Welcome to our November Newsletter!

Tennis

We are pleased to confirm that it was unanimously agreed at the Special General Meeting on 17th November to go ahead with the proposed programme of work to tennis courts 6a, 7, 8 and 9.  Among other things, resurfacing of the courts and - for 7, 8 and 9 - replacement of the floodlights with LED lighting.

We are now finalising the specification, cost and timing with the contractors.  We will keep you informed.

As an example of how good the latest LED lighting systems are, we now have LED for our 2 indoor courts, which has been very well received by those of you who have started to move their games inside now that Winter is descending.

Squash and Racketball

Membership numbers and court utilisation continue to nudge upwards each month, as indoor sports recover. The membership level is now nearly back to where we were pre-pandemic.

One of the things that is most pleasing is that we now have 3 local schools using the courts for games lessons and/or after-school clubs, in addition to our own junior squads, giving us a throughput of nearly 200 juniors playing squash at the club each week in term-time, which is very encouraging for the club and the sport.

We are also very proud of our squash coach, Grace Gear, who earlier this month won her first professional tournament.  Seeded 5 going into the event, Grace beat the world number 67 and 72 on route to the title. Brilliant job Grace!

We have had a few incidents recently where permanent black marks have ruined the court surface.  Squash court floors are untreated, to maximise their grip but, as a result, they can be easily marked. 

Please can you ensure that you wear clean, non-marking shoes on the courts. Change into your squash shoes after you have arrived at the club, rather than bring dirt and grit from outside onto the courts.  

Another common cause of indelible floor marks can be old and worn-out racket grips.  After a while, the rubber on the grip fails and starts to flake off.  If you are returning to squash or racketball after some time away, please change your grip to avoid the risk of this happening.

Social

On Saturday we have the annual Club Dinner.  It should be a great night!

In line with the latest Government advice, which has been slightly updated this week, as with all indoor events you may wish to take a lateral flow test before (and after) attending, to help keep everyone protected.

Other matters

Most of you know that the club’s defibrillator has been called into use on a number of occasions.

It has been a while since we last ran some AED training, so we thought we’d do so in the New Year.  Watch this space for dates.  In the meantime, here’s a link to the demonstration video on our website https://youtu.be/6JbQ7kmvX38

Finally, a long-standing member, Andy Oliver, would like to say goodbye to everyone after being a member for 37 years.  Andy is moving to Suffolk and would like to thank everyone with whom he has played and socialised over the years, to the managers, the coaches and the bar staff, for making BLT&SRC a very welcoming club.  Thank-you, Andy, and keep playing!

That’s all for now.  We’ll see some of you at the Club Dinner!