A MOMENTOUS YEAR

The year 2022 has certainly been one that everyone will remember forever. I’m thinking Ukraine war, three PM’s, the death of our beloved, longest serving monarch, European and World Cup triumphs for the Lionesses and Twenty 20 cricket team. Of course, closer to home we saw the stupendous achievement of £70k investment in floodlights and court resurfacing. Thanks once again to Dave Kane for his sterling work in bringing this major project to fruition. Cheers Dave. I think we can now be described as a proper tennis club.

Club membership increased once again by 63 and currently stands at 167. This is virtually a 500% increase from the 34 members we had back in April 2020. My thanks go to Raman, who led on the extensive overhaul of the clubs junior coaching offer. I am delighted to say we now have 72 child/junior members and our popular Saturday morning junior coaching classes are nearly all oversubscribed. Cheers Raman. The emphasis now is the provision all year round midweek coaching for our junior members.

The giant strides made in recent years have led to an application being submitted for us to be considered for the Kent LTA Club of the Year Award. I have also nominated recent Life Honorary Member, Alfio for their Volunteer of the Year Award. The clubs burgeoning relationship with our friends at Bexley Mencap, along with the hosting of a Kent Learning Difficulties tournament in June, was a central feature to the application. Shortlisted nominations will be announced on the evening of 19th December. Watch this space.

Three further promotions were achieved. We successfully fielded a midweek mixed vets and Men’s three team for the first time. Indeed we fielded 11 teams in the summer. Truly massive progress when compared to the four teams fielded in 2019. 54 members took part in our annual club tournament and a good crowd observed the eight finals on offer. Our annual D’Mello and Blaver cup tournaments were also well attended. My thanks to Ollie and Noah for organising these events.

The popularity of our Wednesday and Thursday social play sessions continues unabated. Thanks go to Charlie Barnes and others for expertly organising the Wednesday evening sessions under the lights. Despite numerous requests, a volunteer to oversee Sunday social play has not been forthcoming. Consequently attendance has been mixed. Without a volunteer coming forward, this particular social play may die a death of its own volition. Any interested volunteer please contact me.


HAVE WE PEAKED AS A CLUB?

With such rapid progress on and off the court, I pose for healthy debate the question have we peaked as a club? Whilst I foresee future promotions for our fledgling mixed doubles and over 60s team (who understandably have initially been placed in bottom Divisions) promotions in recent years for our Men’s and Vets teams mean we may already be placed in Divisions that accord with “our level”. Having said that, it is true that our Men’s ones probably still have a couple of promotions forthcoming in the Kent winter leagues as a consequence of having to start in 2020 in the lower Divisions.

Unfortunately it is likely that (all things being equal) two of our ten teams may suffer relegation this winter. These would be the first relegations suffered by the club in my eight years here. If you pardon the oxymoron we have ageing vets teams and there does not appear to be any 35-44 year olds at the club who can step in and improve our existing three teams and lower the age profile. With old age comes the likelihood of regular injuries and sadly this has proven to be an ever increasing occurrence in recent years.

Off the court, the club is now burdened with a £25k LTA loan which we are required to pay off over the next seven years. We therefore need to continue to generate income, so please continue to attend our fund raising events. Court usage is down on recent years, particularly amongst those members not currently representing the club in the local leagues. I would be extremely interested to receive feedback from them as to their reduced playing time. Please pm me. I accept that one of the reasons may be the apparent stagnation of our box leagues. We will look to rectify this as soon as possible.

I am a little disheartened by the increase of personal rubbish being left on courts and the low usage of the floodlights to date. In respect of the lights I sincerely hope it is just a consequence of bad weather and the World Cup. I urge all members to arrange a game under the lights. You will be aware that between Christmas and New Year we will be leafleting the local area advertising pay and play and club membership. Please help if you can in the distribution of these leaflets. Such help may even include leafleting your road if you live less than a mile away from the club. Please also try to cajole friends and family with an interest in tennis/sport/leisure to join our club. Personal recommendation/encouragement has proven to be the best recruitment tool available to us.


SPORTS CLUB

Members may be unaware that a proportion of their tennis membership fee goes towards the running of the Sports Club. In return membership entitles you to use the bar facilities and receive 20% off the cost of drinks purchased. It also includes cheap hall hire. The Sports Club recently had to repair the roof at a cost of circa £50k.

Sports Club Committee recently agreed that from 2023 the contribution to the Club per member should be increased. Adult membership, which was previously £5, has increased to £20. Broadly speaking all other memberships (except Family) has been increased from £5 to £10. At our November meeting, the tennis committee felt that these draconian increases could not be totally subsumed by the tennis club. This means that regrettably come membership renewal time on 1st May the cost of membership will increase by £10 for adults and £5 for all other memberships (except child and families).

