Thanks to the 174 of you that have, so far, opted into the 2017 Wimbledon Ticket ballot. However, that's way short of where it needs to be. You will need to opt in if you wish to participate and you should opt in anyway even if you won't be participating as it will help to increase the number of pairs of tickets the club is allocated. At the cut-off date the LTA imposed earlier this year about 300 had opted in. So please don't leave it to the last minute. Login to the LTA site and opt in or call them on 020 8487 7000, as that's probably easier to opt in for multiple people. If you aren't yet a member of the LTA's British Tennis programme just go to their website and join up, for free, ensuring you affliate to Brondesbury, which is in the LTA's Middlesex region.
Below is the schedule for junior matches this winter season. They will all start at 12 noon, when, hopefully, there is a lull in court demand. Please take note of the dates listed if you wish avoid these times. They should finish in roughly two hours, but might take longer, depending on the age. The matches are also recorded in the website calendar.
Thanks to the 110 of you that have, so far, opted into the 2017 Wimbledon Ticket ballot. However, that's way short of where it needs to be. You will need to opt in if you wish to participate and you should opt in anyway even if you won't be participating as it will help to increase the number of pairs of tickets the club is allocated. At the cut-off date the LTA imposed earlier this year about 300 had opted in. So please don't leave it to the last minute. Login to the LTA site and opt in or call them on 020 8487 7000, as that's probably easier to opt in for multiple people. If you aren't yet a member of the LTA's British Tennis programme just go to their website and join up, for free, ensuring you affliate to Brondesbury, which is in the LTA's Middlesex region.
This year's Tennis AGM went off smoothly on Sunday evening and was well attended. Many thanks to all of you who came. I initially gave my report, which is detailed document
here
. Essentially the section is in excellent shape, with membership continuing its expected rise by about 20. It now stands at 507. Because our Club Treasurer, Martyn Webb, was unable to attend, he supplied document
this report
, which I passed to attendees and discussed. The club, by comparison with its entire history since 1887 (so we believe) is in the best financial state ever. It has over £250k at the bank and appears to be adding about £70k annually to club funds. The Tennis section, which adds well over £100k p.a. to club funds is the main reason for this new situation, which enables us to contemplate signficant new projects (about which, more below).
Madeleine Abramson, Club Secretary, then took the stage and explained some major new projects underway. The most signficant of these is the new partnership established recently between Primrose Hill Cricket Club (PHCC) and the Cricket section. Yesterday's Club Newsletter described some of the results of that partnership. She went on to say that the club was commissioning refurbishment in the main clubhouse to the showers and toilet facilities for visitors, ladies and men. This is long overdue, but the club's healthy financial status now enables the board to take these sorts of decisions. Finally, the bar, which has been losing a great deal of money, will be open on Friday evenings only and is likely to be closed for the first three months of next year.
Marina then gave an overview of the coaching programme, which is document
here
. Essentially, as we all know, her leadership has resulted in the club's coaching programme to be at its best ever, and this has resulted in limits being hit on coaching capacity (hence the need for a new court). She also announced that we will be extending our junior match programme from the summer to include the winter, so our kids can maintain their match fitness. There will be fewer teams than in the summer so we are expecting there not to be much court contention as a result. All junior matches will be scheduled to start at 12 noon at the weekend, which is quiet time before the PM activity picks up. If you wish to avoid times when there are junior matches then please check the calendar on the club website.
I then went on to report that we are progressing quotes for a toilet/office facility at the tennis pavilion. The quotes we have received so far have been far too high, but professional advice we have recently received suggests we might be able to get it done within a reasonable sum.
As mentioned above, we are short of court capacity for coaching and are in the process of submitting a planning application for a new court with lights to be built on the bowling green. We hope to know the result of this early in the new year.
There was some discussion about the very poor state of the car park. We have done cosmetic work from time to time but this doesn't last and a proper 'road-quality' job needs doing, which would cost over £30k, probably. It doesn't make sense to contemplate doing that until the new court is built as that will involve significant disruption.
The Tennis AGM is at 6pm this evening, Sunday Oct 9. Please come along to hear what's been happening (which is quite a lot) and what will be happening (which is also quite a lot) and air your views of what should be happening.
