As you know the committee has been investigating possible LED Floodlight companies and have gathered a range of quotes and specifications for various ideas. And even entered a competition for free floodlights.

Back in July 2022, we had our first LED Floodlights fitted. These were installed by ORBS. Our club captain, Kevin worked hard and find the best quotes for the type of LED lights required for our courts while taking into consideration the clubs location. A huge thanks goes to Kevin for all his hard work and commitment to this club. These lights have greatly improved court 3 availability and have extended play times for all members.

Moving forward to court 2. Our Welfare Office, Andy entered a competition with JHP. The competition was for free LED lights for a court/pitch etc and their installation. When Andy entered this competition we didn’t expect to win but, guess what…. we WON! This was a amazing surprise and opportunity for our club. We are grateful that JHP were providing such an expensive but much appreciated competition. The installation of court 2 LED floodlights was in August 2022.

We hope all members enjoy the use of our new LED floodlights. We hope to have court 1 converted in due course as well.

We introduced club morning (Rusty Rackets) a couple of months ago on a Wednesday morning between 10am until 12noon. This was a great trial to get players to join the club and enjoy playing tennis.

Unfortunately, this trial has now finished. The last session will be on Wednesday 15th June 2022. The committee will discuss in their next meeting whether to continue these sessions.

Thank you

The men’s singles ladder was created in lockdown for some friendly competition.

In 2021, 77 matches where played in total from July 1st 2021, so not a bad effort from all involved. In the final was Les Swaby and Craig Lock . Les beat Craig 6-1 6-2.  The match was a good watch and Craig gave his all but Les’s experience and technical ability saw him lift the Wythall’s Men’s Singles Ladder trophy for 2021! 

Hopefully with a few tweaks to the format we go again in March 2022.

The Knockout Rounds:

---

Ladder Rules:

1. As it’s friendly competition the core aim is to first and foremost play as much tennis as possible, keeping fit and healthy. But this time your goal is to avoid the bottom 3, and again trying to finish as high as possible. Qualifying for the last 16, making it through the knockout stages and all the way to the final to be crowned champion!

2. Exactly the same as last season every match is to be the best of 3 sets. For example : If you win 2.0 in sets, you win the match. If it’s 1.1 in sets it will be decided by an extended tiebreak (first to 10 points… to win by a clear 2 point margin). 

3. Also the same as last season you’re allowed to challenge anyone 1, 2 or 3 places above yourself. You cannot challenge below.

4. If the challenger wins he will move up and swap places with the loser. If the challenger loses, the positions will remain the same (as last season).

5. The ladder will be updated in order of results coming in.

We hope you will be renewing with us for another year or maybe joining us for the first time. We aim to be a friendly and inclusive club, encouraging people of all ages and levels of experience to have the opportunity to play and enjoy tennis. Whether you are a full member, a junior or someone who can only play occasionally, this is your club. You will be able to find plenty of opportunity to improve your game, keep fit and enjoy the experience.

We look forward to enjoying fine weather and plenty tennis with you this year.

Our Membership Renewal Form:

At our AGM, we have decided to create a new club social session.

Introducing to you… club morning (Rusty Rackets)! Every Wednesday 10am until 12noon.

This social is perfect for:

🎾Members who would like a gentle hit

🎾Members who play a slower, but still competitive game

🎾New members to help engage and make new friends

🎾New tennis players/players who are re-discovering the love of tennis

Please note, this is a 3 month trial and will be reviewed by the committee. This new session has the same rules as any club afternoon/night. This session is already booked for you on the online court booking sheet.

The eagle-eyed members would have noticed that court 4 has been available to book during club hours and coaching. This is no mistake, your not seeing things!

We decided to have a trial period of court 4 being open for both off-peak and full members to book.

Our aim with this initiative was to be fair to all members. To allow off-peak members the chance to book a court during club times in-turn this will help different members mix and socialise together. We know it can be daunting for new members to find other members to play with and we hope this will help. We wanted to make sure that all members can book a court if needed and that there is one free court available to do this.

So from this successful trial period we have decided to continue with this court 4 initiative. This means we can offer at least one court (court 4 only) for both off-peak and full members to book during weekdays and weekends.

