Dear Members

I trust you are ready to make full use of the courts.

The Committee

At the last AGM, Keith Green stepped down as Treasurer after many years.  Keith has been key to seeing the club grow over the years and he has left us in a very good financial position.  Fortunately, Steve King has taken over as Treasurer and this comes at a time when we are transitioning to LTA Clubspark (to hopefully reduce the admin burden of running the membership, payments etc).

Pam Winkworth joined the Committee and has really helped pushed our new logo and branding – don’t forget to buy your club tennis gear!

Richard Culverhouse has also joined the Committee as Men’s Captain – this will really help us get some competitive tennis going in the Hot Rackets this year and no doubt other competitions going forward.

 The Committee members are:

• Alan Rees, Chair
• Karen Silverton, Deputy Chair
• Steve King, Treasurer
• Claire Boyle, Secretary
• Martyn Dicker
• Ann Sanders
• Charlotte Moore
• Andrew Jackson
• Ruth Dicker
• Pam Winkworth
• Richard Culverhouse

I would like to sincerely thank our Committee who do a lot behind the scenes to run the club and give up their time to make it happen.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Trustees, Lesley Edwards, Rob Scott and Mark Jarrad; they were actively involved this year in signing the new lease to the front court on behalf of the club.

Sadly, Angela Dowd passed away last year.  Angela was a Trustee and an active member of the club; Angela helped with coaching at St Pauls School and was always seen enjoying herself on court.

Also, Pan Panayi sadly passed away during the year; Pan was a long time member of the club and sponsored events for CTC - his barbeques were always great events.

Floodlights

I am delighted that following full planning permission approval and the formalisation of the lease to the front court, we have now placed the order for new floodlights to the front court together with upgrading the flood lights to the back court.  This will greatly increase the availability of tennis at the club throughout the year.  We have received very welcome donations from Dacorum BC and Blackwell’s Trustees which have enabled us to proceed.  The works are planned from Tuesday 30 May over a 2/3 week period (so there will be some short term disruption during this period).

Annual Subscriptions

Despite the significant investment in the new floodlights, the Committee have decided to not change the subscriptions this year.  The £25 joining/late renewal fee is now a requirement of the membership process – so please pay your subscriptions on time to avoid the rejoining fee.

Subscriptions are due on the 1st May 2023 payments will be via the Clubspark system only.

The rates for 2023/24 are:-

*Family membership includes 2 adults (partners/guardians) and their children aged 18 and under.

Please login to our website to renew your membership.

COACHING

Our fully qualified coach is David Gray; with David we have been able to increase the number of coaching sessions.  Rusty Rackets has just been added - aimed at beginners/members who want to get back into tennis (Wednesday morning 11.00-12.30). Please see website for details of all courses.

We are delighted that children’s coaching has been maintained throughout the year and that the Saturday morning groups are fully supported. The pre-school  tennis (2 mornings a week) has been maintained throughout the year.

Tennis camps are being planned and a communication will follow.

A number of members have also paid a one-off £100 fee for full use of the Tennis Ball Machine on the back court.  Please contact Alan Rees if you wish to join the TBM membership.

SOCIAL TENNIS  

Social tennis will restart on a Thursday evening after Easter – from 5.30pm; this is open to all abilities where players simply roll on / off.  Hopefully this will be even more supported this year as we will be able to have lights on the front courts until 9.00pm. Starting Thursday 20th April

We aim to run a Sunday Social afternoon once a month – first one 28th April @1.00pm 

The CTC knockout competition will run again this year: Mens doubles, Ladies doubles, Mixed Doubles.  This is really an opportunity for members to play some different pairs at tennis – please enter even if you need a partner (contact: alanwmrees@gmail.com) 

We have entered both Ladies and Mens Teams for the Hertfordshire Hot Rackets competition.  Ladies, please contact Claire Boyle; men contact Richard Culverhouse.

COMMUNICATIONS

If you change your email address, please update your details on our club spark website so we can keep you up to date throughout the year.  We have a number of Club WhatsApp groups, so do please use these to get upto date news about sessions and events

General club comms: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HNqwiKQYLDv02U7uPdI2jt

Thursday social tennis: https://chat.whatsapp.com/C3wTXXh0k6LF7kzAzG9HJ3

Our new website is up and running. You can use this get upto date news, renew membership, book onto coaching sessions and book courts, so do please add to your favourites:

https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/chipperfieldtennisclub/

For those on the go, why not download the court booking app:

• For Apple users
• For Android users

This year’s Annual General Meeting is on Wednesday 7th June – 7.30pm in the Small Hall (next to the courts).  Hope to see you there.

Enjoy the courts!

Alan Rees, Chair