BLTC Newsletter: Autumn 2011

Contents

Chairman's Report

The most significant development for the club in recent months has been the appointment of our new Head Coach, John Chidlow. This is the first newsletter since the new coaching programme began and so I would like to take this opportunity to formally welcome John to Bredon LTC.

John has certainly hit the ground running in the last couple of months and following the first initial sessions at the end of the school term he has been successful in re-establishing a summer coaching programme for juniors of all ages. It has been fantastic to see so many juniors taking part once again. Thank you John for all your efforts thus far and of course thank you to all the parents of the juniors for supporting the new coaching programme. In addition to junior coaching sessions, John would like to start adult coaching sessions during September. If you are interested in taking part please write your name on the sign-up sheet which is on the noticeboard in the club house. Alternatively, for further details, please contact John directly.

Alongside the promotion for the new coaching programme members of the committee have also been busy promoting the club in general. Flyers, posters and e-news reports have been distributed around the local area to raise awareness of Bredon LTC. Furthermore, Andy Gray, Linda Whittaker, David Curtis, Carolyn Perry, Malcolm Waters and John Chidlow represented the club on the open day of the new playing fields last month where many children and parents were keen to join in and have a game throughout the day. I am pleased to report the club has gained 28 new members (including adults and juniors), most recently. Our last newsletter included a plea for volunteers to help with the staining of the woodwork around the windows of the pavilion– thank you to Bob for sorting this out for us. Also, thank you to the team of gardeners who endeavoured to cut back the overgrowth of trees at the back of the pavilion. All efforts to support the running of the club are much appreciated.

As always if you have any suggestions on how you would like to see your tennis club develop, please feel free to contact me.

Team Reports

Ladies' summer league

The summer season this year was a complete change around to last year with the A team coming second in a very close fought league division 3b meaning that they have gained promotion back to division 2 after their relegation last year. The matches for the A team were played this year with mainly just 4 players, Nila More, Caroline Hodge, Carole Bankes and Carol Smith with three others, Jackie Woodward, Polly Christian and Lauren Brice each playing just one match for them. I believe that Nila and Caroline when playing together dropped just one rubber so congratulations to them and well played to all the team. It was interesting on the calls of "O Carol you fool" (and sometimes much worse!!) no one really knew who was getting told off with three Carols in the team.

Unfortunately the B team did not fare so well this year finishing bottom in their division 3a. This was partly due to several injuries in the team. We also had several new people playing in the “B” team and it takes time to get used to playing competitive matches against unknown players and so hopefully with these new players and those accustomed players we will be able to hold our own next year in div 4 and who knows might even gain promotion again like the A team did this year.

Well done to all those who gave their time to playing the matches for the B team there were a number of long distances to travel this year which made getting a team sometimes difficult. Please don't be despondent with the results just come back more determined next year.

The summer season has no sooner finished than we will be starting the mixed winter league. We have again got two teams playing mixed floodlit tennis. Please check the list that will be on the notice board to see if there are matches on during the winter if you are thinking of arranging a friendly most of the home winter league matches will be played on a Tuesday evening.

We have also entered a ladies' daytime league again, playing indoors at Pershore College. Matches are once a month on Tuesday mornings. For more information contact Barbara Stevens.

My thanks to all those who played in the summer leagues. Please contact Carol Smith or Andy Gray if you wish to play in the mixed floodlit teams.

Winter Floodlit Leagues

This winter will see two mixed teams compete in the Gloucestershire Floodlit league, together with a Men's doubles team in the East Glos Winter Floodlit League.

Junior League Tennis

Please look out for details from John about junior league tennis for next year.

Men's A Team

The A Team had possibly their best season in Division 2 finishing in 4th place. Seven men played in total and everyone made a valuable contribution to the points total.

Next year we're hoping to raise the level again and reach Division 1 this time next year.