Please note: Saturday Pay & Play will still have all 4 courts as this session is open to members and non-members and numbers can vary week on week. Also Sunday afternoons will still have 4 courts due to being a popular club session.

Happy Playing…

The following is the procedure for parking at Wythall Park from Monday 23rd November 2020. All details can be found on the signage in the car park or via their website here.

The system is pay on entry using ANPR (Automatic Number Plate Recognition).

On entry to the car park, the vehicle entry will be recorded by the ANPR camera. There will be a grace period of 15 minutes, between entry and exit points, to allow for taxi and parent/child drop off. Also to allow the driver time to park and purchase the required ticket.

To purchase the ticket at the machine, enter your vehicle registration number, or part of, until your number plate shows on the screen. You then follow the instructions on-screen. (This is not pay and display and no windscreen ticket is issued).

For full information on charges and procedures please visit WCA Website here…

Bookings are managed through the LTA’s ClubSpark System. Please note that online court bookings are available for members only at Wythall Tennis Club. Courts for organised club play, matches, tournaments and group coaching are booked for you. For other times, it is advisable to book a court for your own use.

To enable the booking system to work in a way that is fair to all members, we have set some guidelines.

Please note the following:

• Maximum length of a booking is 2 hours
• Maximum of 7 bookings per a 14 day period
• You may book up to 2 months in advance
• If no longer required, please cancel booking
• Please book yourself a court and not via a committee member

These rules can be revised as we learn court usage.

Please note if seen taking advantage of the online booking system or repeated failure to not cancel unwanted booked courts can result in exclusion from the system. Additionally, please note the system is set up for self-service so you don’t need to ask a committee member or Kevin Turner to do so. We hope the online booking system will make it easier and quicker for you to book a court.

Any problems while booking courts please see our a step-by-step guide. If still having difficulties or would like to suggest any amendments regarding guidelines please email: wythalltennisclub@gmail.com and a committee member will respond shorty.

WTC Committee

The past year has been a strange and difficult one in many ways and we are very conscious of the loss that many people have experienced as the Covid virus claimed lives and affected people’s health and wellbeing. There were periods when the restrictions allowed us to play some tennis, which brought welcome opportunity for outdoor activity, but there were several months when the courts had to be closed altogether, including the first three months of 2021. At the time of writing this we anticipate being able to play again from 29 March and are hopeful that the courts will be able to stay open thereafter.

We usually send out membership renewal requests in early February, asking for subscriptions from 1 March. We delayed doing so this year because of Covid restrictions and we anticipate issuing it in late March with the request for subscriptions to be paid by 1 May. Recognising the problems of the last 12 months, we are asking those who were members last year to pay only 75% of the membership fee. Most of the club’s costs are payable regardless of how much playing time there is, so we have to get the right balance between being fair to members and keeping our finances in good shape. We appreciate some members have said they are happy to pay the full membership fee regardless and you are free to do that if you wish but there is no obligation.

We expect to resume the normal timetable of membership renewal each 1 March next year, so effectively this year’s payment covers the period 1 March 2021 to 28 February 2022.  Any new members during this year will pay the full annual membership fee as normal, with discounts applying if they only join half way through the year.

We are introducing an online booking system this year and details of how to use it are on the website under ‘Court Bookings’.  Thank you to Grace Turner for her work in setting this up. There are bound to be teething problems as we all get used to this new arrangement but we believe it will allow easier booking going forward and would encourage you to try it out.

The WTC Committee

Dear members,

We remain in full lockdown as far as tennis is concerned. The current expectation is that on 22 February the Government will set out its plan for how the lockdown will be eased but the timetable is likely to be uncertain. While we remain in this situation it does not seem right to ask you to renew your membership from 1 March as we normally do. Instead we will defer the membership renewal until we know when we can start playing again.

Most of our Club’s costs remain payable during lockdown and we really appreciate the continued financial support of our members. But we do want to find the right balance when it comes to this year’s renewal so once we know when play can resume we’ll look at the annual renewal costs and let you know the position.

One other thing to mention is that when we do start back we plan to trial an online booking system. More details to come but we hope this will be a helpful development once we get used to it.

We look forward to getting back to tennis soon but in the meantime stay safe and take care.

The WTC Committee