SCONE TENNIS CLUB

March 2008 NEWSLETTER

Welcome everyone to what is going to be an eventful year for Scone Tennis Club.

With our new courts being developed right now, we are at the start of a new chapter in our club’s history. To mark this ‘new beginning’ the committee has identified a new logo for our club which I have placed at the top of the newsletter. Many thanks to Allan Henderson for the design. This logo will be used on all correspondence.

Some of us are met up recently again for the Quiz Night in Scone Old Church Hall. An enjoyable night was had by all with almost £600 raised. This money will go towards the development of facilities at our tennis club and also assist in the future development of our youngsters in the local area. Thanks to the committee for organising the event and to those of you who attended and/or kindly donated a raffle prize. It did not seem almost a year since we held the last one!

Opening Day Sunday 20^th April @ 2pm

With ongoing work on our courts it has been difficult to set an opening date. The weather has not helped – temperatures have to be in double figures to lay the court surface. As I am typing this newsletter it is snowing! But it will be worth the wait. Even if the courts have not had the lines painted permanently, we can still play on the surface with temporary lines. Please bring along something for afternoon tea around 4pm – sandwiches or cakes. Also if you can indicate to me if you are coming, in advance, that would be useful to know.

Please note that we will be hosting an Official Opening Day for our new courts at some point later in the season and more information will follow about this.

Junior Opening Day and Club Night from Saturday 19^th April @
2pm

Fiona Bruce, with help from others much appreciated, will organise the Junior Opening Day on Saturday 19^th April from 2 - 4pm. Please contact Fiona if you can help out.

The Junior Club Nights will be organised by Douglas Gibson with help from parents, from Friday May 2^nd until Friday 27 June from 6pm to 7.30pm.

STC would like to set up a specific focus for youngsters with an even more determined goal this year of coaching them through the season. As part of our successful SportScotland bid we have to illustrate developments in our coaching capacity and we will be monitored as a club to see how successful this implementation is. Parental involvement will be most welcome. Please contact Douglas if you are able to assist on a Friday night.

Fiona Bruce will organise the Junior Tennis Tayside and Junior Perth & District teams. Please let her know if you are interested in taking part.

Do encourage any juniors you may know of that could come along to the opening day and club nights.

Coaching & Team Information

· Coaching from Jaki Stewart (LTA Coach) on Tuesday April 15^th, 22^nd & 29^th for Adults. Time will be 7.30pm until 9pm at a cost of £6 per session. You ‘pay as you go’.

Jaki has set up a website with all her information about coaching and in particular there is very detailed information about her school Easter Holiday Tennis Camps for juniors and other schedules. Please see her website page to get more information

http://www.jakistewart.co.uk/first.html

· Scone will be entering a second mens team in the Tayside Tennis leagues. So we will have 2 Mens (Thur) and 2 Ladies (Mon) & 1 Henderson Vase team (Mon).

· 1 Junior team (Sat) in the Tennis Tayside Leagues and one in the Perth &District League

· 1 Mens, 1 Ladies and 1 Mixed in the P&D Leagues (Sunday afternoon home, Thursday away)

· Tennis Tayside matches start the week commencing Monday 28th April.

Team Secretary Information:-

Womens 1 Morag Bull tel 441975

Womens 2 Sheila Frenz tel 624742

P&D Ladies/Mixed Elaine Dewar tel 552134

P&D Men/Mixed Allan Barwell tel 01575 560257

or Alan Henderson tel 551306

Juniors Fiona Bruce tel 628154

Henderson Vase Ian Hunter tel 442759

Mens 1 Ian Hunter

Mens 2 Rod Purcell tel 550418

As you probably all know by now DOE (North) Ltd., are constructing new courts. This work is behind schedule but we hope it will be ready early to mid-April at least with temporary painted lines. The courts need to be laid in double figure temperatures, and will have to be down for around 3 weeks before the lines are painted onto the surface permanently. There should not be any interruption to the actual start of the Tennis Tayside playing season J.

Our courts will be dark green on the playing area with a lighter green on the outside. The dimensions of the total playing area will mean we have a longer run-back so some of us will need to hit the ball harder to get it over the net J. The new fence will be of weld mesh structure – more rigid than chain link – and we will also have new floodlights more or less in exactly the same position as before. We are to use a single switch system for the floodlights with provision for future metered usage. Once up and running we will have to monitor the running costs of the floodlights very closely. The committee is also looking into the provision of CCTV in future as a crime prevention measure. It has been disappointing to see some windows broken recently- hence the wooden boards on the windows at the moment.

On behalf of the club I would like to express our gratitude to SportScotland, Perth & Kinross Council, Perth & Kinross Leisure and Ann Gloag for their financial contributions that are allowing us to get new courts on our existing site. The work is being undertaken by DOE (North) Ltd of Aberdeen. Thanks also to other personnel involved, in particular Councillor Lewis Simpson of Strathmore Ward.

I will keep you informed as to when the courts will be playable exactly. We are clearly seeking to use the courts in advance of our opening day on the 20^th April.

Linda Browne has again offered to look into the development of a regular social tennis usually one Sunday a month with lunch or afternoon tea on offer as well.

Later on in the season there will be a celebration of some sort to mark the club’s 75^th anniversary – this has been sidelined due to the work on the new courts.

Enclosed with this newsletter is an application form for the new season. Please download and send in, completed and accompanied, with any necessary payment to our Treasurer, Fraser Gibson, whose address is given on the form.

Alternatively for those of you who wish to be more ‘pc friendly’ then you can edit the form and save it, then email to Fraser on frasergibson@blueyonder.co.uk . Paper versions are also available if you wish to collect a copy from the clubhouse shortly.

Please note my request to have as much accurate information as possible for the membership database – it helps to speed up communication and reduces postage costs.

Also take note, that as agreed at the AGM last October, there is a 25% increase on our subscriptions to allow us to set up a ‘sinking fund’ for the new courts.

There is also a standing order facility for those of you who wish to pay by this method. Fraser will assist you on this.

The ‘Gift Aid’ signature is of particular value to our club as we are a charity. We receive money back for this. Parents please note that you can sign the gift aid statement on behalf of your son/daughter. Thank you in anticipation of doing this.

Thanks to Donald Stewart for continually updating the site – currently there are pictures of the construction work that is taking place.

STC has received 4 tickets for this year’s championships. Two are for Centre Court on Thursday 26 June and two are for Number One Court on Wednesday 2 July.

STC has a ballot for the tickets on our Opening Day and all full paying adult members are entitled to enter the draw. Please let me know in advance of the opening day if you wish to enter this ballot and for what date(s). There has been some confusion – not from me – about whether members should have registered for the British Tennis Membership scheme. Despite what the official letter states you do not have to have joined this year! However please note that in future years you will have to join this scheme, and pay around £7 for the privilege.

Please contact any of the committee should you have any questions or ideas to raise.

Following on from last season’s inaugural and very successful afternoon in memory of John, Kinnoull tennis club have been asked to accommodate this event, this season. They have kindly agreed to this and details will follow later.

Many thanks to those of you who have been taking part in this fundraising scheme.

For those of you who have not used a standing order provision, then the time will come shortly to renew your interest.

It is a simple way of handing over £2 a month on average with £1 going to the club and £1 to the prize draw.

I very much hope that even more members will take part in this scheme. It is about the cost of a bottle of beer a month J.

I realise that everything seems to be going up in price and we are asking members to pay out more – the good news is that we have the fantastic new courts to move forward with as a club although we will have to be sensible and think about future maintenance and running costs also.