Newton & Noss Tennis Club AGM:
25 March 2026
Attended: Richard Holman, Stewart Barnes, Jason Vosper, Karen Jaggs, Phil & Judy Davis, Mike & Lesley Johnson, Graham Edwards, Sue Ansell-Edwards, Barbara Bultmann, Jo Booth, Alan Knott, Kate & Graham Foster, Jane Jordan, Laura James, Gill & Clive Woodyear, Danny Evans, Alison & Bob Jeffery, Jackie & Chris Youell, Julie James, Sally & David Sheppard, Anne Glancy
Apologies: Simon Pearson, Pete Leman, Zoe Wang, Steve Smith, John Denny, Alistair Stirling, Alan Gorczyca
Minutes from AGM 2025:
No matters arising. The minutes were approved unanimously – proposed by Clive seconded by Danny.
1. Chair Report – Richard Holman
FIRSTLY
Thank you again for coming this evening. We are a small club, but naturally like to do things properly and having you here does make a difference.
I FELT THAT 2025 WAS ANOTHER SUCCESSFUL YEAR
To me that is based on the same key factors I have mentioned before:
- Number of members remains consistent in all categories
- Continued activity around junior players
- Having some fun
- Good use of – club nights; Laura & Mike; Social events
- Matches played by 4 teams and their results
A few of these items are covered later, so I won’t dwell on them.
But none of the above can happen without people getting involved. So I would please like to thank everyone who has been involved on your behalf one or more of those areas. With particular thanks to:
- The committee as a whole – all of whom have agreed to stand again.
- Team captains (Barbara, Jane, Gill, Jason & Danny) all of whom have agreed to do another year.
- Laura – it was great to see you back and blossoming as a mother. Please extend our thanks to Mike for stepping in and continuing to offer coaching.
- Jane Jordan for organising club tennis
- Stewart & new volunteers for keeping on top of the maintenance
- Simon – particularly this time of year.
- Graham – for his seamless uptake of the Finance
- Gill – for stepping up to Club Secretary. An important role.
We are always looking for more people to get involved. Please do shout, if you have some time to give back to the club.
Added to the above is the relief that I have got to the end of four years and not cock it up in my final year.
I have enjoyed my time and can assure you all, and particularly Kate, that it is not an arduous task. I would like to thank all the members for making my life easy and practically all the people who have been part of the committee – you made it easy and fun. Thank you
There are more detailed comments about certain sections to follow, but it would be remiss of me, not to mention four things:
Annual Fee increases
We would like your approval to increase fees annually by the rate of inflation – using the Consumer Price Index figure, which is anticipated to be about 3%. This saves a lot of debate and makes the role of the membership secretary much easier.
Court update
As per our regular communications to you. We continue to review the state of the courts and discuss when they will need replacing. They have not deteriorated over the winter, so there is no need to replace them this year. It is expected that we will do so in 2027, and you will be consulted and kept updated at the end of the season.
Junior tennis
We are conscious that our juniors are very much reliant on Laura, so we continue to work with her on a clear plan to develop this group, where relevant.
County Selection
I am delighted to share the news that Sophie & Gemma, two of our team players have been invited to join county training. And Laura has been invited to do the same for the over 35’s. Great to see such strong representation for such a small club
Having spoken to Kate I know her aims for this season are similar to last, & I hope that you give her the same level of support that you have given me. Thank you & enjoy your tennis.
2. Treasurer Report – Graham Edwards
Summary – 2025 (1stJanuary 2025 to 31st December 2025)
The club’s total income for the period was £10,100. This compares with £11,553 for 2024. Our
surplus for 2025 was £3,816, compared with £7,932 for 2025, a reduction of £4,116.
Expenditures totalled £6,285. This compares with £3,621 for 2024. The increase is principally
due to the purchase of the team shelter, billed in January 2025.
The current account balance on 1st January 2025 was £10,069 compared with the balance on
31st December £12,891, an increase of £2,822.
Income
Major income was from membership dues (£5,937), followed by court fees (£1091). Coaching
fees (£411) were received in January 2025, relating to 4th Quarter 2024. Coaching fees for 2025
of £50 were received in July 2025 and so are not included.
