Elliswick LTC Newsletter – October 2023
Dear Members,
Welcome to our October Newsletter. With the summer months drawing to a close, the cold weather in the air, and our electricity tariff still very high, we ask you politely to keep the windows and doors closed at the clubhouse to keep the room warm, as the underfloor heating has been turned on.
AGM – 2nd December 2023 at 10:30am
Preparation work for the club’s AGM is well underway. Papers for the AGM including the review of the year, accounts and details of proposed changes to Board members will be issued on or before the 17th November. If you have any special business matters that you would like discussed at the AGM, please email Andree Haxton at [email protected] no later than 27th November 2023. Please do try to attend this important meeting and support your club. If you cannot attend, it is very important to the club to get as many proxies as possible before the AGM so as to achieve a quorum. If you are not able to attend in person, please do appoint a proxy to ensure that we have a quorum. You can nominate your choice of proxy (which can be the Chairman) in an email to [email protected].
CLUB CENTENARY – 8th JUNE 2024
Please put the above date in your diary. You are invited to attend a day of fun at Elliswick LTC to celebrate our centenary. We have planned various events to mark this significant achievement. More details to follow.
ELLISWICK CLOSED CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS 2024
Elliswick Closed Club Championships 2024 will be held on Saturday 22nd June 2024 with the back up day being 23rd June 2024. Please put these dates in your diary.
FLOODLIGHTS PLANNING APPLICATION – PLEASE SUPPORT US
Our application has now been validated and we have been asked to display the notice at the club which is clearly visible. This gives all the details of how members can send in letters of support. To view plans and application forms and submit your comments see our website at: https://stalbans.gov.uk/view-and-track-planning-applications . All written comments must reach the Authority by 11/11/2023 quoting reference 5/2023/2005. The more we can get, the better for the application. If we can get half the members to write in, particularly those that live nearby, then that will be advantageous.
JOIN THE COMMITTEE
Two positions have arisen to join the committee as a Mixed Team Captain and as a Junior Secretary. If you are interested in any of these positions, please do not hesitate to contact Andree Haxton at [email protected].
GROUNDS & CLUBHOUSE
- The Winner boards in the clubhouse have been updated with the names of this year’s winners.
- Two new floodlight faults have developed since the Abacus annual maintenance visit on 3 October. Abacus will return on Monday 30 October to rectify the faults. Two out of courts 4 to 7 will be unavailable at various times during that day, starting with courts 6 & 7 being unavailable in the morning.
- On Tuesday 31 October, between 12 noon and 16:00 hrs, Affinity Water will be rebuilding the water stopcock pit at the east end of the car park and installing a meter. Please keep the 4 parking spaces at the east end of the car park clear for Affinity during the afternoon. The water supply will be shut off for up to 1 hour at some point during the afternoon.
- The installation of the solar PV and storage battery system will be undertaken by Deeks Electrical during the 2-week period commencing Monday 30 October. Scaffolding will be erected round 3 sides of the clubhouse on the Monday morning, following which the roofer will be fitting solar panels from Tuesday 31 to Tuesday 7 November. Other electrical works, including installation of the inverter and batteries (inside the storeroom adjacent to the bar), will take place at the same time. The installation is due to be completed by Friday 10 November. PLEASE NOTE: The rear car park will be used by Deeks and their subcontractors, and therefore closed to club members during this period. We apologise for any inconvenience caused during this work.
- The thermostats for the underfloor heating in the clubhouse have been set and locked. Please do not try to adjust them, also please don’t leave any of the outside doors open. If additional heating is required, there are 4 wall mounted heaters that can be used.
- A Vax carpet cleaner has been purchased and used to remove stains and unsightly marks on the carpet – please help our committee and other volunteer members to keep the carpet clean by not bringing mud and other dirt into the clubhouse!
MEMBERSHIP (IMPORTANT CHANGE)
We will shortly be changing our online membership system from Membermeister to Clubspark. Many members already have a Clubspark account for booking courts. Members over 13 who do not have a Clubspark account need to create one and will be sent a link to do this in the next few weeks.
Your membership renewal notice will come from Clubspark and NOT Membermeister and will be sent to the email address associated with your Clubspark account.
If you have any queries regarding membership, please contact our Membership Secretary, Sally Radcliffe by emailing her at [email protected].
TEAM TENNIS
LADIES TEAM
Winter vets matches are all underway. Captains have reached out to their respective team for scheduled matches. Good luck ladies through the colder months. Ladies mornings: continues to run throughout the Winter months on Tuesdays from 9am. Ladies nights: no longer running until Spring 2024.
