To all members and prospective members I would like
to take this opportunity to offer you a warm welcome to a new season of tennis
at Blackhall Lawn Tennis Club. The Club was first established for the people of
Blackhall in 1915; 96 years later it is still going strong. This is a fantastic
testament to generations of local people who have devoted unstinting effort to
keeping the club running. It is important that Blackhall Lawn Tennis Club continues
to flourish, in order that future generations can enjoy the facilities the club
provides. It would be great to more members volunteer to be on the committee to
help invigorate our club. The membership of the club has fallen over the last
few years; with many alternative attractions including state of the art gymn’s
and sports clubs. It seems a shame that a great local facility such as
Blackhall Tennis Club with 2 floodlight courts is under used. To generate more
interest this year the committee intend to lay on more events for members to
enjoy, starting with a ‘Tennis and Curry’ night on
Friday the 1st of April 2011. There are other events in
the pipeline and we are looking to have some ‘Junior Days’ where our Juniors
will be playing other Clubs in a competitive but friendly environment. As usual
our enthusiastic Club Coach, Brian Barnet will be hosting an array of coaching
classes for both juniors and Adults, which will include ‘Fast-track’ tennis for
beginners.
The Club would love to expand
the membership and encourage more people to pick up a racket, slip on the
trainers, come down to the club and ‘Just
Hit It’. Please encourage friends, family and neighbours to come on down to
the club and try it out. We have a tremendous junior section, which is largely
attributable to the services of Brian and Kim. It would be great to have an
Adult section that can enjoy the excellent facilities provided by the club and
enjoy some social tennis.
CLUBHOUSE
The clubhouse now has a TV;
and this year we intend to improve the facilities to an even higher
specification making an outing to the tennis club a more enjoyable experience.
It is also the intention of the committee to launch a project to raise some
substantial funding to resurface the courts in time for next season.
SPRING SATELLITE COURTS
In order that we can all
enjoy some tennis in the spring the club has secured the use of the tennis
courts at the Ravelston Sports Club.
This is part of the Mary Erskine Sports Centre and the courts are at the top of
the hill behind the club. On evenings when league matches are being played in
April and May, the club has reserved one court for our exclusive use. If this
proves popular the club will book more courts to cope with demand.
LEAGUE TENNIS
The Tennis Leagues begin in
April and extend to about 10 weeks finishing at the end of May. The Club will
run three teams each in both the East of Scotland LTA Ladies and Gentlemen’s
Leagues. I would like to encourage as many members as possible to come down to
the club on the Practice nights which begin the week following the clock change
and have some fun.
Further information will be
posted on the web site, alternatively contact our ladies captain Rosie Dennis (552
3573) or our men’s co-ordinator Gordon Menzies (337 5767) to find out more - I
can assure you that you will be made most welcome in any of our teams.
COACHING
Our coach, Brian Barnet, is
one of the top coaches in Scotland and we are delighted to have the use of his
services. He is very popular and successful with our members. His squads are
full of enthusiastic players of all ages and some of our top juniors receive
Performance Funding from Tennis Scotland.
More details about times and dates for the Easter beginner &
improver coaching programmes will be distributed soon, and available on our
website; www.blackhalltennisclub.co.uk. Brian is also available for individual
and group tuition and can be contacted on 07860 125994, or e-mail at brian_barnet@hotmail.com
BRITISH TENNIS and WIMBLEDON TICKETS
If you have not already
signed up all family members to British Tennis then please do so online. The LTA allocates Wimbledon tickets to each affiliated club depending on the number
of their members signed up to British Tennis in the preceding year. We are amongst the top LTA/BT signed clubs in
Scotland so are hopeful of a good allocation of Wimbledon tickets this year.
These will be balloted amongst those members who were signed up with British
Tennis. Membership is free until 2012
.To enter the ballot for Wimbledon please e-mail the club with your name and
you will be entered into the ballot which will take place on Sunday the 1st of May at the clubrooms
following our May Day American Tennis
Tournament.
SUBSCRIPTION RENEWAL
Your renewal/joining form can be found under Resources and it should be completed and returned by the 1st of April. With
the credit crunch still lingering on, the club is prepared to arrange that
renewal of the fees can be made in three instalments payable by the 1st
of April 1st of May and the 1st of June.
Membership of the club does
represent incredible value, with Adult membership equivalent to £2.50 a week
the same price as a day trip on the bus!
Please encourage others to
join the club and let us make the place something to be proud of.
Here’s
to another wonderful tennis season at Blackhall.
Yours
sincerely
Billie Croan
Billie
Croan
BLTC President
