Elliswick LTC Newsletter – June 2024

Welcome to our June Newsletter. What a month it has been!  We were blessed with some fine weather for both the Club’s Centenary Celebration and Finals Day, which were both very well attended and hugely successful. Thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers, who helped to make both days run so smoothly.

ANNUAL TOURNAMENT- FINALS DAY 22ND JUNE 2024 RESULTS

Congratulations to the 2024 Club Tournament winners and well done to the Runners Up:

Mens Doubles: Ben Wood & Andy Bonnington; Runners up: Mark Behan & Guillaume Nicolas

Ladies Doubles: Sue Cove and Kate Curson; Runners up: Amy Martin & Maki Watanabe-Genoud

Mens Singles: Ben Wood; Runner up: Dan Watkinson

Ladies Singles: Maki Watanabe-Genoud; Runner up: Emma Hall

Mixed Doubles: Ben Wood & Kate Curson; Runners up: Cameron Burnett & Amy Martin

2025 ANNUAL TOURNAMENT FINALS DAY

Please put the following dates in your diary:

2025 Finals Day – Saturday 21st June 2025 with Reserve date on Sunday 22nd June 2025.

CHANGE TO TUESDAY MORNING SOCIAL TENNIS – 9AM TO 11AM

Due to a lack of attendance at our traditional ladies mornings, it was decided to open up the Tuesday morning mix-in session to all adults, effective from this Tuesday 2nd July 2024. Thus, we will now have both Tuesday and Thursday morning mixed-gender mix-ins from 9am-11am. Social tennis is the backbone of our club, with players of all abilities mixing in with other members in open play.

LOST PROPERTY BOXES

Please look through the lost property boxes (clothing, racquets, water bottles) in the clubhouse as the boxes will be emptied at the end of next week and the contents given to a local charity.

GROUNDS AND MAINTENANCE UPDATES

  1. A portable ramp has been purchased for wheelchair access to the clubhouse. Brackets will be fixed to the wall just inside the entrance door, to store the ramp and safety warning signs. If using the ramp, please display the warning signs (affix them to either side of the ramp using the velcro strips). After use, please place the ramp and signs back in the brackets.
  2. The club’s insurance policy requires us to securely close and lock the windows when locking up the clubhouse. Some additional window locking keys (2.5mm allen keys) have been purchased and will be hung on hooks by the windows. The windows are locked by using the key to turn the recessed grub screw in the latch of the opening windows. Please check that the windows are closed and the locking screw engaged if you are the last person leaving the club.

TEAM TENNIS

Men’s Teams

The men’s teams have started competing in their respective summer leagues. In the Hot Rackets we have several older juniors/intermediates representing the club, which is great to see; some are playing in the Herts League fixtures too. Good luck for the rest of your matches gents.

Ladies Team

Ladies summer league matches are in full swing and will continue to the end of September. If any ladies want to be included in team, please reach out to [email protected]

Wednesday night ladies’ socials are proving very popular.  These are kindly arranged by Victoria Aitchison via a WhatsApp group. If you wish to be included, please email [email protected]  with your contact details.

The Ladies Friendlies are being enjoyed thanks to Lynn Frankling’s organisation.

Mixed Team

Our four teams are all enjoying some great Monday night tennis in the Datchworth league, with three of those teams sitting near the top of their divisions. Spectators always welcome to come and enjoy a drink in the sun – there will always be two home matches every Monday, starting at 6.30pm.

Looking ahead towards late summer, the Autumn Datchworth matches start in September. We are looking to enter 4 teams in that league, as well as 6 teams for the East Herts Winter Mixed league.

The Mid-Herts Mixed League (Mixed Friendlies) have now come to an end.  All players really enjoyed playing in this league.  If anyone wishes to play in this league next summer, please do not hesitate to contact Andree Haxton at [email protected]

JUNIORS

Well done to all Juniors who have played and are still playing in the summer leagues. Thanks to all parents who have organised the teams.

The last junior night is on Friday 19th July.  There will be no junior nights during the summer holiday. However, courts are booked for all of our juniors to just turn up and play from 3:30pm, without coaches’ supervision. The Junior nights will restart on Friday the 6th September. The tuck shop is open, offering hot dogs, pizzas and sweet snacks. The bar is also open for adults.

JUNIOR TOURNAMENT – SUNDAY 15TH SEPTEMBER 2024

The Tournament is open to all Junior members ages 8 and under up to 16 years old. The reserve date (in case of bad weather) is Sunday 22nd September.  This event will only be going ahead if we have enough parents volunteering to run the event on the day. Please get in touch with our Junior Secretary, Marc Stacey, at [email protected] if you are willing to volunteer in organising this event.

Please sign up before the deadline of 1st September 2024 as we need time to organise the event and matches.  The sign-up sheets are on the Junior board in the clubhouse.

Matches will be played both in the morning and in the afternoon. All players must therefore be available to play their matches in both the morning and the afternoon, otherwise they may default the title. Players wishing to play in the tournament must ensure they are available to play on both days (the 15th and/or the 22nd of September 2024).

Of course, the bar will be open, and BBQ with salad and afternoon tea will be available on the day.

CLUB SOCIALS

It has been a very busy month at our club in June as stated above. Please put the following dates in your diary:

JULY:

AUGUST:

We are still looking for a member to cook for our supper night in August.  Please contact Jane if you wish to cook for our hungry members on Thursday the 15th August.

If you have any queries regarding any of the social events, please contact our Social Secretary, Jane Bisseker at [email protected].

COACHING

Holidays camps are available this summer. To book and see full details please select here

Our Autumn term bookings open on the 15th July for people not on the course this summer. You can see the options we have available this Autumn and can add your name to the waiting list here

For more information, please contact our Head Coach Ben Wood at [email protected] or by mobile 07817 203230 for more information.

Today, Ben Wood undertook a challenge for charity by playing 5 sets at 5 venues and cycling between venues. Ben took on some of the local head coaches, club champions and also a former professional who reached a ranking of 215 in the world, before heading over to in St Albans then onto Green Park to finish off, completing 5 sets and half a marathon.

Ben is raising money for MIND, a mental health charity, as he believe it is something very important in today’s world and is a service he used himself in the past. Ben has shared his own experiences around mental health as well to hopefully help others as well. Link to the just giving page here

SUGGESTIONS

Please do not hesitate to email [email protected] with any suggestions you may have. Thank you for your continued support.

 

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.