Ladies Christmas Lunch: all lady members are invited to the ladies Christmas lunch on Tuesday 5th December from 12pm. For any newcomers this is a bring and share lunch, any proceeds go to a local charity. The sign-up sheet will go on the notice board at the beginning of November.
MEN’S TEAM
After the success in the Summer Herts League this year, when our Mens 1st team promoted into the ‘Championship’ division, for the first time, we entered 1 team into the Herts National Winter League, captained by Rupert Tillbrooke.
The winter vets matches have now been organised by captains in each age group category.
Summer Herts League Report:
1st Team: Top position in Division 1A – Rupert Tillbrooke
2nd Team: 3rd position in Division 2B – Rob Gardiner
3rd Team: 7th position in Division 3A – Tony Ward
4th Team: 6th position in Division 3B – Jem Collier-Garrity
5th Team: 6th position in Division 4B – David Kendall
Summer Hot Rackets Report:
1st Team: 3rd position in Division 2B – Paul Hunt and our 2nd Team: 3rd position in Division 5A – David Pankhurst
MIXED TEAM TENNIS
The Autumn Datchworth is now drawing to an end. The teams have done exceptionally well with the 1st team currently second in the top division, just behind the perennial winners, Welwyn 1. The 2nd, 3rd and 4th teams have all secured promotion from their respective leagues. The 4th team will finish top of their league and the 2nd and 3rd teams are still in the mix for finishing top depending on the final round of matches in early November. Many thanks to all the Captains (Amy Martin, Steph Loughrey and Jem Collier-Garrity) for sorting out teams for this weekly tournament. The latest league positions may be found via the following link http://www.datchworth.net/images/Summary_A.htm
The Winter Mixed competition is also about to start with Captains finalising their fixtures through to April 2024. Team Captains (Kate Curson, Rob Gardiner, Tony Ward, Steve Hall, Rachel Hoddinott and David Kendall) will be asking their respective squads for availability for the 5 or 6 matches each team plays. If you’re not already in a squad and would like to play please let Tony Ward know via [email protected].
SOCIALS
The quiz night was a great success, thank you to our genius Quiz Mistress Carol Arnsby for making the evening so enjoyable and well done to the winning teams. October also saw a large group from Elliswick enjoy a fantastic night out at the Eric Morecambe Theatre watching 9-5. There will be more theatre trips next year so keep an eye on the newsletter for more details.
COMING UP EVENTS:
- Jazz Night with Lulu and the Hullabaloos : Saturday 11th November. Bar open at 7.30pm, prompt start at 8pm. Click on the link below to sign up or e-mail our Social Secretary, Jane Bisseker at [email protected] to request tickets.
https://forms.gle/GpTngB3E38Txm9Tf9
We will be filming this event for our centenary video clip. It would be great to see as many members as possible to support this event.
- Pub Night out on Thursday 23 November 7.30pm at The Old Cock Inn on the High Street in Harpenden.
- Christmas Charity Music and Magic Evening with Tim Sutton and Upbeat Choir, Sunday 10thDecember, 6.30-8pm at Elliswick LTC, Browning Road, AL5 4TP
Mulled Wine and Mince Pies. Free entry, with a retiring collection/donations in aid of Future Academy (future-academy.net) creating hope and opportunity for the world’s forgotten children
Please follow the link below to reserve your tickets for this event.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJTMivZgNcFLnkyKaMuzZQVnMiUwAEVMEt-5B7ZV2DfwQ8Cg/viewform
- Festive Christmas Jazz with Dave Pankhurst & The Gang on Thursday 14th More details to follow.
JUNIORS
Friday Junior Nights
One of our members, Marc Stacey has kindly offered to set up a WhatsApp Group for the parents of those juniors who wish to continue to play on a Friday afternoon/evening. Please use the link below if you wish to join.
https://chat.whatsapp.com/KhPT1Vn5ujcCmBZ4BisbAf
Juniors League Tournaments
Autumn and Winter leagues are now being played. Thank you to all the captains for their time and effort in arranging all the matches.
OUR COACHES
Two of our coaches Ben and Rupert and two other Elliswicks members undertook the climb up Ben Nevis recently to raise money for Mind, a charity to help with mental health. To read about the charity and Ben’s reasons that he has chosen this charity or to make any kind of donation to this charity that helps so many people the link is here. To see some of the pictures from Ben Nevis please have a look at our Facebook page here . Thank you again to all the support so far this year.
Kind Regards
Elliswick LTC Committee
PS, Don’t forget to keep up to date with events at our website http://www.elliswickltc.co.uk and follow our Facebook page as well.