Tennis ANNUAL REPORT 2017

President’s Report

At the 2018 AGM I will have completed my 3 year term of office as President of Tennis Wales. I was both surprised and honoured to be asked to take on the role in 2015. Being President gave me the opportunity to support our Welsh teams and players at the Annual Home Nations events and at the Welsh Championships. It also included being on the judging panel, prior to the Annual Awards evening, which was one of the most challenging roles, as the nominees are all so good. In my first year our Welsh Juniors won the Tri Nations for the first time in many years in Glasgow and also that year our Ladies Over 35s team won their age group in the Four Nations in Bolton.

In subsequent years all the events in the Home Nations have been exciting and close with several age groups achieving victories and at all times a pleasure to watch. Attending these events over the three year period had made me realize how many excellent players Wales have produced and are still producing, what a brilliant and determined team spirit we have in Wales and what great coaches we have supporting our players. These things along with our dedicated staff are so important to achieve success and satisfaction in a sport we all love and enjoy. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time in Office and will continue to support Tennis in Wales in as many areas as I can. I hope our new President enjoys the role as much as I have.

Pam Alford

Chair’s Report

During 2017 the Board started to develop a new Vision, Mission and Strategy for Tennis Wales, which will form the basis for our work for the next five or so years and will underpin our funding applications in 2018. Consultation processes with the counties and clubs will follow later in the year. The Board has continued to ensure that the strategy for the company meets the changing requirements of our funders at the LTA and . With the change of emphasis to participation, community development and health benefits, the staff have made operational changes to cater for these new opportunities.

We have also taken time to ensure that the company’s governance processes are fit for purpose and as part of this we have considered succession planning. During the year we advertised for an independent Chair to take office after the 2018 AGM. Following a good response and interviews with some excellent candidates, Barry Cawte was selected for the position, subject to AGM approval. Barry will bring a different approach and much enthusiasm to the role based upon his professional experiences at Swansea TC and with a large national sports facility provider.

Sadly, we lost Alastair McNab during the year. Alastair provided very calm and thoughtful advice to the Board and staff and was a driving force of tennis, chairing the North Wales committee. He will be sorely missed by the tennis community throughout Wales. In addition Debbie King, who had been a valued Board member for many years, resigned during the year.

We must give thanks to our dedicated and adaptable staff team who have met many challenges through the year. With just nine members the team achieves some brilliant successes and is highly respected across the tennis network. All challenges are met with opportunities to learn and improve the operational side of the business.

The last year has been interesting and challenging for the Board and staff but we have confidence that we have put processes in place to move forward strongly in these ever changing times. The Board remains determined for Wales to be the best tennis region in Britain.

Personally, I would like to thank all Board and staff members for their tireless support during my six year term as Chair. We have achieved many good results but still have things to do. I am confident that Barry will drive the strategy forward and that Wales will be proud of the state of tennis in the country.

Mike Clarke

Chief Executive Report

2017 was a very positive year for Welsh tennis, but also a very challenging one. From a financial point of view, for the first time in many years Tennis Wales had a significantly lower return on commercial income than had been projected and this caused some budget challenges for the team. Through adjustments to spending plans in the latter part of the year, the team did an excellent job to minimise our

2017 deficit under difficult circumstances. In 2018 we are anticipating a bounce back in our commercial income, but we have planned our budget with an appropriately conservative position. Alongside our budget challenges, we also had some very challenging tennis situations to deal with and I commend the Tennis Wales team highly for their professionalism and expertise with this.

On a much more positive note, Welsh tennis has continued to achieve some great results at both the grass roots level and in performance tennis. Participation in the annual schools team event increased by another 180 players from 5,464 to 5,644 and club membership increased by 228 from 15,925 to 16,153. According to the LTA’s adult participation tracker, monthly adult tennis participation in Wales increased from 72,500 to 85,000 in 2017. We also had some great success with our objectives for increasing our female workforce and female participation through initiatives such as the ‘She Rallies’ programme.

