Lowlands Annual Report for 2012/13
Tennis members: The tennis section has continued to grow year on year as can be seen.
SUMMER
Summer Tournament: During the summer we ran 10 competitions and had a most successful finals day ever with 120 people in attendance. The finals day was organised by Kevin, Lorraine and Mike and many other helpers on the day. The day was reported in the Harrow Observer (see news article). The current champions are: Men's Singles: Yura Bolotov, Ladies' Singles: Nic Gunby, Men's Doubles: Yura Bolotov and Mick Hooker, Ladies' Doubles: Nic Gunby & Caroline Wynn. Mixed Doubles: Peter Rutland & Nic Gunby. Senior Men's Singles: Phil Lewis, Senior Men's Doubles: Chris Milton & Kevin Doke, Senior Women's Doubles: Nicki Bean and Jane Tweedie, Senior Mixed Doubles: Chris Milton and Pat Cava. Junior finals day: Our finals day also include a junior final, which was won by George Watts aged 14. The success was published in the local Harrow Observer. A new honours board has been established in the main hall.
Summer leagues: Mike Askew, Men’s Captain reported that 2012 was a positive season for Lowlands Men's Teams. In a tough season, 6 teams managed to consolidate their position in the league after promotion in the previous seasons. Team 7 were promoted. The teams in 2013 are:
Team 1 / Intermediate / Martin Lewis / Team 1 / Premier / Nic Gunby
Team 2 / Division 1 / Abbas Merali / Team 2 / Division 1 / Angela Lonergan
Team 3 / Division 2 / Mike Askew / Team 3 / Division 1 / Sophia Pittas
Team 4 / Division 2 / Matt Sweeney / Team 4 / Division 3 / Terri Morgan
Team 5 / Division 4 / Chris Filer
Team 6 / Division 5 / Kevin Tye
Team 7 / Division 5 / Cliff Gray
Nic Gunby, reported that the ladies teams did very well and all finishing in 2nd place and three ladies teams were promoted including the first team getting promoted to the Premier Division.
Match Days: We have now arranged 80 fixtures home and way for 11 teams in 2013. We have arranged for each team to play at least one home game on a Friday to ease court pressures during mid-week. Two local Derby’s take place on Friday 10th May….T3 Vs T4 and T6 Vs T7.
Wimbledon Draw: In 2012 we ran a very successful open Wimbledon Draw and 60 members had a fantastic day at Wimbledon. This year the ballot takes place at the AGM and the winners will receive their tickets directly from the LTA and are required to pay on-line or by phone within 14 days.
Greenford and District league has been running for many years and started before the war to encourage competitive but friendly tennis between large company's such as Glaxo, Kodak, CAV, Barclay's British Airways, Metal Box Company and many more large companies. This year we are fielding two mixed teams: Paul Fenech is captain of the 1st team Lee Morgan captain of the 2nd team. Any players wanting to play can contact either captain.
WINTER
Singles Box leagues: During the winter there have been 7 Divisions for singles box leagues. These have been co-ordinated by John Philipson assisted by Mike Askew. There have also been three women’s box leagues that were set up by Angelica Paladini.
Winter leagues: Several winter league teams have been running and we have teams in the Men’s, Mixed, Ladies and Vets leagues experiencing great success.
Team / Captain / DivisionMen’1 / Martin Lewis / Division 1 West
Men’s 2 / Richard White / Gaining Promotion to Division 3,
Ladies 1 / Nic Gunby / Division 1 West
Ladies 2 / Jackie Moss / Division 3 West
Mixed 1 / Jane Tweedie, / Division 1 West
The Club also takes part in the Northwood Floodlight League.
Mixed Vets: The surge of interest in Team Tennis is also reflected in the expressions of interest to participate in the Middlesex Mixed Winter Leagues. To ensure that everybody who is interested gets at least a game or two we have increased the number of teams to four and will have a more transparent selection process - selecting squads in much the same way as the Summer Leagues operate. This enabled more competitive matches. The captains were: Mixed Vets 1 – Lillian Moshe, Mixed Vets 2 – Paul Fenech, Mixed Vets 3 – Tricia Fenech, Mixed Vets 4 - Charlie Squires.
