So – I could celebrate Ozzy Ozbourne’s last concert and leave this page blank (read his autobiography, it’s laugh out loud funny).

Or I could mention the new shed but it’s yet to be painted and is currently doorless so I will save that one for next month. I can however reveal that the paint colour will be ‘forest green’. That should help you to sleep a bit better.

I could also point out the newly painted clubhouse, but you’ve all seen it now and anyway it’s also not quite finished.

So, this month I’m going to focus on what we are REALLY all about and that’s the tennis.

And what better start could I make than this quote from Billie Jean King:

TENNIS IS A PERFECT COMBINATION OF VIOLENT ACTION TAKING PLACE IN AN ATMOSPHERE OF TOTAL TRANQUILITY

There’s not always ‘total tranquillity’ at SLTC – if our committee meetings are anything to go by – but we can hopefully look forward to lots of ‘violent action’ on court over the next few weeks especially now that the club championships are underway. We’ve got whole weekends of total tennis lined up with mega events on Sundays following our ever more successful club socials on a Saturday afternoon.

Here’s what we’ve got to look forward to over the next few weeks:

Every Saturday – club afternoon at 2pm followed by tea and cake or a cold beer at 4. It would be good to see more of our new members coming down now and again or even every week…All levels welcome. We are a friendly bunch. Don’t be shy.

Sunday 13th July – only a week away and the weather forecast looks good! Our Gary Greenwood final /Wimbledon event starts at 11am and goes on all day! Watch the GG final, see a wonderful exhibition match featuring some of our top players, watch the Wimbledon final live on the club TV, grab your glass of prosecco, and eat some fabulous BBQ food followed by strawberries and cream.

All of this for just 10 quid! It’s a steal.

Please look out for another email from me with an invite to what will be one of our best events this year. Dress for tennis if you also want to play rather than watch in the afternoon. It’s a particularly great opportunity for new members to introduce themselves to the club in a tranquil and even convivial atmosphere!

Sunday 3rd August – this first Sunday in August sees our annual Roger Parry event. It’s a fun ‘American doubles’ tennis competition in which players rotate and play with and against each other. The winner is the one with the most games. All levels welcome. Food and drink also provided. Details and sign up to follow but please put it in your diary now.

Sunday 17th August – the date planned for our plate competition. All those who exited the club championships in the preliminary or first round will be invited to a commiseration day involving some gently competitive tennis organised by club coach Harrison Gwilt.

Sunday 24th August – the start of a great week of tennis to watch (and play) at the County Championships which we are jointly hosting with Town Walls. More news on this prestigious event in next month’s newsletter.

Boring stuff – sorry I mean the very important but not so exciting stuff. Including me being bossy. Which I’m allowed!

Visitor fees - some of you naughty people have not been paying your visitor fees despite the fact these are only £5 – almost ludicrously cheap in comparison to a court booking at, say, the Cathy Sabin Community Tennis Centre AKA ‘the Dome’ where the cost is £18 per hour. Yes, you read that right.

It’s easy to pay the £5 online (or get your guest to pay). There is a link to ‘visitor fees’ and card payment on the bookings page on the website. Please use it! Retrospective payments can be made if you are feeling guilty. I can see a few red faces…

Club sessions – a few members have been inviting non-members to club sessions. This needs to stop, please. Members only at what are often over subscribed events that can be difficult to manage.

Car park stickers – there’s still a few to be collected, and we are about to have a purge on cars in the car park without stickers. Be prepared for some violent action if you don’t have one – or maybe just a rude note on your windscreen.

Lost property – there’s an increasingly large and ugly pile floating around our otherwise (almost) pristine clubhouse. It’s heading for a charity shop if unclaimed by the end of this week.

Wow – how bossy am I?

And I haven’t finished yet!

Photography – following a review of our safeguarding procedures can everyone please be ultra careful when taking photos around the club, particularly if children are present. Any photo taken or printed or put online (including club social media) that contains a child (even if just in the background) needs the written permission of the child’s parent or guardian.

Informational stuff – equally important but not me being bossy

Court cleaning and painting – we are spending considerable sums on the hard courts to keep them up to scratch. A full clean and a repaint is planned. This means some court closures are coming:

• Courts 9-11 will be closed from Monday 21st July to Friday 1st August
• Courts 7&8 will be closed from Saturday 2nd August to Sunday 10th August.

This will inevitably make organising dates for Club Championships matches more difficult. Please bear this in mind and get as many booked up as you can before this period. If you are having difficulty, please contact Chris Tinker.

And finally

Club member Chris Walmsley has developed a free scoring app that he built to solve the problem of forgetting the score – a big problem for most of us. It looks pretty good to me especially if used on an Apple Watch or Garmin watch.

Let me know how you get on with it.

That’s it for this month. Please do come to the Gary Greenwood ‘Wimbledon’ event a week today. It’s going to be a good one!

Enjoy your tennis,

Jeremy

Gary Greenwood final and Wimbledon afternoon

We’ve got a great day lined up on Sunday 13th July starting at 11am. Please join us to:

• Cheer on the finalists battling for the Gary Greenwood cup
• See an exhibition match with some of our top players showing off their skills
• Eat lots of BBQ food washed down with a glass of prosecco
• Watch the Wimbledon final in the clubhouse
• Indulge yourself with strawberries and cream
• Play some tennis if you want to

The bar will be open, the forecast looks good, and we can’t wait to see you!

Please register for the event so that we know how many are coming. Cost per head for the whole day is an outrageous £10.

Let me know if you have any dietary requirements – vegetarian, gluten free etc.

See you on Sunday if not before…

Jeremy