Welcome to the new season and as I write this the finishing touches are being made to our enlarged and improved members lounge, which has created a really great space. The island kitchen area will be a particular benefit to use when serving food after league and other matches and will allow us a good view of the tennis courts.
At our AGM we elected our officers for the year. The Committee stays largely the same with myself as Chair, Sue Marcroft as secretary, Gill Boyle as membership secretary, Paul Jepson our head coach, John Bentley and Keith Garton. Ben Sinnott
has stepped down from the Committee after several years of service. We will miss his insightful and intelligent comments at meetings and we look forward to seeing him back on court after his long standing injuries – the first team will benefit from those great forehands.
In his place we are delighted to welcome Joanne O’Hanlon who has been providing sterling service behind the scenes with the junior coaching programme and as junior tennis captain, so welcome on board Joanne.
Ground works
We arranged for the hardcourts to be cleaned at the end of the last year and we should reap the benefits of this work over the forthcoming season as the hard courts come back into full use. There are likely to be a few more jobs to do before the new season starts and will be having a working party on Sunday 12th April starting at 10.30am – so please come down and help.
Wimbledon Tickets
This year the LTA are introducing some further changes to the way that the Wimbledon tickets are distributed. Anyone wishing to be eligible for Wimbledon tickets in the Club ballot now needs to opt in by logging onto the LTA website.
As well as being an administrative burden it is also likely to result in fewer tickets for Clubs in the North of the Country. Everyone opting in to the ballot will be placed in the Club ballot and those attending the AGM or volunteering in some way will have additional place in the ballot that will be held on 14th April around 8.45pm.
One final note from me is to thank everyone for their kind messages during my recent spell in hospital – I was saved from hospital boredom by a continual stream of on-line banter – so thanks again.
Alan Millington
