TLTC Spring 2015 Update

Club AGM in March

At the club's Annual General Meeting in March, Roger King stepped down after two three-year terms as Chairman. Thanks to Roger for all he has done for the club and we are delighted that he is remaining on the Club Committee to look after 'Facilities', as well as working closely with John on the Lights Application. John Howard and Liz Emmens were voted in as Chair and Deputy Chair Claudio Maggio has stepped down from the committee - thanks to Claudio for all his work over the years.

The full comittee is now: John Howard (Chairman); Liz Emmens (Deputy); Diran Meghreblian (Secretary); David Snow (Treasurer); Roger King (Facilities); Graham Gamble (Playing); Andrea Costello (Coaching/Juniors); Chris Davis (Bar & Social); David McWha (Web Site IT); Steph Harrison (Membership); Philippa Christov (Safeguarding/Membership); Mandy Bullen (Catering)

We are looking to add someone to the committee to look after Publicity - which is essentially providing up to date information for the web site. If anyone is interested in taking on this role, please contact John in the first instance.

In addition to Mandy, we have several other excellent 'in-house' caterers, including Nuala, Geri, Sabrina and Chab. Thanks to all of them - and to everyone who gives up their time for the club.

Winter League Season

The Winter league season has recently finished. The club fielded 7 teams in various leagues and their final results were:-

Womens 1 - 5th in Division 2 (out of 9) Captain - Mayuko Akiyama

Womens 2 - 4th in Division 4 (out of 9) Captain - Philippa Christov

Womens 3 - 8th in Division 4 (out of 9) Captain - Ania Haskins

Mixed 1 - 7th in Division 2 (out of 9) Captain - Rob Blundell

Veterans 1 - 4th in Division 4 (out of 6) Captain - Ann Newport

Veterans 2 - 1st or 2nd in Division 7 (out of 6) Captain - Steph Harrison

Veterans 3 - 6th in Division 8 (out of 7) Captain - Roger King

Thanks to all who played, especially those who travelled to the far corners of North West London in the evening rush hour, and special thanks to all the team Captains.

Vets 2 finished top of their league at the end of March, but a couple of matches are still to be played, so we are waiting to see if their deserved promotion is confirmed.

Also on the playing side we shouldn't forget the Winners of the Men's Handicap Doubles held over from the end of last year. This was won by James Hurworth (rapidly becoming the club's 'Handicap King') & Jonny Cardy, who beat Tido Eger and Andrew Greenleaf in a well-contested Final.

Juniors

Our Summer term kicked off with three full days of Easter Tennis Camps. Despite some blustery winds our committed juniors (ages 9&U through to 16) turned up on all three days. The morning went very quickly with instructional delivery on fundamentals both physical & technical and we moved swiftly after lunch to TLTC's most popular games: touch the net/round the world/21.

The developmental courses and squads started last weekend and we envisage a busy summer schedule for our coaches. If you are interested in signing up your child/children or interested in beginner adult/improver/advanced coaching sessions please contact our Head of Coaching Andrea Costello on 07747 108131 or email:

zippycostello@yahoo.co.uk

Big Weekend (10th to 12th April) - Everyone's A Winner!

Huge Thanks to Chris for organising such a great weekend. Friday saw a Wine Tasting of high quality wines and some fantastic food provided by Sabrina, Chab and Mandy.

Saturday featured the Grand National Sweepstake which saw 12 winners (four for each of the first three places) and a tidy profit for the club.

The climax of the weekend saw the Davis Cup on Sunday, a tie-break based tournament which involved players from across the club. After a great day's tennis, the winners in the two groups were Philippa and Clare, while Jake, Andreas, Liz, Julia, David McWha and Mandy all featured very strongly.

Also on Sunday Rob brought down a speed gun to check our serving speeds. The current hot shot is Harvey with a speed of 110mph. The challenge is on!

What's Coming

Next events are the latter stages of the Winter Singles competitions; the Wing Plate and Wimbledon Draw on 10th May; and the Open Tournament which gets under way very shortly.

Please make sure you have paid your annual sub - and enjoy your tennis in 2015!

Quorn Family Tennis Cup

We were the first club to stage the Quorn Family Tennis Cup on the 21st March, despite a really really cold Saturday, parents and children absolutely loved the event. We had 11 entrants so we opted for two box leagues. The format was tiebreak to 10 points and winners of each box league played each other for the final. The players named their box leagues : “The Heart” and “The Awesome Team”. Guess which team the winning pair was ???!!! Yes you got it ..."The Awesome Team".

A note from a participating parent with two children taking part in the event:
The LTA Quorn family tennis day was brilliant fun. It gave us all the opportunity to play tennis as a family and to have a laugh together. The spirit of the day was fantastic with adults getting the children to rally as much as possible and really get to play some good shots. The underarm rally meant the younger children could get as involved as the older children. Andrea managed the event seamlessly and her enthusiasm is always infectious! A great day had by all, we will return next year on centrecourt! Trudy

Winter social events

Our fantastic social team have arranged a busy programme of social events over the winter months. Even though we might not be able to get out on court as often, there are still plenty of reasons to get down to the club!

