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Click on the image for the full newsletter  Click on the image for the full newsletter URGENT - crunch time on Wimbledon Tickets
As only 60 members are currently opted in with the LTA Wimbledon BTM scheme for this year, our Wimbledon ticket allocation as it stands, will be greatly reduced from last year. So as we are sure you’ve all made New Year resolutions to get stuff done and out of the way, PLEASE make a 2 minute call to this number 0208 487 7000 and selecting option 1. They just ask your name, postcode and club and opt you in. Final registration date is in Feb so do it NOW.2 More Important Dates For Your Diary The Sports Club AGM is set for Monday February 26th and the Tennis Club one for Monday March 12th, both at 7.30pm. They are the one chance of the year to formally affect the structure and workings of the club, so if you have something on your mind, come down and have your say. A New Year Winner! We had a lot of entries into our New Year Quiz and most of you were pretty well informed about recent club news and happenings. But only a handful of people got 100% - all of whom, funnily enough, are on the committee! However, in front of independent witnesses, the winning name that was drawn was our lovely Ladies Captain Lou Nanda. So, we expected her to be very smartly dressed this season in her iProSports prize but she has very kindly donated the prize to the tennisathon raffle. However you can refresh that old kit at www.iprosports.co.uk/club-zone/knutsford-tennis-club/and look gorgeous for the season. TENNISATHON - urgent call out The prep is underway for our big Tennisathon event on 29/30th June, but we have a couple of urgent requests of you. The 1st is easy. Any unwanted and unopened (no half-eaten boxes of Quality Street thank you!) Christmas presents, we would love for our raffle. So please dig them out and anything else with a new value of £10+ and give them to Anna Righton (in complete confidence - she promises complete discretion, and assures us that Bill won’t be tempted by the chocolates) or to any committee member. Also, we are desperate for any of you who know a celebrity. Could you persuade them to volunteer to spare us an hour or so on Friday 29th June to open the event in grand style. It worked really well last time and helps with PR. So please use your charms on your well-known local figures (who ideally have a soft spot for tennis) and let us know. We’ll be eternally grateful. We will also have some ex Davis Cup players, to rub shoulders with, running a few coaching sessions on the Saturday so keep your eyes open for further details. Don’t forget - line up your friends and family for an hour court slot as well. More details will be released in the coming weeks. Get Ready for a Bit of Valentine "Courting" Following the successful Halloween and Xmas Clubnights , we are planning to run similar events regularly in 2018, so the first special Clubnight is for Valentines which will happen on Tuesday 13th. It also happens to be Shrove Tuesday so pancakes may be involved, though we think it could get a bit messy tossing pancakes with your rackets! Please note that unlike the last 2 specials, when the nibbles were free, we will have to charge a nominal figure to cover Andy Lynes’ and Lou’s costs. Come along and get “Courting” – open to all members. Just A few Coaching Places Remaining It’s not too late to sign up for Mark’s coaching sessions, both junior and senior, for tennis and cardio. Go onto the TennisAces website www.tennis-aces.co.uk or click on the link via www.knutsfordtennisclub.org.uk. Come on you know you’ve been intending to sign up for that cardio session and the kids for Saturday morning. Well now is the time. And Finally...... …. a few words from Bill Jackson. On 12th January, twenty eight of the regular Friday tennis ladies and men took part in the 10th Annual Rose Bowl Tournament held in memory of the late member Diana Jackson. Once again the weather was kind and everyone enjoyed 4 sets of mixed doubles to a rotating format organised by Sue Jarrold and Anna Righton with points awarded for each game won. Victory went to veteran Dave Hunt with 24 points. The event was followed by a gourmet lunch and refreshments, main courses provided by the ladies this year with the men serving up desserts, topped off with a poem from Gerard McCreesh. Over £500 was raised to be donated to the charity Cancer Research. Many thanks to all that contributed to make this such a special event. Coaching Updates
