CHAIRMAN’S NEWSLETTER – 22 DECEMBER 2021
Posted 22nd December 2021
CHAIRMAN’S NEWSLETTER – 22 DECEMBER 2021
Hello everyone
As we approach the Christmas festivities and look forward to the New Year the pandemic is once more starting to impact our daily lives in a very direct way. At present there are no regulations from Government to change how we currently operate – but as a club we are monitoring the situation closely and will react if the Government or the LTA asks us to. In the meantime I would urge you all to take whatever sensible precautions you can.
Please be especially careful in any indoor setting – whether the hut, pavilion or the bar. Always use hand sanitiser and avoid close contact with others from outside your immediate household. And avoid unventilated spaces whenever you can.
NEWS ABOUT OUR FACILITIES
In recent weeks we have been able to replace the floodlight bulbs that were broken – with one exception. We are working on a solution for that. We are also looking at more strategic issues regarding the floodlighting – whether we can progressively implement LED lighting - which has been so successful on court 7.
The problems with one of the toilets in the pavilion has also been resolved – hopefully once and for all. It was a much bigger task than we originally expected but we hope that won’t be an issue for us again.
Following the generosity of many members we have been able to advance our plans to improve the access path from the bungalow to the courts, including making it wider, less prone to flooding and accessible to a wider, more diverse club membership. The work have been approved by the Old Wilsonians’ Association and we have agreed a price with the contractor. We just need some drier weather to allow the work to be completed. The estimate is this will take a couple of weeks.
A quite substantial hole has opened up on the railway line end of court 1. It appears that water drainage may have been gradually washing away soil and structure from beneath the tarmac surface on which the carpet lies. It might have been happening gradually over 20+ years since we first installed carpet courts. We are getting in the experts to advise on our options – but until that is fixed court 1 remains out of action.
Finally a reminder from me to look after our facilities please. If you are the last to leave, please shut all the gates to the courts, ensure floodlights are switched off, shut the hut and the pavilion and make sure all the internal lights are off too.
JUNIOR WINTER LEAGUE FIXTURES
We will need to enter our junior teams before the end of January. Tim will shortly be asking for parents and players to express an interest in playing in these matches next summer. There are leagues for all age groups from 8 & U up to 18 & U.
The 8 & U event is usually completed during a half-day at a central venue. And the team is typically a mixed boys & girls team. The 9 & U team is also mixed in some years, but not every year but usually involves both home and away fixtures – as do all the other older teams, which are always either boys, or girls but never mixed.
Typically the opponents will be from clubs inside the M25 (although there are a small number of clubs in places like Gravesend, but that is the most distant). Each team usually plays between 3-5 matches played during the 3 months from April to June. We rely on parents to help captain the teams and will be offering support and information to all our captains.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact Tim Skillicorn who coordinates all of this by email to tskillicorn@hotmail.com
ADULT SUMMER LEAGUE MATCHES
We are looking for a volunteer to captain our Men’s 2 team please. We have to provide a name shortly so if you are interested please let me know.
JAKE’S HOLIDAY CAMPS
Jake will be running his usual holiday camps for youngsters over the school Christmas holidays so the Midweek Over 60s session won’t take place for the next 2 weeks.
AMERICAN POINTS RACE – EPISODE 1
The first event in the 2022 Points race will take place on Saturday 15 January. John Goskie will be organising that so please watch out for the invitation to enter. That will come out very quickly after the New Year holidays – or you can sign up now by emailing jggoskie@gmail.com.
HANDICAP TOURNAMENT
Entry for this will open shortly after Christmas. It is a terrific way to shake off the rustiness after Christmas, and a great encouragement to get back out onto the courts. There are both singles and doubles event. For the doubles events, we ask you to enter as an individual and the organiser will draw the pairings at random. You don’t get to choose, in other words. It is a terrific way to meet new people and spread knowledge and experience around the club.
The emphasis here is much more on fun than winning – although try telling that to some of our serious players!!
KENT TENNIS AWARDS
The wonderful news is that Alex Burn has been shortlisted in the Volunteer of the Year category. The winner will be announced at the annual Awards Dinner on Saturday 5th March 2022. This takes place from 7.00pm, at the Tudor Park Marriott Hotel & Country Club in Bearsted, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 4NQ. I have asked for a table of 10 places for the club – the most I can secure. It is always a very nice evening when we celebrate tennis in Kent. In 2022, we will have a special guest in the form of the LTA President David Rawlinson and the LTA Deputy President (Sandi Proctor) will also be there as she is from Kent anyway.
Tickets are always snapped up so if anyone else is interested please let me know.
WIMBLEDON TICKETS
The Wimbledon Championships 2022 will mark 100 years of Centre Court at the All England Lawn Tennis Club on Church Road in Wimbledon. It’s also the first year that The Championships are scheduled to take place over 14 days, with the introduction of planned play on the Middle Sunday.
Over the last couple of years there have been significant changes to the way club members can gain access to tickets for Wimbledon. The days when the club had an allocation of tickets and held a club ballot have ended – all ballots take place centrally now, and all tickets are digital.
There are separate ballots for club members who are LTA Advantage members, another for coaches and one for venue volunteers.
Opt In for all the ballots will open early in the New Year through the LTA Advantage area of the LTA website.
The LTA Advantage Wimbledon ballot is a centralised ballot for Fan+, Play+ and Compete Advantage Members over the age of 11. As a member of our club you need to be one of those categories if you want to be able to opt-into a ballot when the time comes. So please check whether or not you are already an LTA Advantage member, and join if you need to. The Play+ option is FREE for members of our club.
A few non-Covid reminders:
1. If you cannot use a court you have booked, please cancel it. The courts are busy and it is really frustrating to see courts left empty when they are booked out. You can do this in the Manage Bookings section of ClubSpark which can be accessed via your booking confirmation email or via your Profile from the dropdown menu at the top right hand side of the screen or by clicking on My Bookings at the top of the booking sheet. We continue to monitor this and follow up where we find booked courts left empty.
2. Please drive carefully along Hayes Hill. There have been reports of speeding vehicles and we have no wish to see anyone hurt. Also, please do NOT drop children off and pick them up outside the club gates. Hayes Hill is a private road and the residents expect you to use the club’s car park which has lots of space. Please bring your gate entry fob to the club if you are driving.
3. Our 2022 Calendar of Tennis & Social events will shortly be on the website so please take a look and reserve the dates in your diary.
In the meantime, if you wish to raise an issue or get involved as a volunteer, please let me know by email to nigel@nigeljordan.com
SAFEGUARDING
I should like to remind parents that children should NOT be left unsupervised at the club unless they are at least 13 years old. And where a child of any age is playing in a league fixture I ask that parents pay particular attention to our safe travel policy – this is really important where the arrangements involve travel with others from outside your immediate family. Our policy can be found here
Lastly on this topic, just a reminder that our Welfare Officer is Judy Evans. If you have any concerns you wish to discuss confidentially, you can find more information, including her contact details, here: judyevansgb@yahoo.co.uk
As always, please let a member of the Committee know if there is anything you wish to raise. If you have recently joined the club and need information, or introductions, please ask. And remember, always stay safe, err on the side of caution and avoid this virus if you can.
Finally, I wish you all a very enjoyable time over the festive season. I hope you all stay safe and healthy so we can start 2022 with everyone getting out on court. It has been a demanding year – and I should like to thank you all for helping us get through it – as a team.
NIGEL JORDAN
CHAIRMAN
OWLTC