More details will follow on the email list, or contact John Howard for information.

Friday 21st Nov  7.30pm    Wine Tasting Evening

Friday 28th Nov   7.30pm   Table Tennis

Friday 5th December   8.00pm   Christmas Party at The Alexsander (more details to follow)

Friday 16th January  7.30pm   Quiz Night

Friday 6th February  7.30pm   Bangers & Mash evening

Save the Children Tennis Cup - Winners!

Last weekend (26th and 27th October) TLTC were represented by 5 pairs playing at the Save the Children Tennis Cup at the NTC all trying to end 3 years of near misses. Previously the mens doubles had already been played with Ollie Foudah and Andrew Greenleaf safely qualifying to the semi finals while Alex March and Chris Midgley benefited from a pair pulling out to get through as well.
On the Saturday it was the first round of the ladies and mixed doubles. The first round was a mini round robin of 3 teams with 2 mini sets to 4 games (with a tie break at 1-1 set all), with the top 2 progressing to the quarter finals. Both tournaments began at the same time so I barely managed to watch any of Martha Bullen and Alex Kramer playing in the ladies doubles. Such was the ease with which they obliterated their opponents that by the time myself and Geri had struggled to make 1-1 they had already left the court. It was therefore no surprise that they duly finished top of the group with only the loss of a handful of games.

It wasn't quite as straight forward for Alison Mackenzie and David McWha and Geri Cummins and myself playing in the mixed. Alison and David lost their first match to a strong pair while I seemed to be suffering from a strange mental condition that meant that getting the ball into the box via a serve seemed like an alien concept and an almost impossible task. We duly lost as well, leaving us both work to do. Alison and David breezed through their last match comfortably taking second spot in their group. Geri and I took a more complicated route - the pair that beat us subsequently lost, meaning we had to win losing no more than 3 games to get through on games difference. Cue a 4-2 4-1 victory, Happy days!

The tournament now reverted to a knock out 1 normal set shoot out. Martha Bullen and Alex Kramer continued to show us all how to do it in the quarters making equally light work of their quarter final opponents as they had with everyone all day. Alison and David, playing a group winner, came unstuck in the quarter finals. But considering it was a scratch pairing did very well. Meanwhile Geri and I finally started to play some good stuff, also playing a group winner won through.

So TLTC had 4 pairs into the semis on Sunday. The draw threw up an all TLTC encounter in the mens doubles, with Alex and Chris coming though against Ollie and Andrew in a tight 6-3 set albeit with a few rather strange calls coming from the LTA umpire (which was slightly alarming given his chosen profession). Including 1 which seemed to be called in despite hitting the side netting diving the courts, having umpires it seems is not all its cracked up to be!

Then Martha and Alex played their quarter final and you can guess the rest, they easily got through to the final. Geri and myself played a good set of attacking tennis winning 6-1. Leaving us with 3 finalists and 3 opportunities for TLTC to win.

Alex and Chris lost narrowly 7-5 despite playing some great tennis.

Martha and Alex for the first time were pushed (slightly) with the score level at 2-2 their class then began to tell as they didnt drop another game, winning the ladies doubles 6-2 in the final.

While Geri and myself played a really close match in the final but stuck to our guns and continued to take the risks playing attacking doubles winning through 7-5.

The finals represented the culmination of a whole season of Save the Children Tennis Tournaments played.
The results were:

Boys’ doubles:
Seth Crabbe and Oscar Brown, Sevenoaks TC beat
Jamie Thomas and Luke Tweed, Millfield Prep

Girls’ doubles:
Jasmine Poole and Ellie Watts, Tunbridge Wells TC beat
Elena Holland and Jemima Morris, Tunbridge Wells TC

Men’s doubles:
Tomasz Zbikowski and Yann Alsford, Wilton TC beat
Chris Midgley and J Alex March, Twickenham TC

Ladies’ doubles:
Martha Bullen and Alex Kramer, Twickenham TC beat
Jane Humphrey and Gillie Turner, Horsmonden TC

Mixed doubles:
Geri Cummins and James Barlow, Twickenham TC beat
Sophie Rouhaud and Nathan Jennings, Thistleworth TC

OPEN DAY SUNDAY 7th JULY 2-5pm

NEW MEMBERS WANTED. 

Our club is seeking new members. Experienced players interested in playing in our league teams will be particularly welcome. Our ladies teams play in divisions 2, 5 and 7 and our men's teams play in divisions 2, 5 8 & 9 of the Middlesex Doubles League.

Come down and try our all-weather courts, modern clubhouse and lively social scene.

For more information contact Geri Cummins (Membership) on 07796 442191 or Roger King (Chair) on 07933 712798 or just turn up on the day when you will be given a warm welcome.

British tennis volunteers recognised at the O2 arena

Congratulations to Oliver Foudah who was one of the winners at the 2012 British Tennis Awards. He won volunteer of year for the South East region.

Link to more details

Men's teams promoted again!

Congratulations to Men's 1st team being promoted to division 2 and Men's 3rd team being promoted to division 7. As the winter leagues begin the club is entering 4 floodlit teams and 3 vet teams.