Autumn Newsletter

Welcome to the autumn edition of our newsletter (now written quarterly). The weather’s definitely taken on a soggier feel however numbers at club night are increasing and a huge amount of work has been going on in the background to help prepare for what could be a fantastic 2026 at Riccall Tennis Club! Here’s all the latest news!

Introducing our committee:

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

Treasurer: Andrew Dunning

Secretary: Marilyn Angles

Committee member: Steve Packer

Committee member: Lucy Dennis

Coaching: Jack Wood

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

Padel developments:

We really hope we’re at the final stages of planning before we can begin to construct the padel court. Unfortunately, North Yorkshire planning have requested an environmental report consisting of a sound and lightning plan as well as a construction plan. We are currently appealing the need for these and are awaiting a decision from them by the 30th November. As I’m sure you are aware, we have taken delivery of the padel court and it is currently being stored on court 4. If you do have any time or feel particularly passionate about its installation, any comments of support on the North Yorkshire planning portal, I’m sure, would help in our application. We really hope this is successful as the money raised from this will go a long way to securing the future of the club and gives us a chance to begin the plans of rebuilding all 3 courts.

Court/club developments:

We’ve spent a long time working on court one recently, trying to flatten the lumps that have appeared, we’ve almost completed one side of court one however on close inspection I’d estimate at least another 20-30 lumps to work on. It’s not perfect but hopefully a little better than it was. I’m sure when we get some paint it’ll all look a lot tidier as well. You may also have noticed a number of cracks running on the outside of all of the courts, we’ve spent time filling these in as well which works really well, my hope is that it can all be completed by January. 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 some bistro style tables and chairs outside the clubhouse as well as 3 display boards that we’re just about to put up in the clubhouse. We’ll display safeguarding, coaching and club information on these which will help us to get ready for LTA accreditation in the new year. Solar lights have been added to the raised beds as well as a new kite to scare away the pigeons (currently being stored inside over the winter). We’ve also purchased some brand-new orange and green balls for juniors which can be used for club socials as well as cardio tennis sessions (feel free to borrow any of these, they’re located in the drawers next to the steps).

Junior coaching/Adult coaching:

Introducing our new Head Coach: Jack Wood (LTA Accredited Professional Tennis Coach)

“I started playing tennis in a small village called Copmanthorpe at the age of 7. I then started assisting and coaching in and around the York area from the age of 17, and became an LTA Accredited coach in 2011. Overall, coaching for nearly 18 years, I’ve had the pleasure of coaching children from the age of 2 to adults of all ages. I’ve had the joy of coaching complete beginners who’ve never played before as well as players competing in the Special Olympics World Games (taking home gold and silver medals!) My main skill however and what I’ve always taken pride in is my ability to get the best tennis out of all players, tactically and technically. I have a strong work ethic, I’m reliable and make the most of every session to get the best out of everyone I coach.

Personally, I’ve played in the York Tykes Division 1 for a number of seasons and continue to play competitively. I’m Head Coach at a number of local clubs and I’m thoroughly looking forward to working with all players of all abilities at Riccall Tennis Club in sessions that members are keen for me to deliver. As mentioned, I do still play socially and competitively but outside of tennis I enjoy spending time my family (I have a 6-year-old and 3-year-old) and also enjoy a game of golf when I get the time off court!”

Jack has already held his first half-term camp and generated lots of interest in the junior coaching which officially began on Tuesday 11th November. Adult coaching followed this, with 8 players coming along for a fantastic session with numbers set to at least double in the weeks to come. Make sure you’re part of the adult or junior coaching groups in our WhatsApp community for all the latest information. Here’s an overview of our Tuesday coaching programme:

Teams

The season finished in early September following a fresh start with a number of our teams. Squads became more settled as the season went on with the men’s and mixed 1st team showing promotion form at the end of the season (although couldn’t quite fight off relegation). The men also took part in an end of season cup competition and got to the semi-finals, narrowly losing to the eventual winners! The mixed second team just missed out on promotion after an amazing season which included fielding some of our junior players! Finally, saving the best until last, the ladies brilliantly secured promotion and will now play in division 4 next season – a great achievement, well done to everyone who represented the club! We have a much bigger pool of players going into next season which will help captains and this coupled with our new head coach giving us top quality doubles coaching will put us in good stead for a successful season in all teams. Thank to all our team captains, (Jayne, Andrew and Steve P) for working hard to select and organise matches. Here’s the final standing in the leagues:

Ladies:

Mixed 1:

Mixed 2:

Men’s:

Club nights / Events to get involved in:

Two up and coming events for your diary! Our next ‘Autumn Social’ is planned for Friday 14th November from 6:30pm where we’ll have sausage sandwiches on the go (free of charge) together with tennis games as well as some free court time to play. We’re also just about to finalise a date for our Christmas social. Christmas jumpers and tennis party games will be the theme! Let us know if you’ll be coming down so that we have an idea of numbers for catering. As a reminder we’ve extended club night to include events on Fridays as well! These will rotate between a regular club night and a cardio tennis session! Keep an eye on our weekly updates released on Sundays showing the plan for the week ahead.

Further information on club nights – Everyone is welcome at club night, don’t worry about your ability level, you’ll be welcomed on arrival and invited into a doubles or singles match which will suit your level. We play a match consisting of 4 games and then rotate partners and opponents and try to give everyone a chance to play with each other. People arrive at a variety of times, some come as early as 6pm whilst others arrive between 7:30- 8pm so choose a time to suit your availability. Those that have kept playing over Autumn are really starting to see the benefit of continuing over the off-season in preparation for the spring. After a fresh start with lots of our teams last year we’ve started to build good squads so keeping up that practice over the winter will pay dividends next year. The ladies have always continued winter training on Monday mornings and achieved great things last year so it really does make a difference if you can make it.

Club night balls, family event balls:

Providing quality balls for club nights and our family events are a priority for the coming year. We now have a weekly supply of balls to use for club nights (Ben is managing this process well), balls are ready on top of the grey storage box in the kit room (located in the club house). As mentioned, we’ve also purchased a supply of junior balls and are available for family events and any juniors who wish to come down and play.

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 emphasise the importance of our court booking system. We have had a considerable increase in pay and play bookings over the summer so please ensure courts are booked so that we don’t have a clash of court use. The booking system 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 club’s 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.

Club kit:

We’re currently looking at offering a range of Riccall Tennis Club clothing ranging from t-shirts to hoodies that can be purchased online and can all be personalised. This can be extended to water bottles, caps, towels to offer a fantastic range of club merchandise. Members will hopefully be able to purchase individual items or will be able to purchase kit bundles which will be an exciting development for the club. Fingers crossed that we may be able to have this in place before Christmas!

Other news in the pipeline:

We’re currently trying to organise a free first aid session for all members which will include CPR and correct use of a defibrillator as well as trying to make some firm links with the local primary school. We’ve recently made links with Barlby High School and are helping them to raise money for some pickeball equipment via a Tesco grant that we may well be able to borrow in the future! We’re also exploring the idea of using our club to host a village youth club so lots going on in the background!

As you can see, we’re trying to be as proactive as possible and really trying move our club to the next level. Hopefully in the next edition (Winter issue) we’ll be able to see progress with the padel court as well hearing more great feedback from our new coaching programme and hopefully we can share with you the launch of our club merchandise!

We hope to see you down the courts for club nights, social event and coaching sessions in the weeks to come.

Kind regards,