Expenditure
Major expenditures were new equipment, the team shelter (£2,328) and maintenance, court line
repainting (£550).
Sinking Fund
The club’s deposit account on 1st January 2025 was £40,218 and £41,452 on 31st December
2025, an increase of £1,234 during the period, due to interest paid. The current Gross Interest
Rate is 2.63%.
Conclusion
The accounts are satisfactory with no major concerns.
4. Membership Report – Simon Pearson ( presented by Richard)
Despite adding new Adult members throughout the year we ended up with lower numbers than the last 2 years. Intermediates remained the same and Juniors were well up on last year – thanks Laura for pushing people, it really paid off.
As a reminder, I show the ‘Unpaid’ category as that is a good indicator of members we have lost that year (who did not renew for whatever reason). It shows that recruitment is important – we do relatively little active promotion of the club but people still seem to find us.
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The committee agreed to increase membership fees by inflation after no increase last year. The new membership packages for next year have been circulated, thank you to those of you who have rejoined already. Thanks also to those who have their membership on an Auto-Renewal at their bank – this really reduces the amount of admin we need to do. If you have not received the email inviting you to rejoin, or know anyone who hasn’t, please let me know ASAP.
The 3 things that would make club admin easier are:
- Pay your subs on time, don’t wait.
- Don’t bodge up your login. 98% of the problems I deal with are members with multiple accounts.
- If you can’t manage point b), try and test book a court before you desperately need one. This will ensure your account is working in good time and stop you having to contact me in a tearing hurry.
Proposal – Membership fees would increase annually in line with CPI
A short discussion and vote followed, with the proposal being approved.
5. Coaching Report – Laura James
- Our junior players have been able to continue playing over the dark winter months at Barnicott. Kindly supported by Sue & Graham, who all of us are always so grateful for allowing us to be in their beautiful home.
We do however all look forward to those sunny evenings just around the corner back on our courts in Noss.
Junior coaching will return to Noss at the end of April on Thursdays 3:45-6pm
- Cardio tennis has been running well over the winter months on a Friday morning. We always have a great group of players of varying standards and ages, with a fantastic happy atmosphere!
Coach Mike has been running Mixed Group Coaching and Shot of the Day on Thursday mornings, and will be continuing with these sessions.
With Cardio, Doubles Coaching, Mixed group coaching and shot of the day, we have a great way of providing opportunities for our Members to play whilst encouraging new Members to join through joining coaching too.
- Our annual Christmas Triples Event was fantastic. With 18 players all active on court at the same time. A wonderful warm atmosphere, and of course some mulled wine and mince pies after.
- A personal update; that I have been back playing competitively and training as often as possible. Which I am loving and class as important personal development as a coach.
I attended the Devon & Cornwall LTA Coach Conference with a focus on Team GB Doubles drills as well as junior coaching, a Coach Development Roadshow course focussed on singles tactics and have been asked to remain part of the Devon Tennis Coach Liaison Group (a group of 6 coaches who create events and training opportunities for coaches in Devon) all of these have been a great way for me to pass on current and up to date training for our players in Noss.
Thank you for all the support that our club committee and all of our club members continue to give me and coaching in Noss. I love working with everyone and feel very lucky to do so.
6. Team Captain Reports
Men's A Team – Jason Vosper
Matches in the Plymouth & District League consist of four doubles events, there being four players in each team. Each event shall be the best of three sets. The first two sets will be tie-break sets at 5 – 5. If the sets are shared the third set will be played as a match tie-break ie the first pair to ten points or two clear points if the score reaches 9 – 9.
One point shall be awarded for each game won in the first two sets, plus six bonus points for the winning pair in the event (ie winning two sets). If the match tie-break (set 3) is required, it does not carry a point for a game, but the winner of set 3 will get the six bonus points. The maximum points for a winning team is 72.
The Mens A-Team play in Division 2 which has 6 teams with matches played home and away.
This season selections were affected by injuries and we needed to promoted players from the B-team at times.
We finished the season with 397 pts against 510 pts (winning 3 matches and losing 7 matches).
Many of our losses were close and this helped us to avoid relegation managing to finish in 4th place above Hill Lane A and Mannamead B.
