Lowlands Annual Report for 2016/17 – ‘ M ore people playing tennis more often’

Tennis members: The tennis section has continued to grow until last year.

Summer Tournament: During the summer we ran 10 competitions. Regrettably the finals day was rained off for 1st time in 26 years! and it then became difficult to re-arrange. To address this this year you have to be free both on Saturday 9thand Sunday 10thSeptember so we have a contingency day.

Thecurrent champions are: Men's Singles:Tom GaitLadiesSingles: Nic Gunby, Men's Doubles: A. Porter and R. Gradwell,Ladies' Doubles:N. Gunby & C. Wynn. Mixed Doubles:K. Baker and Leo Munoz Zanni.

Senior Men's Singles:John O’Connell, Senior Men's Doubles:(AWAITS), Senior Women's Doubles:P. Cava & A. Paladini-Jennings, Senior Mixed Doubles:H. Lewis and M. Lewis. Junior Champion: (Not held).The honours board has been updated.

Summer leagues: Mike Askew, Men’s Captain reported that2016 was a mixedseason for Lowlands Men's Teams with 2 demotions T3 and T4 and 2 promotions T5 and T6.The teamsin 2017 are:

Men’s Division Captain Ladies Division Captain Team 1 Intermediat Martin Lewis Team 1 Intermediate Nic Gunby e Team 2 Division 1 Chris Milton Team 2 Division 1 Nicky Bean Team 3 Division 3 Phil Lewis Team 3 Division 1 Sophia Pittas Team 4 Division 3 Nishal Malde Team 4 Division 4 Rosemary Knight Team 5 Division 4 David Knight Team 6 Division 5 Richard White Team 7 Division 6 Ron Davidson

The Woman’s teams had a goodyear, Team 1 and 3 consolidated their position in their Divisions.

Match Days: We have now arranged 80 fixtures home and way for 11 teams in 2017. Thanks go to David Knight who stepped in asMatch Secretary. There are only 4 double-headers to ease the court pressure mid-week.

Vision: “To provide an outstanding tennis venue for players of all abilities.”1 Aegon Teams: Over the summer we had two Men’s, one Woman’s and twoJunior Aegon Teams. These are coordinated by John Philipson and their respective captains: Leo, John Philipson, Nick Gunby and Ian Vidgen for juniors.

Wimbledon Draw:  In 2016 we ran a very successful open Wimbledon Draw and 54 members had a fantastic day.  The LTA bases our allocation on the number of members Opted In.  Last year 160 members Opted in (66%), which reduced our tickets from the previous years.  For 2017,169 members Opted in (76%), out of 220 eligible members. This is the highest opting in rate we have had. Lowlands has been allocated 23 pairs of tickets (46).  The ballot will take place after the AGM and the winnerswill need to pay on line within 14 days.

Hatch End League/Riverside League.Lowlands has a very active programme of ladies daytime matches including friendly matches with other local clubs throughout the year plus the Riverside Daytime league in the autumn and the Hatch End Daytime league in the spring. Lowlands field two teams in both these events. Team 1 had an excellent year in 2016 winning Division 1 of the Hatch End Daytime league in spring 2016 and coming second in the Autumn Riverside league by losing in the final against Riverside 1. A newer team, Team 2 also had an enjoyable and successful year playing in both leagues.

WINTER

Singles Box leagues: During the winter there have been 6Unisex Divisions for singles box leagues. These have been co-ordinated by John Philipson and managed on-line through Tennis Jeannie.

Winter leagues: There are 60 fixtures over the winter season in Middlesex Leagues including: Men’s, Mixed, Ladies and Vets leagues.