Finally, I extend to members my very best wishes for the festive season and hope that you all have a healthy, safe and happy 2023.

Bexley Mencap’s Learning Disability tennis group’s summer season has just come to an end. The group have been playing each week at the Tennis Club since the middle of May. Almost 30 members have now had the chance to play tennis and we regularly have 15 players for our two hour session. Following on from our Kent Tennis Best Disability Programme Award in March, the group has made great progress.

This summer we helped organise a tennis festival at the club for Learning Disability Week in June. It was truly inspiring to see people from local day centres attending and receiving special LTA coaching and several have now joined the group. Four members also took part in a Learning Disability event at Bromley Tennis Centre as part of the Kent Championships. But there’s no rest for our ever popular tennis group because we’ll be playing indoors at a local youth centre each week, practising our serves and volleys and hope to return again next year

Good evening everybody, for those of you that don’t know me, I’m Dave Williams, Chairman of the tennis club.

Many thanks for coming along this evening. I guess the majority of you here won’t know that the club will be celebrating its centenary next year. It is therefore a truly momentous occasion that after 99 years of existence from today we now have floodlights on two of our courts which will allow us for the first time to play tennis throughout the year. I am pleased to say that Dave Varela from Sovereign Sports is here. Can we please have a round of applause for Dave and his team who have resurfaced our courts and installed the floodlights for us. Thank you Dave and your team.

I am delighted to say that our Club President, Colin Vousden is here to switch on the lights. Colin, I am sure I speak on behalf of everyone here to say it is absolutely great to see you here and looking so well. Thanks so much for coming along to formally switch on the floodlights for us this evening. I hope that after such a long and distinguished association with the club, you are equally as proud as all of us are that we now have floodlights.

Before Colin switches the lights on, I just wanted to relay to you the history behind the floodlights from my viewpoint. I joined the club in 2015. We had 27 members at that time. A year or so later at the Thursday morning social Colin approached me with a few LTA documents and asked me if I would consider preparing a report for the Committee on the possibility of installing floodlights at the Club. I was not a member of the Committee at the time, so was totally surprised and probably taken aback by the approach.

Nevertheless, I prepared a report and presented it to Committee in April 2016. The estimated cost then was £20k. We only had £3k in the bank, it didn’t seem financially viable and as there wasn’t, in my opinion, any particular enthusiasm from the Committee for it, the report got shelved. However, I was asked to remain on the Committee, which I accepted. Colin then resigned as Chairman but no one came forward to succeed him. To be honest the committee became a bit of a vacuum for the next 3 years.

Through friends of friends we began to attract some good players to the club. Richard Fearn came from Martin Dene and a year later helped to get Dami Yussuf. They were followed by Tom Branch and Charlie Barnes. Fellow Committee member Tim Dalton said to me “I don’t get it Dave, why are players like Dami committing to playing for little old Bexleyheath?”

It was at that moment that I realised that if no one else was going to take control of running the club then I would have to do it. I spoke to Colin and Alfio who said they thought it was a good idea but I also spoke to Tim and Claire as both had indicated in the past that they may be interested in becoming the Chair if the time was right.

I became Chairman in January 2020. We had 33 adult and one junior member and under £9k in the bank. We took under £4k in membership fees. For floodlights to be viable we needed to grow the club. Fast forward 2.5 years and we now have 93 adults and 72 junior/child members. Until recently we had over £43k in the bank. This year we have taken £15k in membership fees. The Club has grown.

So how did we grow the club? I had the time, energy and vision. I wrote a comprehensive recruitment action plan. But I needed help. The Committee already had an excellent Treasurer and Secretary in Alfio Bibbiani and Maria Harris. Claire O’Brien was always around helping out at club events. In the few short months on the Committee, I had identified Dave Kane, the then communications officer as the person to implement the recruitment plan. I met with him, you won’t be surprised it was in a pub and he agreed to come on board. Best decision I ever made.

I similarly head hunted Neil Ferebee to do the social fundraising and sponsorship. Paul Morris became the Safeguarding Officer; Dami relieved me of my painstaking and time consuming Fixture Secretary duties. Ollie Mentessi came on board as Tournament Officer, latterly replaced by Noah Wright. Raman Rai came in as IT Manager and more latterly i/c Child/Junior coaching. Claire became our new joiner project manager. In short, all excellent appointments and over the last three years all have stepped up to the mark which has enabled us to get the club where we are today. Just to be clear, we are all unpaid volunteers who give up their free time to manage the club.

With the club growing in both numbers and income, work started early last year in making floodlights a reality. At this point I’d like to ask Dave Kane to come and join me please. Dave has been a colossal help to me since being Chairman and has project managed the floodlight/resurfacing works.

