Mince Pie American

The annual Mince Pie American took place on Sunday 28th December, with an unusual entry of 9 men and 7 ladies (it’s usually the other way around!). One kind gent played as a lady, which meant three matches were a mixed pair versus two men. However, the men had to take a 0-15 handicap in each game.

All competitors enjoyed an excellent morning’s tennis, with some great rallies and close matches throughout the proceedings. Well done to all who turned out to play at this rather cool time of year!

Congratulations to Sarah Stevens and Paul Stainsby, this years’ winners, and thanks once again to Jane Wells and Peter Sargent for organising the event, as well as to all the members who brought along Christmas goodies to eat.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on Sunday 7th December. Our thanks to Sue and Jan for organizing and to all those members who attended and joined in the discussions and voting. Unfortunately, it was a very low turnout this year, possibly because December brings all the distractions of Christmas shopping, the usual seasonal preparations and family priorities.

Below is an end of year round-up and the main headlines from the AGM.

Club Finances

Income and Expenses for the 2024/25 financial year were comparable to 2023/24, with the exception of the costs for re-surfacing the courts last year.

The membership is now 80 in total, with 65 Seniors, 12 Juniors and 3 Social (non-playing) members. As usual, the Club has once again been able to reserve some of the income against future costs.

Subscriptions and Memberships

Our proposal this year was to keep membership fees for 2026 at the same level as 2025. The AGM agreed and therefore Senior fees will remain at £120, assuming renewal is completed by 30th April, rising to £140 as the standard fee from 1st May and for all new memberships. The usual discounts will apply to Individual Juniors (50%) and Family Juniors (75%).

Following a discussion and vote at the AGM, the proposal to introduce a discounted rate for playing members who are 80 or in their 80th year was ratified. The Silver Membership discount rate will be 50%.

Update on the Courts

We met with ETC Sports in August and reviewed the court surfaces, given there has been some initial surface cracking and a worrying problem around the far end of the net post on court 3. Unfortunately, they are seeing surface issues at numerous clubs, especially after such a dry summer, and the Tugmutton Common environment (water table, tree roots) is not helping.

On a positive note, most of the cracks appear to be cosmetic and our suppliers believe they can be easily corrected; the net post less so, as it is dependent on the foundations underneath. These were not renewed during the re-surfacing, as the Club could not afford it. The cosmetic work will be undertaken for free, but we will have to pay for the remedial work on the net post.

Following the review, we agreed to monitor developments until October, so that we could see the effects of the four seasons on the surfaces before taking any action. During October, we met with idverde and ETC Sports again and agreed to proceed with the cosmetic improvements before the Winter sets in.

However, our suppliers have not made the time to do the work as yet and idverde have now lost both the management resources who were working with ETC Sports. We are continuing to press idverde and ETC Sports to complete the work this year, but have so far not been successful. It now seems unlikely that we will achieve this before the winter sets in.