Welcome to our December Newsletter, the final edition for 2021 and time for a brief reflection on the past 12 months for the club.  

A year that began in traumatic circumstances for everyone, got better, but now draws to a close in uncertain times once again.  During the turbulence, however, I’m sure we’ve all been grateful for the haven for sport and friendship that our club provides.

Looking back

It’s been another year of change and doing things differently, with our tennis, squash, racketball and social activity for the first 6 months determined by the prevailing number for pandemic level, lockdown and step release.

Thankfully, for most of the 2nd half of the year, things returned to relative normality for the club.  Let’s hope this situation continues and that the current headwinds subside with the natural circuit-breaker of holidays for schools and many offices, prioritised contacts during the Christmas and New Year period, everybody being boosted and, fingers crossed, better (and more evidence-based) news about the near term scenarios for 2022.

On the tennis front, the big change has been the launch of the Berkhamsted Tennis & Fitness academy for the delivery of all our coaching requirements.

Notwithstanding some controversy at the outset, and a bedding-in period that was to be expected, it has been a tremendous success, and our thanks go to Tyrell and his excellent team of coaches for all their hard work in making it a great debut year.

Friday Junior Nights are just one element of the coaching programme , but they have been a great illustration of the progress that has taken place, with bigger numbers attending than ever before.

Moreover, the Junior Nights and the highly successful social tennis evenings helped to give the club a great vibe and buzz on its bounceback from the doldrums of the previous 12 months.

The court booking system introduced in 2020 for the outdoor tennis courts (prior to then, everyone turned up in hope) has proved invaluable over this period, particularly now that new features have been introduced to limit the number of no-shows.

Tennis is thriving at our club.

On another note, can we remind tennis members to leave the court gates closed after play as our nocturnal visitor has made an unwelcome return to the courts.

Turning to squash and racketball, progress was slow at the outset when we returned, in common with all indoor sports.

Since then, as we saw the gradual return of school and junior programmes, box leagues and team matches, and hosting our first professional event for a decade, momentum has built slowly but steadily, and membership levels and court utilisation are now nearly back to pre-pandemic numbers.

Particularly pleasing are the seeds of growth in women’s membership numbers for squash and racketball, where for too long we haven’t punched our weight.

The introduction of automatic splitting of the court booking cost was well received, particularly now that we have all lost the habit of carrying around loose change. (Just to remind you that ALL members need to maintain a small credit on their account to accomodate this function).

One thing to flag to our squash and racketball members is that we are currently overhauling our membership records with England Squash - all of you should be registered with ES, the national governing body.  Registration is included as a benefit of club membership. To set up any missing registrations, we will need to provide DOB details - should anyone not want us to do this, please contact the club office.

On the social front, aside from the regular fun of tennis Junior Nights and Club Nights, highlights were the Euros, the return of Quiz Night and the recent Dinner & Disco.

Great evenings and let’s hope that nothing gets in the way of our 2022 social calendar.

Looking forwards

For tennis, uppermost in our minds for 2022 is to successfully deliver the transformational programme of refurb and upgrade to courts 6a, 7, 8 and 9.

Exciting times, but with hard work ahead of us.  We’ll provide an update on the programme at the 2022 AGM on 7th February - a date to go in your calendar!

For squash and racketball we’re in peak season and we will be kicking off 2022 with a bang.

On 7th January we have our first graded squash evening of the year (government policy permitting) - always a popular event.

We’ll be following that with the launch of the 2022 Club Tournaments - Yes, the squash and racketball club champs will finally be back after a 2 year gap!

And with immediate effect all our squash box leagues results are now automatically uploaded to Squash Levels - the leading ranking database system that shows where you rank in the club, the county, the country, and the world!  We’ll be providing more information soon about this brilliant resource and the available information/features.

Season’s greetings

Over the Christmas and New Year period our clubhouse and squash courts will be closed on Christmas Day and Boxing Day only; open on all other days.

Wishing you all a very happy Christmas and here’s to a healthy and less eventful 2022!

I’d just like to take this opportunity to thank you all for your perseverance and support of our club in 2021, with special thanks to my fellow Council and Committee members for their enormous voluntary work on all our behalf in the past 12 months; to the fantastic volunteers who run the box leagues and the club nights; to our excellent office managers and groundsman; to our brilliant coaching team; and to our fabulous bar and catering team.  Without you, we would not be the club we are!

And that’s a wrap for 2021!  See you all in 2022.  We keep calm and carry on playing tennis, squash and racketball!

John Shaw

Chair, BLT&SRC