CHAIRMAN’S CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 6 JANUARY 2021
Posted 6th January 2021
CHAIRMAN’S CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 6 JANUARY 2021
The UK Government announcement of 4 January placed all of England into a national lockdown. That meant all tennis venues were required to close with immediate effect. Tennis is not permitted for adults and children alike. We will, of course, keep you posted and let you know if the advice changes. You can always find the very latest information on the LTA website including their updates for Venues, Players and Coaches. The LTA will update their guidance here: LTA News
Our junior teams play in the National League, and the current season has been completely cancelled. Our entry fees will be refunded during this month. Despite the lockdown we need to plan for next summer. We have asked parents to tell us if their child wants to take part in team competition. The deadline for entries has been extended so we now have a little longer to get that all organised.
The LTA have confirmed that all their competitions up to and including 28 February are now cancelled.
In other news we have a new Club Secretary. Joanne Burn has taken over and has set up an email address for use on club business owltcsec@gmail.com Please use that in the future. Jo is initially helping us get the historic records in order and will take an increasing role in helping us to run the club. She takes over from Charlotte Hares – who has been terrific and very proactive and leaves only because work pressures allow her insufficient time to help as she would like. Thank you Charlotte for all you have done.
Many of you will also know that Catherine Caulfield has taken over responsibility for managing all the competing demands for court bookings. She will be helping the club to fit all the different bookings into the available time slots in a way that is fair and even-handed. That includes league matches for adults and juniors, club sessions & events, coaching sessions, 1-2-1 coaching slots as well as the organised groups and regular block bookings. It is worth saying that a check of court bookings in October (a week when the club was operating close to normally and not a week that involved half-term) showed around 70% of all available court booking slots were not booked so even if you were unable to get the exact court and time you were looking for, there were plenty of other options available. If you have a particular problem please contact Catherine by email to catherine.caulfield@me.com. But please remember her role is NOT to book your courts for you in the normal course of events.
Please continue to contact Judith at owltcmembership@gmail.com for any queries relating to club membership.
Around this time we would normally start to invite entries for the Handicap Tournament – but we cannot do that at present for obvious reasons. Depending on when we can re-start playing tennis, and whether we are allowed to play singles AND doubles, the club and event organiser Chris Heayberd will let you know whether or not this will go ahead in the same format, or be modified in some way or whether it has to be cancelled entirely for 2021.
Also, just a reminder to please download the Instagram app and follow us @OldWilTennis as well as following us on Facebook too. Hopefully there will be tennis news to report soon, and the outcome of the Kent Tennis awards later this month where we have been shortlisted for Club of the Year as well as in the Competition category for the series of box leagues and other events we ran, providing cash prizes from the Jack Petchey 21st Birthday grant.
I do hope you and your loved ones are able to remain safe and that we soon see better news. Hope to see you all back on court before too long.
NIGEL JORDAN
CHAIRMAN
