Congratulations to Ben
We had some great news before Christmas when our coach Ben Hardwick and his wife Georgia announced the arrival of their second child Otis. Apparently young Arlo is coping well with not being an only child any more after an initial surprise! Ben has been with us for just over a year now and has made great strides in attracting and developing players of all age groups. He is currently expanding his walking tennis group on Friday mornings and is building up his youth groups as well. For details of these and Ben's other courses see https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/BenjaminHardwickCoaching.
New men's coaching session?
Ben is gauging demand for a men's coaching session from 1130 to 1300 on Monday mornings. He currently runs a similar session earlier in the day for women and he is becoming aware of a potential demand for a similar event for men. If you are interested can you please contact him - call 07807 427586 or email tennisaceben@hotmail.co.uk
Let there be light...
Some of you will know that we have had some complaints from our neighbours since we switched to the new LED lights. We have assured them that we will be working to reduce the glare from lights at the rear of the courts during the Spring. In the meantime, we have promised to use our lights as sparingly as possible. With this in mind, we want to restrict social sessions to 9 PM on Monday and Wednesday nights until we have sorted this problem.This shouldn't be too much of a hardship because play usually ends at that time if not before. It would also be appreciated if more use could be made of the lights on Court Three which do not have the same glare problems (albeit the lights are not so bright).
The reason for switching to the new lights was because three out of eight of our old metal halide lights were malfunctioning. This type of lighting is rapidly becoming obsolete with replacement lamps and parts becoming increasingly difficult to track down. Additionally, LED lights are markedly cheaper to buy and to run. Many thanks yet again to Mike Williams and the qualified electrician he engaged to tackle this issue - fingers crossed that they can sort it out soon to everyone's satisfaction.
AGM - 5 March
Our Annual General Meeting is scheduled for Wednesday 5 March at 7 PM in the clubhouse. Please try to attend to find out how we have fared over the last year and also feel free to offer your views about current issues and the future. This is your club and we want you to have a say.
Ahead of the AGM, we will be reaching out to attract some new committee members and it would be great if we could attract some fresh faces. We plan to streamline our commitee procedures so that we will cut back on the number of physical meetings required - hopefully a maximum of four/five per year - so it should be do-able for a lot more people.
We're also looking for members to assist with the running of the club by joining sub-groups we would like to start (e.g. league, clubhouse/grounds maintenance, events/social, web/media). Every contribution helps!
2 February Celebration Day
To mark a successful year of tennis in 2024 Ben is hosting a celebration event during the afternoon of Sunday 2 February, including the award of trophies to various members and teams, and the chance to participate in a mini tournament. This is open to all members and we hope to see as many people as possible. Ben will probably publicise this event further before the big day.
Well done to Lara
Lara Prosser has been successful in applying for the post of Young Person's Welfare Ambassador and will work with the club to represent the younger members in this regard. She will be working closely with our Safeguarding/Welfare committee member Jo Ballinger to promote the interests of young people and we very much hope that she will derive a lot of job satisfaction.
Club Clothing
Has anyone noticed members wearing the new club clothing yet? The items look very good and feedback has been very positive - and they are quite reasonably priced. If you are interested please see our website for details.
Finals Day 2025
It seems like a long way off, but we are planning to hold our club finals day on Sunday 6 July. This falls on the middle weekend of Wimbledon so tennis will probably be at the forefront of the sports news agenda at that time. In the past we have been very grateful to local firms for sponsoring individual events and we are hoping for more of the same - and another marvellous day of tennis as well.
RIP Sally Hill
Sally's cremation ceremony took place on 9 January and the celebrant highlighted her love of tennis. One of her favourite pubs was the Anchor at Epney and they arranged a very nice wake for her. The same pub hosted our club Christmas dinner in December 2024 and we are very grateful to them for providing such a delicious meal.