Cardiff Lawn Tennis Club

First let me wish you all a belated happy and successful new year and in particular a great new tennis year. Whatever standard you play to, make it your new year’s resolution to play more, develop one extra shot and keep that winning feeling!

I have been the chairman of the club for just over a year and I thought it would be appropriate to remind you of the highlights of the year just gone and set out a few pointers for the year ahead. First of all though I want to start with a few thank you’s to the many people that make our club such a good one to belong to.

Thank you

Rob Upton our treasurer for the past few years, has continued to ensure the club is on a sound and secure financial footing. It is through his diligence, attention to detail and planning that has allowed us to continue to invest in the facilities of the club and this will continue in the year ahead. Roger Bent our secretary also works on all our behalf to ensure our administrative responsibilities are addressed in a timely and professional manner. Rob, Roger and I are ably supported by Bethan Lewis, Rhian Griffiths and Meurig Evans on the committee and I thank them all for their valued contributions. Paul Davies and Randall Edwards have both stood down from the committee in 2016 and I want to thank them for their fantastic service over the past few years. Randall will continue to be active in the club, running the box league, which goes from strength to strength and captaining teams in both winter and summer leagues.

I want also to thank John Williams, our general manager and head coach, who has coped admirably with another busy and successful year.

2016

So what sort of year has 2016 been for the club?

Team Tennis

Let me start with team tennis and another thank you. This time to all our team captains. Without their hard work and diligence we would not have had the success we’ve had. It can be a thankless task at times, but vital so thank you. It was another very successful year, with both the Mens and Ladies first teams winning the premier 1 summer doubles leagues. This was the fifth year in a row for the men and third year for the ladies. The winter leagues were just as successful too with the Mens, Ladies and Mixed teams winning their respective divisions. What a great day it was for John and I to collect all 5 top trophies at a recent Tennis Wales event.

I know some of you love statistics and in the summer our 12 doubles teams played 157 matches between April and July and in the winter we played 126 matches. We have more teams than any other club in Wales and over 150 members regularly play team tennis for the club.

Closed Club Championships

This year we held the annual event over a weekend in September and congratulations to everyone who took part and especially to our winners!

Singles

Men’s Tiarnan Brady

Ladies Lowri James

Veteran Men’s Tony Gasper

Veteran Ladies Rhian Griffiths

Doubles

Men’s Tiarnan Brady and Rhod Harmes

Ladies Buddug and Lowri James

Veteran Men’s Tony Gasper and Mike Foster

Veteran Ladies Rhian Griffiths and Cathy Weatherup

Mixed Doubles

Jon Stott and Bethan Lewis

Box League

The box league now entering its seventh year continues to be a great success with over 500 matches played in the 2015/16 season. Thank you again Randall and well done to everyone who has played their matches whatever the winter weather throws.

Tournaments

I am sure you will agree that it is one of the joys of being a member of this club to see our juniors grow and develop as the years go by. Last year was another outstanding year for our juniors. Many of them were involved in the junior competitions held at the club and at the annual trip to Torquay. We had several successes in all the tournaments held at the club over the summer. The main ones were our Open, the Junior Welsh Championships and the Tri-Nations.

Courts

During the year Courts 8-11 have been cleaned and re-painted with extra grip paint and the feedback we have had in all sorts of weather conditions has been very good and they have proven to be very popular over the winter.

Catering

It has been a difficult year for our catering operation at the club. In May, Ramo our chef for a number of years left the club at very short notice. This was just at the start of the busy summer season and was not an easy situation. However with help from many people and patience from you the members we coped and recruited his replacement. Marcia and Jane were thrown in at the deep end and now have the experience of a busy summer and Christmas period behind them. So thank you to them and welcome to the club! 2017 should be a year when the clubhouse operation settles down.

2017

Courts

Courts 5-7, the artificial grass courts, just about held up for the summer season in 2016, but were not good in the wet as the winter weather took hold. However as many of you know we plan to replace them this year and we are well on the way to making this happen. We have done plenty of research into what surfaces are available and several of you have helped John and I try out some of our favourites. No deal has been done yet to commit to the new surface but we are well on the way and I hope to be able to write to you separately in the near future with a comprehensive report on the choice of surface and the timescales.

Teams

Considerable focus will again be on team tennis and we aim to repeat our successes of recent years. Captains will be selected ahead of the trials in March and team coaching will begin in April. If you have not played team tennis yet but are keen to try, then there is probably a team of the right standard for you. In the first instance have a word with John Williams and come along to the trials.

Tennis for all

We will again be holding our Friday mix-in evenings and they give everyone a chance to play with different people and help you to get to know a few extra club members. So whether you are a new member or not, come along in April and enjoy some social tennis. Over the summer months we will be holding a few Friday evening events, such as an American tournament, so hopefully there will be something for everyone to enjoy.

Tournaments and Events

We will again be holding our Cardiff Open tournament and taking a group to the Torquay championship. We will also be holding a few junior Matchplays for juniors and of course the closed club championship. As far as events are concerned we will be having a few Friday evening events as part of the weekly mix-in (John will highlight these as the year progresses) and a Wimbledon Finals day American Tournament, Touch Tennis and a celebration at the end of July of our summer doubles season.

Wimbledon Tickets

I also want to remind you of the importance of all BTM members opting in to the Wimbledon ballot process. Even if you have no intention of going to Wimbledon it significantly affects the number of tickets the club is allocated. So if there is one thing you could do for other club members this year it is opt in and help maintain our ticket allocation.

And finally

We are determined to make our website more interactive and relevant this year to members and prospective members alike. The committee will be putting more news items on the site and up to date information. Help us by sending John any news you think would be interesting to members and take a look now and again to see what’s happening in the club.

Happy new year

Graham Webster

(Chairman)