CHAIRMAN’S REPORT

Another year has shot by and the AGM looms once again. This has been a very active year on the courts. They are increasingly in use even outside peak playing times and it is a pleasure to see so much enthusiasm coupled with rising standards amongst recently joined members

Membership

Our adult membership is currently at an all time high of 164 - total membership 307. The annual “Open Day” was held on March 27^th and did attract several enquiries of which half a dozen crystallised into memberships. This was followed by a ”Bring A Friend” American style tournament and a “Parent and Child” competition which was open to all and actually great fun. Both were attempts to publicise the club and attract more members.

Programme

This year we prepared tennis, and social programmes which were sent out with the subscription notices in March. Events such as the American Tournament dates, dates for the Ladies Invitations, and Senior and Junior Finals Days were flagged up early in the year and allowed everyone to plan ahead. I should like to thank Richard Jordan at this point for introducing the Ladies Invitation Tournaments to the club and running them for the last five years. They are a lot of fun and I urge you all to try them.

On the social side, we have had two Quiz evenings, a bridge evening, a June Sunday walk and picnic and a very enjoyable Christmas Dinner and Dance on 17^th December. In addition there have been two impromptu “Tennis and BarBQ” events on Sunday afternoons which have been very successful. I thank Liz and John Farrar, Beryl Eiseneggar, Frances Jordan, Mervyn Rice and their supporting teams for all their hard work.

Junior Section

During the Finals of the internal Junior Tennis Tournament on 11^th July, I umpired several matches and was very impressed by the intensity and commitment of our juniors as they battled against eachother for dominance. Many of the players had improved out of all recognition to last year

The credit for this must be given to Paul for his excellent coaching and to Peter Grabaskey who has given up virtually every Friday evening for the last 3 years to run the junior club sessions with a handful of parents – a tremendous commitment! Peter also organises the Junior Tennis Tournament which starts in May and runs throughout the summer to the finals day in July, and he keeps a watching brief on the junior teams and their managers.

The pay off is seen in the excellent performances of our junior teams and players in events such as the Surrey postal tournaments and the local Junior leagues such as Dorking and Leatherhead and St George’s Hill. I also wish to thank Peter and Sue Goodman, Sharon Webb, Barbara Dale and Ann Zuurbier for running junior teams. Peter Goodman in particular has run teams for about 6 years in spite of having a demanding job which sends him abroad for weeks at a time.

I am grateful to Paul for organising once again the Junior Open event held in the last week of August. This is an opportunity to raise local awareness of the club’s existence since any junior can enter. This year there were over 110 matches. Our boys generally shone and we have some excellent girl players coming along as well.

Tournaments and Matches

My thanks go to Dan for organising the annual club tournament so efficiently culminating in the final on 5th September. We are looking at ways to encourage more members to enter the events.

I should also like to thank Lisa Barnes for organising the Winter League for the past 3 years. This is a thankless task, which she has done without much assistance. Once running, the league is a very enjoyable, competitive event during which one encounters all sorts of players. The task of organising the League this winter has been courageously taken on by Mervyn Rice who also organised the singles ladder which has proved more successful than any of its predecessors. Nice one Mervyn!

Our teams have performed creditably in the various leagues. Thanks go to all the team captains. In the D&L League, Mens 1 were top in Division 1, Ladies 2 were runners-up in Division 2, Mixed 1 were runners-up in Division 1.

Individually, Dan Carpenter is to be congratulated for winning the Mens Singles event at Cranleigh Open Tournament and Jane Green and Lynne Hunt for coming second in the national BWTA Tournament the finals of which were held at Wimbledon in early November.

Finances

Our accounts show that the club is in reasonable shape financially and able to meet all its immediate commitments. I am indebted to Gail Collett who has worked hard to keep her head above the flood of £1 coins that threaten to engulf her every week.

One of the club’s major expenses is insurance and our thanks go to Kevin Court who conducted a review of our insurance this year.

