May Newsletter

Well, the season has officially begun, league matches are underway and the weather’s been brilliant so far! Here’s all the latest from Riccall Tennis Club!

Introducing our committee:

Chairman/Membership secretary/Safe-guarding officer: Steven Capewell

Treasurer: Andrew Dunning

Secretary: Marilyn Angles

Coaching: Sasha Taylor and Andrew Long

Committee member: Steve Packer

Committee member: Lucy Dennis

All can be contacted by email: info@riccalltennisclub.com or WhatsApp or phone at appropriate time of the day.

Court/club developments:

A few cracks and holes have recently been filled in and we’re about to order some matching paint to finish the job. Unfortunately, we’ve had an outbreak of horsetail weed which can cause significant problems to any area so if you see any evidence of this, please let me know so that it can be treated (mainly seen at the edge of court 4). I’m also going to order some more filler to sort a few small holes in court one in particular. A few members met up last weekend to jet wash the courts to clear the pigeon mess and myself and Steve P have a plan to get a heavy roller on the courts to try to get rid of a few bumps soon. Lucy has begun planting the planters so everywhere should be looking tidy ready for our Open Day on Saturday 14 th June. As stated previously, we are committed keeping the courts in as good a condition as we can until they can be completely resurfaced.

We’ve also purchased a few club essentials such as a new lawnmower, strimmer, patio storage container, clubhouse hoover and some storage boxes for spare tennis rackets and balls for non-members who can’t access the clubhouse. We’ll install a key storage lock soon as well which will mean all members will have access to the clubhouse via a code and we won’t have to cut any more keys. All of this was paid for by money raised from the Easter raffle so thank you to everyone who took part.

Regen Centre links:

Two up and coming events for your diary! The Riccall Carnival (Saturday 14 th June) is going to be held at the Regen Centre and we have decided to coincide this with a Tennis Club Open Day on the afternoon, any help or attendance at this would be greatly appreciated. We’ll be opening our courts from 1:30pm until 5pm. Please let me know if you can spare an hour to come down to help out and we can put a timetable together.

Happily Ever After Celebration Ball to celebrate 25 years of the Regen Centre (Saturday 27th September). Tickets are £45 per head if you’d like to be on the tennis table (a few places left) – £50 if you’re not on the tennis table. Dress to impress and your ticket includes a welcome drink, 3-course meal and live entertainment – not one to be missed!

Ladies Day:

We have a fantastic event planned for Thursday 3 rd July (back up day of Thursday 10 th July). Tennis (social doubles), food, drinks and a pop-up tennis clothing stall will all be on offer at this fabulous event. The cost is £20, please contact Marilyn on marilynangles@googlemail.com to purchase a ticket! Deadline to purchase tickets is 17 th June.

League matches:

The ladies, men’s and the mixed teams are now a few games into the season with the ladies’ team making a strong start and 2 nd mixed team on course for promotion! Despite the men’s team rebuilding this year they are comfortably mid table looking up towards the top of the league! The mixed 1st team have had some close matches and are not far from getting a few wins and making their way up the table. Keep an eye out for weekly scores updates. We’re always on the lookout for potential team players as large squads really help with managing busy family lives and playing for teams! Let us know if you fancy getting involved, there’s no expectation to turn out every week but being available for selection really helps out. It’s also lots of fun as well and a great social get together.

Club night balls, family event balls:

Providing quality balls for club nights and our family events are a priority for the coming year. Now matches have begun we will have a weekly supply of balls to use for club nights and Ben has kindly offered to manage this and will have balls ready on top of the grey storage box in the kit room (located in the club house). We’ll also ensure a supply of junior balls are available for family events as well- this worked brilliantly at the recent Spring Social.

Reminder – Booking courts and floodlight use:

As our club continues to grow, we now have the issue of court availability (which is a good problem have!) Over the last few years generally there has been courts available at any time. However as coaching, interest in teams, singles play and social tennis is growing then we need to relaunch the importance of our court booking system. This can be found on our website and should be used at all times for all sessions.

Regarding floodlights, as we all know the cost of electricity has rocketed for us all including the tennis club! That said, our policy is still to offer the use of the floodlights for a minimal voluntary donation of £1 per person per hour which is very good value compared to other clubs. As a result, we have put signs up reminding everyone of that together with the clubs bank details to make payments. Can you also ensure only one court is lit if only one court is being used as well. Hopefully we can continue to offer this and won’t need to go to an automated system like some other clubs do.

Membership fees reminder:

Membership subscriptions are now due. Please transfer the appropriate amount to our account (prices are on our website under ‘membership’); we will be changing keypad codes and updating our WhatsApp groups shortly. Even if you were a member last year it is important to fill out a new membership form online so that we have up-to-date details. We will use this information to give out new codes and create new WhatsApp groups. Thank you to everyone that has paid so far.

Junior coaching/Adult coaching:

Junior coaching with Sasha and Andrew has continued with lots of new juniors joining over the spring. Junior classes and adult caching is shown below:

***Get in touch with Sasha on 07540 062281 to enquire about any sessions or holiday camps.***

Pre-loved tennis rackets and balls:

Did you know that Sasha and Andrew sell pre-loved rackets and tennis balls? They have high quality rackets of all sizes which have all been re-gripped, re-strung and re-furbished. They also sell last season’s coaching balls. There’s also shock absorbers, tennis grips and key rings on offer! Get in touch with Sasha on 07540 062281 to enquire about these.

IT Sports (located at Clifton Moor, York):

If you are looking for brand new kit please get in touch with Sasha or Andrew as they are sponsored by this specialist racket shop (tennis, badminton, squash, pickleball, padel) and can get great discounts for you.

Padel developments:

We are continuing to work with ACE Padel in the hope we can convert one of our courts (court 4) into a padel court. We are currently finalising contracts and will be seeking planning permission following discussions with the Riccall Sports Field Association. We’re hopeful that this can get the green light in the coming weeks.

Junior success:

Evie partnered a fellow junior from Bubwith Tennis Club to complete in the Ashby Castle under 14’s doubles and almost won the tournament, narrowly losing in a final set tie break 9- 11. Evie then went onto to complete in a grade 3 under 12’s tournament in Chesterfield and after four tough matches over two days found herself in the final and had championship point to eventually lose 9-11 in another final set tie break – tough to take but that’s sport for you! Fortunately, she bounced back last weekend by winning an under 16’s event in Lancashire – good to experience the highs and lows of sport!

As ever, any juniors keen on entering LTA staged tournaments give me a shout and I can show you how to create a free LTA account and start entering tournaments, these start from under 8’s sponge ball and vary in difficulty level so there’ll be one to suit everyone’s ability!

That’s all for now, keep an eye on our website and social media for lots of coaching updates and club developments. Don’t forget, club night is on a Wednesday evening from 7pm, we’d love to see more members down there. Don’t worry about your level of tennis, we can easily match ability levels from total beginners to seasoned match players!

Kind regards,