Men's B Team – Danny Evans
The A team represents the club at the higher levels with a strong, focused squad with the B team offering the opportunity for all club players to try out competitive league tennis, so we have a larger, broader range of abilities to choose from
Division 5 had 5 teams in 2025 which, with 2 less fixtures, reduced the opportunity for all people to get a game, which hopefully we will try to schedule better this coming season
Also this season selections towards the end were affected by needing to play stronger (A team) players to ensure survival in division 5
We finished the season with 326 pts against 412 pts (winning 3 matches and losing 5 matches).
This strategy helped us to avoid relegation managing to finish mid table in 3rd place above Looe B (316) and Ivybridge C
We welcome all club members who want to try out competitive league tennis and we train/practice Tuesdays( and 1 Sat a month) prior to the start of the season- let me know
Ladies Team – Jane Jordan
The ladies play in the South Devon Ladies league, although only 5 teams took part last season the standard is high due to their only being one division which means, any lady is eligible to play (within the rules) and the larger clubs have more players of a higher level who participate. Considering we have very few ladies to choose from, I feel we did very well to come 3rd behind Totnes and Avonvale. We Won 3, lost 3 and drew 2 which were against Totnes and Avonvale.
I would like to thank Gill, Sophie, Margaret, Zoe, Ruth, Jackie, Barbara and Kate for playing. Hopefully we will be able to do as well, this season, if we can get everyone back to full fitness!
We are always looking for ladies to get involved in matches, and we train Saturday mornings alternating with the men and mixed teams. It would be lovely to see some new faces. If you are interested in competitive tennis, please contact me and we can arrange for you to come along to a practice session and see what it’s all about.
Mixed Team – Barbara Baultman
This league has five teams with matches played home and away. This year was a short season played between 14.5 - 23.7.
The mixed team's objective is to get NNTC members engaged with match play. We had 9 players of each gender and, apart from one player injured, fielded all.
All matches were played. We won two, drew two and lost four. We finished third.
All matches were played in good spirits. Thank you to all players, and a particular thanks to Alan who stepped in at the last minute for an injured player making his maiden appearance on the match court!
Mixed Knockout Cup team – Gill Woodyear
We play in both league knockout competitions – continuing to do very well, often facing much bigger clubs along the way. Thanks to everyone who's played, as these fixtures often take a bit of negotiation with dates not being set by the leagues.
In the South Devon Cup we met our nemesis Torquay in the semi-final, rather than the final as in the previous two meetings – the head to head was 1-1. However being a semi final it wasn't at a neutral venue and Torquay maximised their home advantage by insisting we play on their artificial courts. The outcome wasn't favourable or very enjoyable!
In the P&D Cup we reached the Plate final losing to a very strong and youthful Ivybridge side. This year we may fair better due to a rule change.
7. Social club tennis
Fun mixed Tournaments
We held 2 fun mixed tournaments last year which were very well attended and have pencilled in the dates for this year. Unfortunately, the Autumn event had to be cancelled due to lack of entries which was a bit disappointing.
This year’s events will take place on Sunday April 26th pm. Entries will open soon online and our very popular Wimbledon event on Sunday 5th July. For information, the Regatta Adult tournament will be held on 2nd August. All weather permitting.
It would be nice to see a few more players at club sessions on a Sunday morning and Monday late afternoon, these are very friendly sessions and all levels are welcome. Don’t forget to vote on the weekly WhatsApp poll if you would like to play. Mondays will start to run later as the evenings get lighter to accommodate members who are working. If you wish to be added to the club WhatsApp, please let me know.
8. Welfare Report – Karen reported that there were no welfare issues to report.
9. Election of Officers
Kate Foster elected as Chair – proposed by Gill, seconded by Stewart
Gill Woodyear elected as Secretary – proposed by Barbara seconded by Laura.
The remaining officers were re-elected unopposed.
Graham Edwards – Treasurer; Membership Secretary – Simon Pearson; Welfare & Safeguarding – Karen Jaggs; Coach – Laura James; Social – Liz Pearce; General members: Jane Jordan, Stewart Barnes. Elected unanimously.
10. AOB – Graham thanked Richard for his enthusiasm and committment over the last four years. Mentioning his sense of humour will be missed, but pleased that he's agreed to carry on as MC at future events. A small presentation of thanks was made.