Team Captain Division Men’s 1 Martin Lewis Division 1 West Men’s 2 Michael Askew Division 2 West Men’s 3 Phil Lewis Division 4 West Men’s 4 Rupin Nathwani Division 6 West Women’s 1 Niketa Bean Division 1 West Women’s 2 Katie Barker Division 3 West Mixed 1 Jane Tweedie, Division 1 West Mixed 2 Colin Bickle Division 3 West

Mixed Vets:We ran 4 Vets teams including debutant Captain Rupin Nathwani:

Mixed Vets 1 Mike Askew Division 2 Mixed Vets 2 Colin Bickle Division 3a Mixed Vets 3 Chris Cox Division 5a - Mixed Vets 4 Rosemary Knight Division 7a -

GB Vets. There are also twoother Great Britain Vets teams, Junior Vets +40L+45M and Medley.

Currie Cup:The 2016 entry for the Men's Currie Cup saw 13 pairs compete to get to the Finals which were eventually won by Matt Sweeney and Rob Larkman.

This year we had the 6thLadies Currie Cup and was won by Katie Barker and Ruth Allen.

Currie Cup Finals Day 2017 was on 21st April, 2017

Shapla Cup: To provide competitive tennis for Men’s Teams 1-4, the Shapla Cup was introduced and organised by Mike Askew, Colin Bickle, Gavin and Neville. This involved 18 players and was very close and competitive over the winter.

Vision: “To provide an outstanding tennis venue for players of all abilities.”2 TENNIS MARK

 Lowlands was awarded Clubmark in 2009. Lowlands Clubmark was renewed in 2013 for another 4 years until 2017.  Clubmark was replaced with Tennis Mark and we have introduced new enabling policies to provide a better environment for ‘more people to play more tennis more often.’  After a lot of work we were awarded TennisMark in August 2015.This puts us in a good place with the LTA should we require future funding.

27th August 2015 - “Congratulations on achieving Tennismark accreditation. By achieving this Sport England accreditation, you are providing a safe, welcoming and inclusive environment for members and players at your venue. You will receive your Tennismark certification in the post within the next two weeks.”

COACHING  Coaching has continued throughout the club for all sections with activities daily. There is a very strong adult coaching programme. The Coaches will be running an U18Girls team and U14 boy’steam over the summer.  There are presently 15 juniors attending the squad sessions on a Friday  Ian Vidgen has supported Cliff and has continued TOTS tennis and Cardio tennis sessions.  The coaches have done a leaflet drop recently and are arranging additional coaching including some free coaching around the Easter holidays.  Davis Cup Legacy ~ Ian is doing some more coaching courses later at Cannon Lane School  Adult weekday coaching remains busy with some participants joining Lowlands as members.  Team coaching has been arranged for the ladies 3rd and 4thteams.  We are aiming to strengthen the Junior programme as this is part of the Tennis Markprocess.  We currently have 30 juniors and 10-15 juniors who regularly compete in competitions.  We are aiming to increase this to 50-60 juniors with 20 Regularly Competing Juniors, which is the average for a club of our size.We have a Coaching Agreement with our coaches.

To support the increase of juniors, the coaching asks to remind members that from 5-7pm juniors have exclusive rights to all courts. (Full and Intermediate players may only use courts at the discretion of the club coaches at this time).

GB Davis Cup Legacy Juniors Programme: We were successful in our bid for 2016 to host 20 extra juniors aged 5-8 in support of the GB Davis Cup Legacy programme. Ian and Mike Askew ran 6 sessions in a local Junior school and this resulted in 3 extra juniors. Ian is repeating this programme in 2017.

Cliff Gray: our Head coach announced that he was moving to Wiltshire and is looking for employment. This is likely to take place during 2017 when we will advertise for a new head coach and work for a smooth transition.

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

Ball management:

 We re-cycle balls and tins from full member’s sessions.  Please put balls in the designed Shute in the coaches shed after use.  Please put tins in the green re-cycling bin next to the shed.  Wilson balls are available at the bar for purchase for personal use.

Vision: “To provide an outstanding tennis venue for players of all abilities.”3 Floodlights and security: Please turn the lights off in the evening otherwise they will come on again in the night annoying local residents and causing additionalexpense. We are looking to have the timer changed to prevent this happening in the future. To preserve the courts please lock up the courts if you are lastplayers using them.

Claytex Green Courts:These were dressed in October 2016 (PJ Maintenance).

