Welcome to our May newsletter.

Super Sunday 14th May 

What a brilliant day!

Combining the National League Division 1 tennis match outside, with the squash and racketball finals day inside, coupled with beautiful weather, resulted in a fantastic occasion.

Several hundred spectators were treated to probably the best ever tennis seen at the club, and some excellent squash and racketball matches, with many people taking advantage of being able to dip into both.

It was also the first of our two annual Open Days:  welcome to our new joiners!

Unfortunately, our tennis team narrowly lost 2-4, missing a match point in one of the single matches that would have produced a sudden death shootout to decide the result.  It would have been a fitting end to the day!  Our team did brilliantly, though, to give themselves a chance and get that close, against the perennial national champions, Roehampton - the Manchester City of the tennis world.

Inside, we had new names on the open squash trophies:  Ethan Duncan and Katie Winterstein.  Mark Shattock and Natalie Main won the racketball open events.

Next tennis and squash dates for your diary

Our next National League tennis home match is just 10 days away, on Sunday 4th June, against Risbygate.  The action starts from 12 noon and the weather forecast looks excellent.  Bring your hats and sun cream and the best beer garden in Berko beckons!

Then of course, on Saturday 24th June, it is tennis’ turn to have their club finals day.  Who will be immortalised on the honours boards this year - come along and find out.

Squash-wise, we have our annual John Cheshire Memorial Doubles this Saturday from 4pm.  John was a much-loved club member for many years and the event gives us a chance to remember John and to raise money in his name for the Hospice of St Francis.

Then we start to gear-up for our our pro squash tournament, the 2023 Berkhamsted Linksap Open running from 6th July to 9th July.  We’ll be launching ticket sales at the start of June.

Social Chair

We are very pleased to announce that Matt Markwort has agreed to rejoin our Club Council as Social Chairman.

Matt has done this role before and we are delighted that we have been able to persuade him to take up the position once more.

Facilities

New women’s showers are coming soon.  The design has been signed-off by the project’s steering group, comprising six of our women members, Susannah and Vicky our club managers, and chaired by John, our club chairman.

Local business, Hawk Kitchens & Bathrooms, have been instructed (they did a great job with the men’s showers a couple of years ago) and work will commence on Monday 10th July and take until the start of August.  Please bear with us during that period, when the women’s changing rooms will be out-of-action.  The toilets will be unaffected.

Also coming soon is a second set of bifold doors in the clubhouse, to further open up the lounge area onto the terrace for the Summer months.

And outside we will shortly be doing some work to the car park, to improve the parking on the right hand side next to tennis court 6b.  Currently we have two inadequate spaces, one of which is unsatisfactory for blue badge holders and results in cars overhanging and disrupting the barrier sensors.

Spotlight on… Isalie

We introduced this section last month, to take a brief closer look at one part of the operations of our club and the people behind them.  Last month we put the spotlight on Tyrell and BTF.  This month we look at Graham and Claire Garlick who run the company that provides our bar, catering and event hiring services, Isalie Bar & Event Management Ltd.

In July 2014 we outsourced those items to Isalie when Bob and Carol Warren, our previous providers, retired.

Graham and Claire run the bar and kitchen, employ and manage the support staff for those services; Graham is our licensee for alcohol sales and manages our club’s premises licence for alcohol and events, including adherence to the closing times for the bar and clubhouse as stipulated by DBC (posted in our entrance lobby), and any agreed extensions.  It is Graham’s bar team that lock and alarm the clubhouse for us every night, other than Sunday evenings and Bank Holidays when the bar is shut and one of our small roster of volunteer keyholders comes down to lock up.  (Which is why we close the clubhouse earlier on those days).

Claire grew up in Ealing, Graham in Neasden.  Claire has a teaching degree and taught for many years in Knightsbridge and St John’s Wood.  Graham was lead singer of a band, Hard Options, who released an album and two singles (they can be found on YouTube!) and played the pub music circuit in North London, before he settled into a sales career.

After moving to Tring when they had their second child, they set up Isalie (named after their children, Isabella and Charlie), running a coffee shop and selling to cafes and farm shops, and at farmers’ markets, before becoming the catering providers to the Grass Roots Group headquarters in Tring, up until they came to work with us.

They still provide some of their original catering services outside the club.  Their sausage rolls are sold by Epicure in the High Street, Claire does the matchday catering for Tring Athletic FC and cake sales for afternoon teas and birthdays.

In his spare time, Graham coaches the Colts team at Tring RFC and has been an Arsenal season ticket holder for 25 years.

One final ‘did you know’ fact:  for gin lovers among us, they stock 35 different gins at our bar!

That’s all for now, until next month.

Club Council

(John Shaw, Phil Trimmer, Michael Beavis, Tracey Mackey, Mark Shattock, Matt Markwort)