Welcome to July’s edition of the club newsletter. We hope you have been enjoying playing tennis in the lovely weather and having a great month!

Re- Surfacing of courts 1-3

Just a reminder that the work to resurface the top tennis courts will start week commencing 23rd August. The work is scheduled to take around a week, perhaps a little longer if the weather is poor. There will be no coaching on the other 3 courts during this time, and we are clearing most other pre booked times, so the bottom 3 courts will be available for members to book. We will be meeting the contractor shortly to finalise details for the installation and will provide a further update after that.

For further information please contact Jeff Gleave on jeffreygleave2007@tiscali.co.uk

Club Event - Saturday 18th September

We are provisionally planning an event to celebrate all the work that will have taken place in the summer - resurfacing the top tennis courts, installing LED lights on the squash courts and all the work refurbishing the clubhouse. We will give you more information in the next few weeks but this is advance notice of the date.

A Few Finance Matters

We would like to say a massive thank you to the Admiral Support Fund for a grant of £2,500 towards our New Courts Fund. Thanks to Chris Price for making the nomination.

You may have noticed that has been significant activity in courts 7-9 and the car park next to them. Allowing the contractors to use these courts for storage has given rise to additional income of £900, always welcome!

Finally, following a review of the financial position of the club as it opens up after the enforced Covid shutdown, we paid off the remainder of the mortgage that was held with Swansea Building Society. This will leave us in a healthy position to raise funds for future investment after the new courts have been laid in August.

U10s Team Success

It was a pleasure to captain Thomas, Isaac, Herbie, Jim & Matthew in their first season of competitive matches. It's been great to watch them grow in confidence on court, in calling out the score and playing both singles & doubles over the last couple of months. It was clear to see they thoroughly enjoyed putting into practice all the skills, drills and top tips from Dai's Green ball sessions. Their efforts were rewarded with the achievement of winning their league. Very well done boys.

Squash Court Lighting and Maintenance Work.

The work to replace squash court florescent lights fittings with low energy LED fittings has been completed - the results are amazing and the courts are a lot brighter - " I now have to wear sunglasses to play squash - Paul Thorburn".

The LED units are more expensive than the average LED lights as they are specifically designed for squash courts, and cost over £5,000 for the 24 units alone. There was additional work to rewire and replace outdated fuse boards and panels, and as a result the court area is now 100% electrically safe and up to current standards.

This work was funded by the Sport Wales grant of £10k, and many thanks to the members who helped with the work to erect and remove the scaffolding and fittings which saved on the overall costings and reduced the impact on the time courts were out of action.

More work will take place over the next coming months to replace the court timers, add new PIR lights to the squash corridor, reconfigure the court fans and service the gas court heaters. This work will take place during the day with minimal disruption to court availability.

New Signage

New signage will be going up around the club during the coming weeks. We have already set up a new banner welcoming all members and non-members to the clubhouse; a safeguarding banner, which has been provided by Tennis Wales has also been positioned on the balcony railings

The squash courts will be renumbered to make our Show Court the ‘No1’ court.

The booking system will be amended accordingly

The rear room will be known as the ‘Team Lounge‘

Fundraising

The Wimbledon event was very successful in spite of  (in true Wimbledon fashion), rain delays. This didn't stop play for long and the added bonus was players were able to see the men's match whilst supping Pimm’s and eating cucumber & salmon sandwiches, strawberries and cream! Thanks to everyone who took part with all funds going towards club facility improvements (prioritising resurfacing courts 7-9) almost £200.00 was raised. 
Thanks to Nigel as the referee and Wendy & Jo for lovely refreshments adding to Pimms & strawberries 🍓 



Thank goodness for modern technology - the wooden rackets can return to the display on the wall!!!
 

Recycling of old tennis balls

We are relaunching the recycling of old used tennis balls with the company www.recycaball.com

The company takes old tennis balls and either pressurises them or recycles them and donates to various charities - more info on their website - http://recycaball.blogspot.com/

The balls must be in a reasonable condition and they will pay the club 15p per ball - £37.50 for 250 balls. Initially there will be labelled plastic containers placed around the tennis courts for members to put any old and unwanted balls, and if there is sufficient response we can obtain specific tennis ball recycling units - see on web site.

So dig out any old tennis balls that you can't play with anymore and put them in the boxes and make the club some money!!

Clubhouse and Bar

All members have access to the clubhouse throughout the day - and can use the facilities including the Tassimo coffee machine, which, out of bar hours, works on an honesty system

Please note current bar opening hours are

Mon - Fri 4pm - 9pm

Saturday 10am - 7pm

Sunday 12pm - 5pm

Though can be flexible on request to Justin in advance.

Photo Wall

Thank you for all contributions to the photo wall - further contributions welcomed.