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Welcome to Lunesdale Tennis 2009

Lunesdale Lawn Tennis Club – Open Tournament 2009

Hello to all members.
Please see the Entry form for the Open Tournament at Lunesdale on 18th July.

I hope lots of club members will enter this year. It is a mixed doubles tournament but if you do not have a partner and would like to take part, please let me know and we can do some pairing up!

Best wishes
Carole Webb, Club Secretary

Minutes of LLTC Committee Meeting - 3 May 2009

Please visit the Minutes Page for all the details

Chair's letter April 2009

Dear members,

Our selection committee, led by Keith, who has taken over from me as Match Secretary, has just met to discuss our league teams for the coming season. We have two mixed teams of eight players (A & B) in the Lancaster and Morecambe League and a Mixed Team of six players and Men’s team of four players in the Kendal League. Since Keith has been running the Wednesday Social Tennis and the Thursday Winter Tennis it has become easier to assess those players who take part because of the publication of the ladders. We all felt that it was important to let you know our thinking at this meeting.

As you will know there is always a dilemma when you are selecting teams. Do you always select your strongest players to play as much as possible even if this means others playing much less or possibly not playing at all? Here the emphasis is on winning and progressing up the leagues. Or do you give as many players as possible, of an appropriate standard, the opportunity to play – possibly on a rotational basis? Here the emphasis is on giving a larger number of players the opportunity to enjoy competitive tennis regardless of success. Our feeling is that with our Social Tennis and knock-out tournaments in place those players not selected for the league matches can still find strong competition within the club.

The committee felt that our positions in the league tables last year didn’t reflect our true ability as a club and it was felt that we could address this by playing some of our strongest players in key matches. To this end we had contacted some of those players to see if they would be willing to play in more than one team. They agreed that they would be happy to play if available for the fixtures. It was gratifying to see from the new membership list provided by David that there were more members, especially men, who were looking to play league tennis. By making firm decisions at the meeting we felt we could provide better support for the captains when they had to make their team choices.

The club committee had already agreed that we would attempt to strengthen the Kendal Mixed Team in the expectation that they would be able to top their division and that we would try to field the strongest possible team wherever possible. We also felt that the Kendal Men’s Team appeared to be strengthened by the influx of new talent and here too we would be able to put out a consistently strong team which we believed was capable of progression.

The committee were very optimistic too about the likely improvement and progression of the A team and saw a way to strengthen the squad using players who may have missed out on the Men’s League last year. The B Team should be able to build on its last match win last season and ought to try to keep the A Team on their toes as much as possible, looking for a mid table position. Here again the pool of players had improved on last year. Attached is a sheet showing captains and squads as they currently stand.

Essentially our plan at this point is to select the teams until the end of May. We will have another selection committee meeting, chaired by Keith, towards the end of May when the policy will be reviewed. This will also give an opportunity to incorporate players who have joined or re-joined into teams where appropriate.

In short, we want to work ahead. Hence, this means that captains should try to encourage their squads to confirm the dates when they are available to play so that everyone knows in advance what is expected of them throughout the season. Of course, in reality, there will still be occasions when captains must ring round for replacements but this should be kept to a minimum.

I very much hope that we all have a successful and enjoyable season. If there are issues which arise, please contact either Keith or myself, for we may be able to sort out matters which concern you.

With best wishes

Harry Ball

P.S. Much appreciate the willingness of those attending the meeting last night to act as captains for this year. However, next year we must be more democratic and elect captains. Meanwhile, many thanks again to everyone for keeping the show on the road.

Pre season letter

Dear Members,

I know we are all looking forward to the coming season and hoping for the best of weather. It’s heartening to have Eric back in charge of the courts and fighting fit, and reassuring to have Reg, who did such a first rate job in Eric’s absence, in support. Those of us who stood in last season for the few weeks when neither was available can confirm what a great job they do.