2017 was also a big year for wheelchair tennis in Wales. After several years of successfully growing participation numbers in wheelchair tennis and other types of disabilities tennis, 2017 saw a breakthrough in wheelchair performance tennis in Wales. For the first time we had wheelchair tennis included in the Wales National Championships, and Fran Smith won the British 18s national singles title as well and the British Schools Singles Championships. Fran and 10 year old Lily Folland also teamed up to win the British schools doubles title. Alongside this, the Wheelchair Tennis Club won a British wheelchair tennis title when they won the 2017 Dan Maskell Cup. Ben Johnson-Rolf continued to make good progress and is now Wales’ highest ranked international wheelchair tennis player.

Across the rest of performance tennis, 2017 was an absolutely outstanding year. Wales had no less than five juniors representing Great Britain, including James Story, Morgan Cross, Hugo Cochlin, Jethro Dela Vega, and Mimi Xu. James Story played superbly to help GB win the 2017 European Winter Cup, and Morgan Cross likewise performed wonderfully well in helping the GB girls team to 5th position in the same competition. James, Hugo, and Viktor Frydrych have also been selected by the LTA for the GB National Age Group Scholarship Programme for 2018.

Welsh players won a number of international junior titles and international medals. James Story won the silver medal in the singles at the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas and he combined with Morgan Cross to win bronze in the mixed doubles.

Team Wales in the Bahamas Morgan Cross, Chris Lewis (Manager), and James Storey

In what was a truly outstanding year for James, he also won the British 16s doubles title and a number of ITF singles and doubles titles. On the back of this stellar year, James was a deserving winner of the Tennis Wales ‘Player of the Year’ award. Other winners of ITF titles in 2017 included Morgan Cross and Finn Murgett. In total Wales now has 10 internationally ranked juniors and a number of very exciting prospects coming through.

As well as these notable successes at junior level, Chris Lewis helped the GB 35s team to the silver medal in the 35s World Championships in South Africa, and Peter Boshier-Jones successfully represented GB in the over 80s team in the United States. Chris Lewis also won the British 35s Grass Court title.

Looking forwards to 2018 and beyond, this is a crucial time for Tennis Wales. In the early part of 2018 we will be developing a new four year Vision Plan for Welsh tennis. This plan will strongly reinforce the work we have started to increase tennis participation in sectors of the community where tennis opportunities have not traditionally been seen as accessible. We will be taking a much more focussed and targeted community approach, looking at how we can maximise technology, social media, and other innovative processes to greatly increase tennis participation opportunities as part of creating happy, healthy, and active communities across Wales.

This work will form an important part of Tennis Wales contribution to achieving the outcomes which both of our main funding partners, the LTA and Sport Wales, are prioritising. During 2018 Tennis Wales will be aiming to reinforce our position as an industry leader in growing and developing community sport. So 2018 is shaping up as a crucial year and both the staff and the Board are approaching this with great positivity.

Finally, there are so many people who work so hard to help achieve our successes for Welsh tennis. I would like to say a big thank you to all the volunteers across Welsh tennis who do such a magnificent job. Thank you to the professional workforce of coaches, officials, referees, teachers, and others. We have some exceptionally high quality tennis professionals in Wales who are doing outstanding work to get more people playing tennis and developing our talented players. Thank you to our North Wales and committees, and to the Tennis Wales Board for your on- going commitment to tennis in Wales. Finally, a huge thank you to the commitment, resilience, and professionalism of the Tennis Wales staff during 2017, arguably the best and most committed tennis development team in British tennis.

Peter Drew

North Wales County Report

Tennis activity in North Wales in 2017 was strongly focused on the delivery of opportunities for tennis in the community, using schemes such as Tennis for Kids, and the development of partnerships to deliver introductory sessions in non-traditional venues. The year was overshadowed, however, by the untimely death of Alastair McNab, a stalwart of North Wales tennis and the Chair of the Management Committee.

The county's senior teams faced stiff opposition in summer 2017, having both won promotion the previous winter, but amongst the older age groups the Ladies Over 60s finished a creditable third in their group. The stand-out performance, however, was provided by the Under 18 Girls team, who won their group and secured promotion for the third consecutive year. The Men’s Winter team secured their place in Division 3 for their highest finish in 30 years.

