcome to Everyball@BFTC!

Everyball is run by Mike James who is an LTA Master Performance Coach and LTA Coach Education Tutor and has worked for the past 30 years across a wide spectrum of club and player development. Mike is our Coaching Programme Manager – a number of you will have met him already at the ‘Try before you Buy’ sessions he has been running at the Club. For those who haven’t here is a picture so you can recognise him when you see him around

Phil Hill who is also an LTA Master Performance Coach will be our Lead Coach. Phil has considerable experience coaching in the UK and internationally has worked with tour players (both men ATP and women WTA) as well ITF Juniors on the Grand Slam circuit. He is also an LTA Tutor. Phil is leading our Saturday morning junior sessions and is also leading all drills on Wednesdays (Beginners, Intermediate and Mixed Drills). Here’s his picture

The coaching blocks are now running:

Junior Saturday Morning

9- 10 am: 6+ rising to 9 years: Mini Red & Orange Ball Tennis £42 members, £48 non members

10 – 11 am: 9+ rising to 12: Green & Yellow Ball Tennis £42 members, £48 non members

 11 – 12 .15pm: Age 13+:  Yellow Teen Tennis £52.50 members, £60 non members

Adults

The Saturday 'blast' -12.15 - 1.00pm

Beginners/rusty rackets group coaching - Wednesdays 9am-10am

Intermediate to advanced group coaching and linked drills session -Wednesday 10am-11.30am

Evening Mixed drills -Wednesdays 7.30-9.00pm

Sessions can be booked as a 6-week block or on a session-by-session basis (booking required upfront) Please visit the website Coaching section (Adult or Junior tabs) for more information and booking links

AGM 2022: Tuesday 18th October at Bovingdon Football Club

New Committee Members needed!

As recently communicated, the AGM will be taking place on Tuesday 18th October. A number of the current committee will be standing down so we really need some other members to take on Committee Roles! We will be asking for nominations from Friday 23rd September (an email with full details will go out to all members). Please have a chat to any of the Committee if you might consider standing. You don’t have to have experience in a previous Committee role and all of those committee members stepping down will still be around to help you become familiar with the role

Club Championships Finals Day

This year’s club championships were a resounding success with a total of 10 matches plus a round robin plate mini tournament. All the winners can be found on the website HERE the results are towards the bottom of the page.

The day started at 10am with a minute’s silence to mark the passing of Queen Elizabeth II. The action began on courts 4&5 with 10 members taking part in a round robin doubles plate tournament. They each played each other in pairs for 5 x 20-minute rounds, the winners being the pair who took the greatest number of games.

Meanwhile on court 1 a very closely contested men’s open doubles was taking place needing a third set to decide the champs. This was followed on court 1 by the category with the greatest number of entrants -the men’s singles. The standard was very high and most of us can only watch and marvel. Play continued on courts 1, 3 and 5 and finished at about 16.30: a great day’s tennis.

We have included some photos here – more will be available on the website in due course

We were all treated to an expertly cooked BBQ thanks to Jacques and Vince plus plenty of delicious salads and sides…and of course cake.  Many thanks to Jax for coordinating all of this.

Thank you to all the organisers ably led by Steve supported by Ian and Ali, to Paul and Laura Campbell for expert photography, to all those who provided food, to Ali for sorting the Plate Trophy and Rebecca for coordinating the Plate matches. Thanks also to all the participants and the spectators who played and supported matches with such good spirits. The weather was good, the food was good, the company was good and the tennis was great. We already look forward to next year!

Aylesbury Winter League

We have 7 teams entered in the AWL, Men A/B, Women A/B, Mix A/B/C. Captains’ information may be found on the Website, if you would like to be involved in playing, please either contact the relevant Captain or speak to Ali Lyons.  Matches start on the 29th September and run through until April.  Mixed matches are played weekday evenings, with Men/Women playing at the weekends.

An Update on Bear: Medical Detection Dog

Some of you may remember meeting Bear (a medical detection dog in training) either at the club or in the village. He spent his early years being looked after by Helen, Paul and Laura who are members of the club and live locally. We have recently heard Bear and Paige (his new owner pictured) have received their accreditation. after successfully completing his training. He is making an amazing difference to her life. You can read the full story HERE

The charity that selected, trained and placed Bear is based in Milton Keynes. They are always on the lookout for new volunteers – and temporary homes for their dogs If you might be interested here’s their website, click HERE

Safeguarding

We have updated our website and now have a dedicated Safeguarding page. We have done this to reflect the importance of this area for all of us, members, coaches, parents / guardians and visitors. The page has links to our Safeguarding Policy and separate pages on Anti-Bullying and Code of Conduct. There are also links to LTA and other recognized Safeguarding material.

Please take a moment to visit the site by clicking HERE

We would continue to encourage all members to get in touch with out Head of Safeguarding, Kay Gobby if there any concerns. You can reach her on safeguarding@bftc.club

Social Events

BOVINGDON TENNIS CLUB SOCIAL NIGHT SATURDAY 29 OCT

Our next social event is our traditional autumn curry night at ZEERA INDIAN RESTAURANT.

For those who aren’t familiar Zeera is our local Indian restaurant in Bovingdon. It receives great reviews and has a 5* food hygiene rating (sorry I always check! I’m probably neurotic?). If you want to know more about the restaurant then click HERE

It’s excellent value at £17.95 for a starter, main, side dish and rice or naan.

Numbers are limited to 20 so initially this will be members only, first come basis.

If you’d like to reserve a space then please click HERE

And finally......

Could all members who use the Clubhouse key safe please remember to scramble the code once they have returned the keys. There have been a number of times it has been found closed but with all the digits neatly lined up displaying the code! Thank you