Website

Another quick thank you to Mervyn yet again for maintaining the website and ensuring it is more or less up-to-date.

Repairs, maintenance, break-ins

After a number of uneventful years, we were unlucky to have another break-in at the clubhouse in December. Fortunately no money worth mentioning was on the premises but the damage inflicted is a nuisance and takes time and money to repair. The costs fall on the club because our insurance excess is £500.

The same week saw a major collapse of the floodlight system with the melt down of many of the electrical capacitors. Our contractors LTL responded swiftly to the crisis and got the lights working again within 48 hours.

We are fortunate that Tony Collett has been on hand to assist not only in the above instances, but in the myriad of small jobs of maintenance and repair that continually crop up throughout the year. He and Christine have also continued to look after the balls for the club, ensuring we always have a supply and timing their distribution in the most economical way. I know he would wish me to thank Mike Hinchey for ably assisting in this task.

Volunteers

This whole report illustrates how dependent the club is on the goodwill and assistance of its members. We are not a commercial organisation but are run by the members for the members. We keep subscription rates way below the rates charged by a David Lloyd club or a Cannons Fitness centre only because we do not employ staff.

Volunteers are vital in maintaining this situation and in recent years it is noticeable that our pool of volunteers has become static. It is becoming much harder to recruit people on to the Committee for instance. The result has been that Committee members have had difficulty in retiring. This year there have been only 7 Committee members and at times we have not had a quorum for a scheduled meeting.

If you have time to give to the club and would like to take a more active part in its running, please fill in the application form on the AGM agenda. Maybe you would just like to register your willingness to organise tea and coffee or sweep the courts. This help is invaluable – so please let the club know.

CLUBHOUSE REPORT

The major project facing this club is the financing and building of a new clubhouse. A survey of the present clubhouse was done by Mr Stringer, a structural engineer, in October. He reported in essence that the current building is not worth refurbishing because it is far below today’s building standards and has little insulation or security from walls and windows. He recommended that we should do no more than maintain the status quo and put all our efforts into funding a new clubhouse.

The cost of a new clubhouse built on the current foundations has been estimated at about £100,000 for something fairly basic. On top of that will be the costs of fittings and furnishings.

However, the club’s first priority is to meet the high cost of maintaining its chief assets – the courts. Every five years - if we are lucky - the courts need major sums spent on them. This year we have had to pay nearly £10,000 to have courts 1-4 cleaned and painted. In a further 5 years time the same courts will need rebuilding at a cost of £28,000. In the meantime in 2006 and 2011, courts 5 and 6 will need painting and cleaning at an estimated cost of £4,000, and in 2016 they too will need rebuilding.

This club, unlike some others, has no assets it can sell or use as collateral to raise a loan. If the club were to wind up overnight, the courts and the clubhouse would revert to the landlord, Mole Valley DC and only the cash could be distributed in accordance with the club’s constitution. In addition the District Council restricts the length of our lease to a maximum of 25 years and will advertise any extension to any lease it grants, inviting objections and controversy from local residents.

In 2001 the club borrowed £30,000 from the LTA to build courts 5 and 6 and install new floodlights to courts 3 and 4. This loan is interest free, is underwritten by 15 members and is being repaid at £3,000 pa. but still has another 7 years to run. Clearly this is a large sum to pay out of cash flow every year and makes it harder to save for further capital investment.

The good news is that we have reserves of approximately £40,000 and in an ordinary year, if there are no major items of expenditure, can hope to add to these reserves by about £10,000. Once the LTA loan is paid off – in 7 years time - the annual cash surplus will increase by a further £3,000. All this means is that in about 10 years time, if we make no other efforts and allowing for inflation, we should be in a position to build a new clubhouse.

The Committee will try to shorten this period by looking for additional sources of finance. One of the best ways is to recruit new members. With the additional court space we now have, we could easily accommodate another 50 members – so, please recommend the club to your friends and colleagues.

If anyone has any other money raising ideas, please let us know.

Irene Gawne - Chairman

31^st December 2004