GB Vets. There are also six other Great Britain Vets teams.
Currie Cup: We have had a very successful Men’s Currie Cup. This year we had the 2nd Ladies Currie Cup. The finals for both took place on 26th April and the winners were Kevin Tye and Pongsakorn Kongaunruan. The ladies winners were Elizabeth Almond & Katie Barnes.
Pimms Cup: This year saw the second year of the Pimms Cup, which is a mixed tournament. The final will be in May 2013.
CLUBMARK AND COACHING
Clubmark: Lowlands is a Clubmark Club and the LTA reviewed our performance against the Clubmark criteria, which was awarded 4 years ago in 2009. This is a quality award that looks at Policies, Procedures, Risk Assessments, Coaching Standards and Qualifications, Adult and Junior participation. Much work has been done in last 12 months to improve Lowlands against the Clubmark criteria. Meetings have been held with the LTA to review our strengths and areas for improvement to re-qualify for Clubmark, which puts the club in a favourable position for future funding. I can report that Our Clubmark has been renewed for another 4 years until 2017. A new Plaque will appear shortly.
Coaching: Coaching has continued throughout the club for all sections with activities daily. There is a very strong adult coaching programme. The Coaches will be running an U16 team and U14 team over the summer. We are aiming to strengthen the Junior programme as this is part of the Clubmark accreditation process. We currently have 40 Juniors and 10-15 Juniors who regularly compete in competitions. We are aiming to increase this to 20 Regularly Competing Juniors, which is the Clubmark average for a club of our size. We established a Coaching Agreement with our coaches.
MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION
Ball management: We have sought to ensure all social sessions are serviced and the ball rota is: Kevin Tye (Wednesdays), Mike Askew (Saturdays) and Irene (Sundays). The use of balls has increased slightly. Wilson balls are available at the bar for purchase for personal use.
Environmental issues: We re-cycle balls from full member’s sessions. Please put balls in the shute in the coaches shed after use and turn the lights off in the evening. To preserve the courts, please lock up the courts if you are last to leave.
Euroclay Courts: The red courts had a ton of additional top dressing applied last April with the normal maintenance i.e. brushing and redistribution of dressing. The red courts have a standard maintenance pre-season. We did not need any more top dressing - the existing dressing is moved around when the brushing is carried out. These courts are best when dragged before a game.
Claytex Courts: The green courts were machine-brushed and extra top dressing applied after the root barrier was completed last November 2011. The green courts do not require any further treatment at the present time.
Mini Courts: The mini court was cleaned approximately after the root barrier was put in place. The mini court could do with anti-moss treatment. The weather has not been good enough for this to take place but will be arranged shortly.
Online database: Lowlands has an online database of members' information, which is available for search purposes (with restricted access to contact information only). This facility is available to all valid (paid up) members through a logon process on the Lowlands website You can easily edit / revise any of your personal information if it is incorrect and / or your details have changed. (http://www.lowlandsclub.com/).
On-line Club competition: As last year the Internal Tournament is by way of on-line process building upon the success of last year. There have been some teething issues that John Philipson has been dealing with the LTA.
Communication
We have tried to improve communication internally and externally and there have been a couple of articles in the Harrow Observer about thee successful summer season and the Club Finals Day. We have also used Facebook and Twitter to record events and report on matches and other news relevant to the club. This is a new area for the club and about 120 people use the Club Facebook site. We are keen to gain ideas on how to improve our communication.
The Club Calendar is the main area for recording future matches and all captains are encouraged to show their fixtures to avoid conflicts. We are now using a new court scheduling calendar which can be viewed at the following link (http://www.lowlandsclub.com/resources/lowlands_calendar.html).
Off Peak and Social Tennis sections
The Off- Peak is a friendly section with varied ability from 50 middle to quite strong players. We have been able maintain a good attendance level, even in the dire weather conditions we have had this winter. The section also seems to working quite well as a feeder, for players wishing to progress up to Full Tennis. The Social Tennis Section continues with 60 members.
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