Men's B team

Gloucester Wilson summer league Division 4A

After relegation last season it was important for the B team to steady the ship this year. An enjoyable, close and competitive season ended with the B team finishing mid table on 24 points. In a season where there was not much in skill level between any of the teams in the division its rather unsurprising that the average result for us was a 2-2 draw — 7 of our 12 matches finishing with this result. A difficult first match of the season against the eventual league winners Esporta B looked ominous — but revenge at home (a 3-1 win) along with home wins against Taynton & Tibberton and Phoenix Walking Sticks helped steer us away from trouble. Many thanks to all who played this season: Christopher Richardson, David Curtis, Malcolm Waters, Martin Sime, Ron Loxley, Tim Troughton and myself. It was especially good to see Christopher join the team this season having come through the coaching sessions, attending social sessions and now playing team tennis and I'm sure he has a long future in the game.

Mens team practice continues on Saturday mornings (8:30–10:30am) throughout the year and we always welcome any new additions to strengthen the teams and enjoy a morning of competitive tennis.

After a season of transition I feel confident next season will see us on an upward curve and pushing for promotion.

Coaching

Let me introduce myself again for those that don't know me already. My name is John Chidlow and I am pleased to have been appointed the new Head Tennis Coach at Bredon Tennis Club. I first started in July by organising a 3 week taster session which gave the junior's that have previously attended coaching to get on the court once again and was very pleased with the support I had, and may this continue.

From the first day at Bredon I have organised Tennis Summer Camps which are open to everyone — trying to introduce more children to the game, I decided to hold two Camps per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays) these have been a huge success so I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that has and will be attending, I hope they have been enjoyed by all so far.

Going forward into September I have organised a Tennis Coaching Programme which includes extra sessions on both Monday's and Friday's for the juniors together with the introduction of some Adult Coaching (both daytime and evening)

This can all be viewed at: http://www.bredon-tennis.org.uk/coaching/

Social Tennis

Social sessions are held on Wednesday and Sunday mornings, Monday and Thursday evenings and Friday afternoons all the year round.

There is a charge of 50p to cover the cost of balls. Floodlights will be free in September and from October the charge at the two evening sessions will be £1 to include floodlights, which can be switched on without the use of tokens.

Daytime sessions during the week haven't been well-supported, so please come along if you are free. You will be very welcome and you don't need a partner.

No one has been playing on Monday evenings for some time, so it has been suggested that Cardio Tennis might be more popular in the New Year. Contact John if you would be interested, or for more information.

Club Tournament

The club tournament will be run from mid November to March, and along the same lines as last year. It will be open to all members who are able to play 3-set matches. This means that juniors can join in the singles and also partner up with a friend or parent in the doubles.

If numbers allow, the tournaments will be a knock-out format with the team players being entered in the later rounds. The losers in the first round will be put through to a plate tournament which will also be in a knock-out format. This should ensure that everyone gets to play at least two matches.

To enable this to happen it is important to get a good number of entries, so please try to enter if you can. The finals will be played on one day, Saturday 10th March, followed by a 'bring and share' tea at about 4.30pm. All finals must be played on this date, and if finalists aren't available their places will be taken by the lucky losers of their previous matches.

Please complete an entry form which can be downloaded and return it with the entrance fee as soon as possible.

2010/2011 Tournament Winners:

Social Events

Quiz Night: Friday 18th November

This annual event will take place at Bredon Bowling Club, 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The bar will be available and contributions will be welcome for a 'bring and share' supper. There will also be a raffle, so please donate a prize even if you can't come. Teams of 4, £10 per team to enter. Come along and join in the fun.

Mulled Wine and Mince Pies: Saturday 17th December

Get into the festive spirit with a morning of mulled wine mince pies and mixed doubles. Please come along from 9.30.

British Tennis

Membership of British Tennis is free and the club's allocation of Wimbledon tickets is determined by the number of members over 9 years who join. The closing date for membership numbers to be counted towards our allocation is 1st November, so if you haven't registered you can either pick up a form in the pavilion or you can do it on-line at http://www.lta.uk/membership.

© BLTC, 2011.