Mark's half term camps are starting on 23rd October and are on for two weeks, Monday-Wednesday, so if you still want to book a place, contact him as soon as possible. There are a couple of spots available on his adult cardio course and Thursday Ladies so contact him via www.tennis-aces.co.uk Or if you've just been meaning to get round to sorting out some private coaching time (it's never too late to improve!), there's no time like the present, so JUST DO IT. Mark's junior presentation night will be held in the hall at 6.30pm on 17th November and it will be a real celebration of their great success this summer, so if you're around, please come and support the event. Just a couple of Housekeeping Notes - or courtkeeping notes. As you all know the bottom 2 courts are the focus of fundraising for resurfacing. But in the meantime, remember that they don't drain as well as the new court surface, so please don't use them in the wet, or if you do, you do so at your own risk. Also thanks to everyone who has cleared leaves before they play, it really helps the maintenance. However, if you are available in the mornings and if an eye on the weather reveals a blowy day, pop down for half an hour to get the worst leaf debris off, that will be very helpful. Another few weeks and it will all be OVER for another year. Important dates for your diary Let's talk about events, there are some brilliant ones coming up (you have to dress up for nearly all of them - as much or as little as you like!) Clubnight November 7th - themed for Halloween/Guy Fawkes. Come appropriately dressed and you will be rewarded with hot dogs and cake! Open to All Adult KTC members. I hope you can join us on this evening for a fun game of tennis with funny forfeits during each round to make it a more enjoyable (challenging) evening !! Prizes for the overall winner from the evenings tennis and the best Halloween theme fancy dress !! - optional of course. Hot and cold nibbles in the bar at 8.30pm onwards Normal start time of 7.00pm No entry fee other than the normal £2 for lights. Come no matter the weather as we can see how good you are at table tennis indoors if the weather isn't kind to us.....I hope to see you there. And in case anyone asks - day members can attend this special club night too…wooooooo ooo! Mexican night November 10th - Morten's daughter was teaching out in Mexico when the latest earthquake hit and has decided to stay out there to help rebuild. So, there will be a Mexican party with live music and food. Prices are £25 per ticket (proceeds to Mexican Earthquake Relief Fund). If you are interested, please contact Morten or Sylvia. Quiz night December 1st - famous Quizmaster (exclusively to KTC) Mr Steve Mockett will be setting and asking the questions BIG prizes, so get your table booked now. (no dressing up required – unless your team name requires it!) Clubnight December 12th - Christmas, so tinsel your trainers and wreath your rackets with holly and come down for some not so serious competition and refreshments. Please support the club by signing up to some or allof the fun events above. La Manga Updates By the time the next newsletter is out, our international team of 13 should be back on our shores from La Manga, but we hope there will have been lots of FB updates whilst they are over there. Not just from the bar either, we want some tennis ones please for the newsletter (all bribes, paid NOT to run photos will go to the junior court project) Launch of Ladder Competitions 2018 In addition to other competitions and events, we will be running both Singles and Doubles ladders next year, where you can challenge people above you to play. It's a great way to meet new people and have as much or as little challenge as you like. Mark will get the lists out early in 2018, so look out for them and sign up. They will run for 6 months, so there's plenty of time to arrange games and climb that ladder! Junior Court Project Finally, we are about to commission Labosport to do a survey of the bottom courts so we can spec the project and get quotations. We used Labosport for the middle courts and although this will be a smaller project, we think a professional survey is necessary to ensure all aspects are initially considered. The possibility of getting large grants is limited as the project is just straight surface replacement due to wear and tear, but we will be exploring all avenues available to us to raise the required funds. Once we know the figure required, we will be going all out to raise money, so please think if there is anything you can do, whether it be running an event, sponsorship, a small donation (or a large one), or providing a loan - we will need your help. The courts are deteriorating and need to be replaced as soon as possible. Waitrose Community Matters The application made to Waitrose to include KTC in this month’s community matters charity pay out was successful and we’re now one of the three groups you can vote for at Waitrose in Knutsford. At the end of your shop in the branch, you’ll receive a token to place in a box near the exit doors - we’ll share £500 with two other charities apportioned