I always knew that this project would be particularly demanding. What you won’t know is that since it was so important for the club it was my intention to resign as Chairman in order to project manage it. However Dave with his previous BT experience offered to do it. Consequently the two of us have worked side by side on this over the past couple of years. Probably three main areas of work:-

• Numerous site meetings both pre and post implementation. Getting three quotes; agreeing timetables for the works and; liaising closely with the sports club especially since the work was done at the same time as the club house roofing.

• Production and submission of the Council planning application. We did this ourselves when quoted £3k by the contractor. A lot of hard work including writing a heritage statement as to how the lights would not impact upon Danson House as it remains a listed building.

• Submission of a comprehensive business plan as part of our lengthy and successful submission to the LTA for our £25k loan. Believe me when I tell you that dealing with the LTA is not a straightforward experience! Indeed we are still waiting for the loan to come through. Hopefully in a couple of weeks.

Lots, lots more but Dave produced all the documentation to satisfy both the Council and the LTA so thanks again Dave.

Anyway £70k lighter we now have resurfaced courts 3&4 and floodlights to enjoy. Yes we have to pay off the £25k LTA loan over the next 7 years but I want us to keep pushing for more. We need to get courts 1&2 resurfaced and new perimeter fencing. To achieve this we need your help. Please continue to encourage friends and family to join the club – it really has proven to be the best way to increase numbers. Please also try to support our fundraising events. Please support the tennis club as we advertise our pay and play initiative and look to facilitate junior coaching a couple of evenings a week.

Right, without any further ado could we all please assemble outside where Colin will turn on the lights and for those that want to the lights will remain on for a couple of hours for a Wednesday social. For those not partaking, please join me in returning to the bar where we will have some Prosecco and fabulous cakes prepared by Claire, Maria and Noah for you to enjoy.

4 - 0 Victory against Chislehurst - Away
Team was Maggie, Sharon, Amit and Charlie

The 2022 Bexleyheath Tennis Club Tournament, which saw a fantastic 54 members enter 8 events, reached a thrilling conclusion over the August Bank Holiday weekend.
Read More here

Some excellent tennis played by our Juniors who should all be very proud of their efforts.

Finals Day Results we’re as follows:

U14 Final: Amaan beat Armaan 4-1 4-3

U18 Final: Frank beat Harry 6-3 6-0

Junior Doubles final: Harry / Amaan beat Frank / Dev 3-6 6-4 10-8

I am absolutely thrilled, delighted and proud to advise that the following facility improvement works are about to commence at the club.

1) Resurfacing of courts 3&4

Work will commence from Monday 5th September and will take approximately three weeks. Preparatory work will take up the first two weeks, with the resurfacing commencing w/b 19th September.

Obviously these two courts will be closed to members during this three week period, but courts 1&2 will remain open for booking. Weather permitting the courts will be open for usage from 26 September. At this time they will be black cement courts, with tennis lines marked out. Colouring of the court and its surrounding area will follow after the floodlight installation on our other two courts is completed.

2) Floodlight installation on Courts 1&2

Weather permitting the works will commence on 26 September, upon completion of the resurfacing works. The work is expected to take three weeks.

During this three week period only courts 3&4 will be available to members. Once operational, members will be able to make bookings via Club Spark up to 9.30pm under the terms of the approved planning application received from Bexley Council.

Members should note that the cost of these works is £70,000 and will be financed by Tennis Club funds and an (expected) LTA loan of £25,000, repayable over seven years.

3) Moving forward

Unfortunately the current cost of living crisis and the war in Ukraine have meant that quotes received a year ago for the above works increased by 35%. The Club are therefore unable to go ahead with plans to resurface courts 1&2 at this time.

Once the above works are completed, the priority for the club must be to aggressively fund raise so that we are able to resurface the remaining two courts. We have applied to the Lottery Commission for a grant in this respect, so fingers crossed.

I also consider that the perimeter fencing of our four courts need updating. If we can achieve these two improvements, we will, in my eyes at least, be a proper Tennis Club, with facilities the equal of Tennis Clubs in our local area.

Finally I must once again place on record my sincere thanks to Dave Kane, who has led on these facilities improvements in the last couple of years. He has been by my side throughout the process (submitting the Planning Application, attending numerous meetings with contractors, preparing the papers for the LTA loan etc) and this would not be happening without his massive input. Thanks Dave.

Four members of Bexley Mencap took part in the Learning Disability tennis festival at Bromley Tennis Centre as part of the Kent County Champs.

Based at Bexleyheath Tennis club, where they play every week, the group demonstrated their all round tennis skills through a range of special juggling and balancing exercises as well as playing singles.

Afterwards they were presented with medals and t-shirts by Phil Lynch and John Ratcliffe and each received a goody bag.