Bishop Sutton Tennis Club Newsletter – October 2018
As I look out of the window it seems difficult to recall the incredible dry and hot summer we enjoyed - what a summer! This note is a general update on club matters, including the development of the Chew Valley School (CVS) tennis courts. There will be a follow on note within the next week or so as we outline the exciting prospect for members of how they can book the CVS courts as well as BSTC courts.
Chew Valley School Courts (CVS) Update
First I would like to thank the committee and in particular Keith Beeton and Mark Taber for the considerable effort expended in progressing the development of the Chew Valley School courts. If you recall the key drivers were to provide further court capacity so removing the pressure on the BSTC courts, provide a better quality community resource, and importantly provide the school and the satellite primary schools (a total pupil population of circa 2000 pupils) the opportunity to experience tennis on some decent courts. It is hoped that the provision of some quality tennis facilities will lead to an increased participation in tennis and ultimately membership of BSTC.
The courts have been cleaned, repainted and new nets and posts installed. We have started to run some coaching at CVS, and the school has with Mike Kopacki’s help, been running some taster sessions and an after school club. Mark Taber has also used the increased capacity to run a very successful LTA accredited junior tournament at the end of September.
The committee are working hard now to get the planning through for the new floodlights and to set up the various legal agreements with the school which will enable us to place the order for the floodlighting. We have unfortunately missed the autumn half term window and are currently looking at Christmas holidays or the February 2019 half term.
I expect to be writing within the next week or so to explain the arrangements in relation to opening the booking of the CVS courts to members, and some changes on the use of the BSTC courts.
Any queries or questions in the meantime on the CVS development and the impact on BSTC please feel free to drop me a line at tonkin.dj@gmail.com or 01275 332885.
Winter League
There have been a few delays from Avon LTA in providing the details for both the Junior and Adult winter leagues matches this year. This has caused some disruption, so many apologies to those impacted as we try and get everything in place.
The first adult matches start on 21st October 2018 and we are running three mixed teams this year - one senior team (players over 40 years) and two other adult teams for both promising juniors and all adults. If you are interested in playing please let Lyn Jones (florincottage@gmail.com or 07967 597408)
or David Tonkin (dtonkin@gmail.com or 01275 332885) know.
On the junior winter leagues we are running 10 teams and the matches have already started. If you have not heard about this already and would like your child to play in these leagues covering red, orange and yellow ball then please let Mike Kopacki know (mikekopacki@hotmail.com or 07772 617384)
Club Tournament and Finals Day
Once again we were blessed with the weather and it was great to see so many people down watching the tennis and enjoying meeting up with friends. It really did show the club off in its best light with the newly decorated clubhouse looking splendid.
The tennis winners were :
Ladies Singles : Sara English
Men’s Singles : Nathan Hawkins
Men’s Doubles: David Tonkin and John Goulding
Ladies Doubles: Angela Soper and Dawn Booth
Mixed Doubles: Andrew Harding and Angela Soper
Boys Singles : Ben Phillips
Girls Singles : Olivia Nobbs
Girls Doubles: Katie Charter and Amy Robinson
Boys Doubles : Mathew Finn and James Perry
Under 12 Boys Singles : Jasper Pover
Orange Ball: Alfie Hatcliff
Red Ball: Ben Brown
Green Ball: William Peacock
The Girls doubles was a marathon with a 6:4 4:6 12:10 win for Katie and Amy.
There were also awards presented for the Most Improved Junior - Lotte Grech, and the Club-person Award for the most helpful junior was Belle Pover.
Well done all.
It was a great shame that Anne Collier had to retire hurt in the ladies doubles final, and we hope she is back to full strength soon, we hear she is already plotting next year’s return to Final’s Day!
The usual array of excellent cakes and tasty BBQ food was provided, so many thanks to all the helpers on the day.
BSTC Courts
As well as planning CVS upgrade Keith has also been busy getting our courts up to scratch. You will have seen that court 3 and 5 have been deep cleaned and repainted. Plus court 4 has now been redone with the same artificial grass surface as court 1 and 2. To answer a much posed question – why didn’t we change court 3 to artificial grass? The reason is that Court 3 (and court 5) was not due for anything other than a clean and repaint which is a lot cheaper than resurfacing.
Clubhouse
Thanks to everyone for being vigilant around the clubhouse, especially the coaching team which has helped keep the club house in a reasonable state and hasn’t seen the reoccurrence of malicious damage.
Dates for Diary:
Formal opening of CVS Courts – TBA
Quiz Night - Friday 7th December
Summer Barn Dance - Saturday 29th June 2019
Cheers
David Tonkin
Chairman BSTC