depending on the number of tokens received. There’s no minimum value of shop needed to get a token, but you’ll probably have to remind staff to give you one or look out for the container of tokens on the self-service tills. So tell your family and friends to shop at Waitrose and vote for KTC! Mereheath Lane traffic restrictions There is an event being held at Tatton Park on the 11th and 12th November - a 10k run on the Saturday and half marathon on the Sunday, which will result in some road closures in the morning for both Saturday and Sunday on Mereheath Lane. There will be traffic management teams in place to ensure that access to Mereheath Lane is available. There will be one team controlling traffic entering and leaving Mereheath Lane through the Knutsford entrance to the road. The roads will be affected from the following times. Saturday 11th November - 9.40am - 10:45am (approx) Sunday 12th November - 9.20am - 12pm (approx) For further information, please contact Rob Jowett – 07842483119 rob@runthrough.co.uk A whopping 56% survey response
A big thanks to all 86 adults who responded to our recent survey requesting feedback to communications generally and the Club's method of talking to you more specifically. Fortunately, members are generally happy with current comms formats but there are opportunities for timely information being delivered by message apps such WhatsApp and SMS, though you clearly don't want to be bombarded by irrelevant information. All the results are being collated and we will share this and how it will influence the Club's Communication strategy for the future. Interestingly the LTA have recently done a survey of all clubs in the North of England and not surprisingly most clubs have similar sorts of challenges and objectives to us, including funding, attracting and retaining members, volunteering and facilities maintenance and development. Sunday morning tennis is starting again Dave Meredith has kindly volunteered to co-ordinate a session starting at 10am. He will be setting up a WhatsApp group, so if you text your number to him on 07711 059328, he will add you to the group. He can then co-ordinate numbers and advise on weather etc, so let him know asap if you are interested. A chance to win a pair to "Borg v McEnroe" The Club has 2 pairs of free tickets, kindly donated by the CURZON, to the latest tennis film which chronicles the great rivalry between Borg and McEnroe. To win a pair of the tickets, all you have to do is email Moya Meredith on Moya.meredith@gmail.com NOW and the first two will receive a pair of tickets to the Curzon which can be used for any showing (and actually for any film, though it would be nice if it was this one!) Also, if lots of members want to go, it's worth noting that for every 10 tickets you get a free one. It's that time of year again The weather has definitely turned autumnal and you all know what that means, lots and lots of leaves. They all need clearing to protect our courts. So, before you play please brush the courts with the draggers – that way everybody does a bit. However, if you're prepared to be on the volunteer list that can be called upon just a few times a season, please let Helen, Moya or Mark know. We still have the list from last year, so will use that as a base and presume you lovely people still don't mind being contacted. Rusty rackets is having a winter holiday Sonia Amos has done a sterling job of turning up on Thursdays to meet and greet prospective members and help them to pay and play. However, as numbers tail off in winter months, it's been decided to take a break until Spring next year. Thanks to Sonia for all her time. Members are still welcome to turn up and play on Thursdays, organising yourselves and mixing in. New members and Wimbledon We are happy to say we've had 20 brand new members joining over the last few months, so if you see keen new faces around, please make them welcome. Also, the opt in for the Wimbledon Ballot in 2018 opens this week on 20th September so please call 0208487700 and select option 1 and the team will opt you in. You won't need your BTM number, it is honestly that simple! Fit4Life racket players' special offer There are free taster sessions for Pilates every Wednesday at 11.30 at the KSC. These are specifically designed for racket players, so if you are interested email linda@fit4lifeknutsford.com. Our juniors have excelled We don't talk about the juniors enough in our newsletters, but this year they have really excelled in all areas and deserve recognition. Not only to all team members but also to coach Mark and to Justine Read who has done a fantastic job being his right-hand woman! In addition to the summer results below, the Club are also entering an U14 team this winter for the 1st time Aegon Team Tennis -
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