Among the more eye-catching individual performances were those from Morgan Cross, who represented GB in the U16 Tennis Europe Winter Cup and represented Wales in the Commonwealth games to win a bronze medal in the mixed doubles, and Fran Smith, who won the girls' singles title at the British Open Junior Wheelchair Tennis championships. Ellie Scarff, Tom Thelwall Jones, Morgan Cross and Aditi Chezchian all represented Wales in the Home Nations and Matt James hit the headlines as Garbine Muguruza’s hitting partner at the Wimbledon Championships, helping her to win the Ladies singles title.

34 teams competed in the North Wales league, with 28 teams entering the Shield competition, while the Montgomeryshire leagues continued to attract a strong entry. The Aegon team tennis competition involved 39 teams, with Rhos on Sea winning the County Division.

At junior level the Great British Tennis Weekends and Tennis for Kids provided taster sessions across North Wales; more than 1800 players from 84 schools had the chance to play competitive tennis and in collaboration with the National Trust, Boys & Girls Clubs of Wales, Rainbows and other partners, new opportunities were provided in new settings for young people to play tennis. In addition, 11 venues ran inclusive activities for a variety of groups in the Disability Tennis Networks, while four Flintshire schools used the Tennis Foundation's School of Tennis programme to develop both playing and leadership opportunities.

Vicki Broadbent

South Wales County Report 2017 not only saw elite players from South Wales deliver some impressive performances but also saw a significant growth in club membership together with increased participation in league tennis and a growth in the quality and quantity of tennis played at community venues.

Notable County Cup performances by South Wales’ age group teams included an unbeaten record for the under 9s and progress to national finals by the Under 10 and Under 12 girls, while in the Winter County Cup the men’s team secured promotion from Group 3b with an unbeaten record.

Five of our Seniors teams – Women’s 40s and 50s, Men’s 45s, 60s and 70s – won their division, and 7 of the 11 teams will be competing in the top division next year. There were some strong performances at the Four Nations Tournament in Glasgow and while entries for the revived Welsh Senior Closed tournament were fewer than hoped for, the event will be held again in 2018. At Senior level, Chris Lewis won the British 35s singles title, Alastair Alexander and Linda Jones won national seniors titles and Chris Hill and Peter Boshier-Jones won 60s and 80s events respectively at the South of England championships. We have also had several players playing for GB teams.

The South Wales inter-club leagues remain among the largest in the UK: the Summer Leagues had 152 teams playing (81 men’s teams and 71 women’s teams) while the Winter leagues provided inter- club competition for a total of 193 teams (124 in the Cymru Kitchens’ League and 69 in the Veterans’ League). But we have also been looking to expand the range of opportunities for competitive play. We introduced a two-pair league into the summer schedule in 2017, and while this attracted only modest entries we will continue the experiment in 2018 since we feel it offers the opportunity of summer tennis competition for smaller clubs that cannot raise a regular six-member team or only have two courts. We will also introduce an over 60s, midweek, daytime league in 2018 to cater for potential demand from that sector of the tennis community.

Opportunities for younger players to develop their skills and take part in competitive events included the ‘Tennis for Kids’ scheme, which has involved many coaches and hundreds of children being introduced to tennis, a ‘Welsh Davis Cup’ event, the Road to Wimbledon event and the Aegon Leagues, together with the Junior County Closed championships which continue to be held each December. There has been an increased focus on safeguarding issues, with workshops being rolled out to individual clubs to make it easier for them to recruit and retain Welfare Officers within clubs. In addition, forums and workshops have been held to advise volunteers on aspects of venue development.

Mike Dunn

Tennis Wales Awards Night 2017

Volunteer of the Year Nigel Edwards

Inspire2coach Young Volunteer Jonathon Dawes

Chiltern Sports Club/Centre of the Year Mackintosh LTC

Club Team of the Year Rhos on Sea Mens 1st team

Team of the Year Commonwealth Youth Games Tennis Team

Player of the Year James Story

Official of the Year Jonathan Williams

Outstanding Achievement Tony Costa

Education Award Ysgol Gyfun Garth Olwg

Disability Programme Award Cardiff Metropolitan University

Community Venue of the Year Barry Community Tennis Club

Lifetime Achievement Award John Billington

Coach of the Year Francesca Lewis

Competition of the Year Rhiwbina ITF

Home Nations Championships 2017

Under 18 Team Captain - Chris Lewis Players - James Story, Tom Thelwall Jones, Morgan Cross, Eleanor Scarff Beat England 4-2, drew with Ireland 3-3, drew with Scotland 3-3