Those members who attended the AGM showed strong support for the proposal to lay carpet courts in place of the hard courts. We are now in the process of looking for the best deal we can get on these and look forward to having them in place as soon as possible (of course they will not be there for this coming season).

For those of us of a certain age carpet courts will mean less aches and pains on ankles, knees and hips. It also means that it is necessary to look into ways of raising some of the cash. We are hoping that the carpet courts will attract more new members and we should increase our revenue in some part that way.

The grass courts should be ready for play on the last weekend of April and we are looking forward to our first Tennis and Tea on the following Sunday, May 3rd. We are hoping to attract more new members this season and hope to welcome as many as possible to the mixing in weekends on the 10th and 17th May.

Why not join us at the club on the 6th June too for our barbecue? We hope to have a number of other diversions at this event for your amusement.

We are also hoping to hold another Open Sunday on 28th June to make the most of the Wimbledon effect, when more people consider knocking a few yellow balls about than they do during the rest of the year.

Coaching

We have been able to obtain the services of the new coach, James McNally, and are hoping to run coaching sessions on Friday evenings. We are in the process of deciding our priorities on this but are hoping to start with three junior groups early in the season. Please check developments - see below.

Junior Tennis

Dr Marriot is planning to organise the junior teams to compete again in the Lancaster League. Some of our junior members will still be eligible to play in the same age group as last year so we can hope for even more success in the new season.

We are most concerned to encourage junior tennis of all standards. Please contact any member of the committee if you require more information or help on this.

League Tennis

The club will be fielding four senior teams this year - an A team and a B team in the Lancaster League both in the mixed Division 2 and in the Kendal League we will field a men's team in the 3rd division and a mixed team in the 2nd division. We would like to invite everyone interested in playing in a Lunesdale team to put themselves forward on the Membership Application Form. Our selection committee is meeting on the 6th April.

Club Tournament

If you enjoy competitive tennis then please consider entering the appropriate knock-out cups, the finals of which will be held on August 29th (weather permitting). It's important to get the all the preliminary rounds completed as soon as possible. Heather is, once again, running these competitions. If we follow her programme we are sure to achieve a smooth progression. We need our women members to enter in large numbers this year so that we have enough partners for the men. Please do consider putting your name forward.

Although the Rembrandt Trophy was not contested last year in the Lunesdale Open tournament, Carole and Robert are looking forward to staging it this year (date to be decided). We play mixed tennis and members from other clubs are invited. Don't let the fact that you can't find a partner put you off - we can help with pairing you up.

Social Tennis

The evergreen Keith Soothill promises once more to pit us against each other in Wednesday evenings of friendly competition; the usual matches being broken up by sessions of Speed Tennis and Dingles. See our Lunesdale Diary of Events. Be sure to indicate on your application form that you wish to be included in the activities. The more are, most definitely, the merrier.

Our Club Captain this year is Lesley Wareing. We are hoping for good weather for Captains Day on June 21st and to the Club Dinner on October 10th

Most Improved Player

Last season we planted a cherry tree in remembrance of Rosie Grant who is most sadly missed. Rosie's husband, David, has presented the club with a trophy for which we are very grateful. It has been decided to award this trophy to the most improved player of the season. This player could be selected from any in our ranks whether team or social player, junior or senior. It won't be easy to decide on the winner but the award will greatly add to the excitement at the end of the season.

Wimbledon Tickets

If you wish to be put in the hat for the ticket draw you must become a member of British Tennis. You can join - it's free (for the next few years, at least) - by going to the Lawn Tennis Association website.I've just done this myself - it takes about 10 minutes to do and the prompt pops up at the head of the home page.

Information

We will continue to send out information to members by email and this information will also be lodged regularly on our website. If you wish to have everything sent by post then please let me know.

Web Site

We are hoping to keep updated regularly and to have a Facebook facility that will allow you to leave and pick up messages (I think!).

Hope to see you on court for some great tennis, Wishing you the best of luck,

Harry Ball Chair of the committee