Euroclay Red Courts:Repairs to the root damage on court 6 completed.These were power dressed in October(PJ Maintenance) and were recently treated again as part of 6 month maintenance plan.

Mini Court: The mini court is cleaned in the spring. Over winter the court tends to become damp.

Intermediateand Social Tennis sections

Once again the Intermediate section has had a good year. In terms of numbers of members we currently have 49 members which is around our maximum number.Attendance at our 2 sessions has been good, particularly throughout the cold dreary winter weeks.Everyone in the section has been commenting on how good the standard is currently which is reflected in the numbers who regularly attend.

The Social Tennis Sectionhas been well supported throughout the year. Six new members have joined the Section. Even in the winter months we regularly have 16 players on Sunday evenings. In the summertime the attendance can often be around 20. In the autumn of 2016 we held a very successful American Tournament attended by 22 players. Some Social Tennis players regularly attend the weekday coaching sessions and play together at other times during the week. Socially we are a well-integrated group who enjoy each other’s company, as evidenced by pizza evenings and a Christmas dinner attended by some 25 people. In 2017 we plan to hold three American Tournaments and arrange other social events.

UPDATE FROM DAVID KNIGHT – TENNIS CAPTAIN

New Court Benches:These were introduced during the year and allow greater room for tennis bags. They can be seat or table format and are weather proof.

Patio/ Petanque courts were done over the last year to improve that area of the club.

Portable trolley: We have provided a food trolley. This is kept by the Kitchen or store cupboard and can be used for transferring hot food to the bar after tennis matches when the hall is not available.

Weds Club session:We have been working to improve attendance at Wednesday Club sessions and these have been improving with a good standard of tennis being played. We will also try to improve attendance on Saturday afternoons.

Fee structure: The graded fee structure for young adults has been slightly amended.

Social Media:The club have used social media to report both match results and social events, keeping everyone informed and projecting a “Team Lowlands” spirit. Since last year, we have had a further 45 people like the Facebook page. This helps increase the visibility of the clubs Facebook posts. The continuing use of socialmedia will be compromised if we do not have a Communications Officer on the committee.

Tennis Committee:Over the last year we have lost a number of committee members. MattSweeney our Communications Officer, John Philipsonwho ran the summer tournament, box leagues and a number of teams, Colin Bickle our Fixtures Officer and Mike Askew who is working abroad for the next year and is our men’s captain and tennis secretary. I would like to thank them all for their hard work which has kept Lowlands running and made it the best club in the area.

Vision: “To provide an outstanding tennis venue for players of all abilities.”4 Rosey Knight and Jackie Moss have agreed to take over the organising of our summer and winter fixtures and Farid has agreed to manage the box leagues. Martin Lewis withmy support willtake over the men’s captain role. Thank you to thesemembers who have stepped forward to help. Despite having 250 tennis members we are still looking for additional help on the committee or at least help run the tennis section. The lack of volunteers is very disappointing. It is not possible to manage the tennis section efficiently with such limited resources. If anyone can help especially over the coming year whilst Mike is away please contact me as soon as possible. I cannot guarantee that the club will run as successfully or efficiently in the coming year without additional help.

THE YEAR AHEAD -Our mission is to help ‘more people to play tennis more often.’

Aims and Objectives: Lowlands is one of the best tennis clubs in Middlesex and has many strengths. To maintain that high level of achievement, the TennisCommitteehave established a number of developmental objectives. Our objectives are:

1. To maintain existing adult membership around 280-290 members. 2. To increase Junior Membership to 50-60. 3. To increase Regularly Competing Juniors to 20-25. 4. To further improve the patio area. 5. To ensure the coaches maintain their LTA accreditation including professional development, first aid and DBS vetting. 6. To increase the Sinking Fund to £10,000 per year to an adequate level to enable court replacement when needed.

Great facilities are fundamental in the successful attractionand retention of players. Ensuring courts and clubhousesare in top condition should be high on the priority list for anygreat tennis club.

Vision: “To provide an outstanding tennis venue for players of all abilities.”5