LEATHERHEAD LAWN TENNIS CLUB
Committee Report 2007/8
This is the first report to be issued since the Club has decided to have a ‘rotating Chair’ on the Committee, so far this has been either Mervyn Rice or Judi Smowton.
It has definitely been a year of change starting with the new Committee, Diane Ashley [Secretary] and Judi Smowton [Social Secretary] were the only two surviving members, luckily Peter Grabaskey returned, which has been a great help. Irene Gawne’s wish for new blood on the Committee certainly happened with new members Mervyn Rice, Sheila Rice [Membership Secretary], Paul Carton [Treasurer], John Beynon and Eddie Cox. Lyndsey Iftikhar was also voted on to the Committee at the AGM but unfortunately was forced to retire after a couple of months by pressures from home and work.
With no full time ‘Chair’ we have worked with ‘sub committees’ doing some of the work. The first working committee was for ‘Club House’ as this was our main priority and to agree on whether to rebuild or refurbish. We really wanted to have this completed in our first year of office and have not as yet given up! In the meantime a very big thank you must go to John Beynon, Mervyn Rice, Peter Grabaskey and Steve Savage who have spent numerous hours in meetings, also we need to thank Tony Collett and Bernard Burbidge for their time and support. We hope to have more news for you all on this matter at the AGM, currently we are still in negotiations with various log cabin suppliers to see if this method would be more cost effective and therefore affordable in the coming year, the refurbishment has been put off temporarily until the outcome of negotiations with these people are clear, we will keep you posted.
The club also applied for planning consent to light courts 5 & 6, unfortunately this was refused, John Beynon handled the application and has also been in touch with the council regarding the club, clubhouse, and other matters. John has worked harder than any other committee member this year and we the rest of the committee would like to thank him especially for efforts above and beyond his duties.
Early in our term we successfully introduced ‘Grading’ to the Club. This is still in its infancy but the staggered sessions of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning are currently working well. We accept that there are still some anomalies in the grades, but it must be appreciated that accurate grading is a long term goal and will take time to achieve. We now have a Grading Committee, which consists of Andrew Te, Diane Ashley, Peter Grabaskey, Kevin Court and Derek Wardle.
The Open Day held in April was a great success. Thanks must go to everyone who helped – Andrew Te for organising the different activities [not forgetting Steve Savage as well!], Richard Smowton for organising the flags and posters, John Beynon and Veronica, Sheila and Mervyn Rice for being there to answer questions and take the money! Diane Ashley for the teas etc and all those adult members who played with our ‘potential new members’ and made everyone feel welcome, we managed to sign up quite a few adult and even more junior members from the day
Our next working committee was for the ‘Open Finals’ held on 3rd September – a big thanks must go to Richard Smowton & Andrew Te, John Beynon and especially to Veronica who polished all the Trophies. Congratulation to all the winners and a special mention must go to Dan Carpenter who has now won the Men’s Single’s for the last 11 years. We would also like to thank all the Umpires on the day and ask if there are any volunteers for September 2008?
John Beynon and Eddie Cox have looked after the maintenance of the courts. We have had the courts de-mossed and also have had Courts 5 & 6 repainted
Once again Mervyn organised the Winter League for 2006/7 which raised money for the Club and kept everyone competitive throughout the winter months. Congratulations to the winning team, Richard and Frances Jordan, Mike Turvey and Sue Pennington. For the 2007/8 Winter League we are using a mixed doubles format, this so far is proving easier for the arranging of matches and seems to be generally more popular . Alongside this we are running a men’s doubles. Support for a ladies doubles was not enough to make it viable.
The Committee would like to thank all of you that have helped raise funds for us during the year and also for all the ‘behind the scene’ supporters, without you we would not exist!
A special thank you to Liz Farrar who was our top fund raiser with her Bridge evening bringing us in over £500, Frances and Richard Jordan who organised 2 Ladies Tournaments and also the Bowling evening. John Farrar who took us all for an excellent walk on Bookham Common, Pete Eisenegger who tested our brains at the Club Quiz Night, Heather and Brian Maurice who do an excellent job keeping the Club garden looking so colourful, Janet Carr who keeps our store room well stocked and of course Tony Collett for continuing to purchase and store tennis balls on the clubs behalf and Mike Hinchey, also for the storing and putting out of new balls each week
One of the changes we want to make in the following year is to define the different Membership categories as we feel that they do not reflect the members correctly, this will be proposed at the AGM
The AGM will be on Sunday 27th January 2008 @ 2:00pm at The Club House
We are always looking for new Committee Members, so if you would like to join us, please let us know
Your Committee