Under 14 Team Captain - Craig Evans Team - Hugo Cochin, Rufus Plane, Tegan Heaton, Aditi Chezhian Lost to Ireland 4-2, lost to Scotland 5-1, lost to England 6-0

Under 12 Team Captain - Becca Strelzyn Players - Elina Pickerd-Barua, Hugo Russell, Sofia Chivers, Jethro Dela Vega Drew with Scotland 3-3, lost to England 5-1, drew with Ireland 3-3

Final Positions 1st England 11 points 2nd Scotland 7 points 3rd= Wales 6 points 3rd= Ireland 6 points

Four Nations Seniors Championships 2017

The biennial seniors four nations championships were held in Glasgow over the May bank holiday weekend. With age groups of over 35, 45 and 50 men and ladies, Wales was represented by 21 players from across the country. After three days of intense singles and doubles matches against each country, with many third set championship tie-break deciders the eventual winners were a strong Scotland team. The lower places were not decided until the final doubles rubber between Wales and Ireland was completed - Wales won and thus finished second overall, above England and Ireland. With all age groups finishing either second or third it was one of our best overall results in this competition for many years despite some injuries, illness and limited availability over the weekend.

Results

Mens 35's 3rd Women 35's 2nd Mens 45's 2nd Women 45's 3rd Mens 50's 2nd Women 50's 3rd

Wales National Championships 2017

Open Women’s Doubles Elinor Beazley and Megan Davies (Swansea / ) Open Mens Doubles Mikar Fisher and David Parry (Bangor LTC) Open Women’s Singles Megan Davies (Wrexham TC) Open Mens Singles David Parry (Bangor LTC) Callum Findlay and Mikar Fisher (David Lloyd Cardiff / Bangor 18U Boys Doubles LTC) 18U Girls Doubles Elinor Beazley and Megan Davies (Swansea / Wrexham) 18U Girls Singles Elinor Beazley (Swansea) 18U Boys Singles Callum Findlay (David Lloyd Cardiff) 16U Girls Doubles Elinor Beazley and Megan Davies (Swansea / Wrexham) 16U Boys Doubles Sam Morris and Frank Powell-Davies (Wrexham TC / Cardiff LTC) 16U Girls Singles Elinor Beazley (Swansea TC) 16U Boys Singles Sam Morris (Wrexham TC) 14U Girls Doubles Aditi Chezhian and Laila Mai Savage (Arfon TC / Swansea TC) 14U Boys Doubles Kavin Durai and Shay Ryan (David Lloyd / Stow Park) 14U Girls Singles Aditi Chezhian (Arfon TC) 14U Boys Singles Viktor Frydyrch (Hoole LTC) 12U Girls Doubles Sofia Chivers and Rebecca Dow (David Lloyd Cardiff) 12U Boys Doubles Owen Critchell and Viktor Frydyrch (Wrexham TC / Hoole TC) 12U Girls Singles Laila Mai Savage (Swansea TC) 12U Boys Singles Viktor Frydyrch (Hoole LTC) 10U Girls Singles Mingge Xu (Swansea TC) 10U Boys Singles Neirin Gilani (Windsor LTC) 9U Girls Singles Mingge Xu (Swansea TC) 9U Boys Singles Oliver Page (Swansea TC) 8U Girls Singles Jemima Dean (Dinas Powys) 8U Boys Singles Archie Gray (Dinas Powys) Open Mens Wheelchair Doubles Tony Heslop / Kevin Lewis (Cardiff Wheelchair Club) Open Mens Wheelchair Singles Tony Heslop (Cardiff Wheelchair Club)

Thank you to our Sponsors and Funding Partners of 2017

Chiltern Sports, Four04 Packaging Ltd, Freshfields, GM2, inspire2coach, Link Laters, RPC BPI Group, Savills (UK) Ltd, Solace, Sytner MINI, Tetrapak and YC Sports.

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