Following the latest HM Government announcement and LTA confirmation that tennis venues can open again.

Firstly let me tell you that we are pleased to say that the club will be open for you to play tennis again as from 8.00am on Wednesday 2nd December.

We are asking that you continue to only book courts in 1 hour slots, and that means that the same 2 people, or the same 4 people should not circumvent this rule by (e.g.) X booking a court from 10 until 11 to play Y, and then Y booking a court from 11 until 12 to play X. Of course if no-one turns up to use your court at the end of your booked time, please do carry on playing.

We have an organised 2, or organised 4 rule in place at present, so please do not swap partners or interchange with another 2 or 4 playing on another court. The rules for coaching are somewhat more relaxed and Jorg or Keith will explain these upon request.

Courts 1 & 2 should now be less oily and a lot firmer than they were, so perhaps experiment with playing on these during daylight hours, and it may well be that the grip on those courts in poor weather conditions will be better than you will experience on courts 3 & 4.

The clubhouse should still only be used to access the main toilet, and please remember, only one person at a time in the clubhouse, and try and follow the H&S instructions kindly put together by Jayne Dempster. If at any time you find a shortage of cleaning materials or sanitiser please shout!

Talking of sanitiser, there is an elbow operated sanitiser dispenser on the large post at the front of the clubhouse, please use this on arrival and again on departure.

Coaching Sessions.

Keith has prepared some posters concerning the adult and junior coaching programme for December but we are not able to attach these to this email because of restrictions in the clubspark software - shame, however the main points are shown below.

Junior Group Coaching Sessions.

As an experiment these are now in 2 age groupings, they are longer (75 minutes) and are non-bookable, just turn up and pay on the day. The fee is £5 per session for members and £6.50 per session for non-members.

Thursday afternoons 15.30 until 16.45 - 9u

Thursday afternoons 16.45 until 18.00 - 9+

For queries about age banding, or if your child can not make these Thursday sessions, but could make the same session if it were available on Fridays, please contact Keith.

Adult Group Coaching Sessions.

Thursday mornings 9.00am until 10.00am - Cardio Tennis - Jorg

Thursday evenings 18.30 until 20.00 - Doubles Squad Training - Keith

Friday mornings 9.30am until 10.30am - Rusty Rackets - Jorg

Please contact Joerg or Keith s appropriate for more details, you can email

Jorg at:-  headcoach@henfieldtennisclub.com     or Keith at:- assistantcoach@henfieldtennisclub.com

Below is a brief statement from Joerg and Keith:-

We are really looking forward to getting back out on the court following the national restrictions being lifted.  There are sessions available for all members and we very much encourage anyone to join in if they haven't done so before.

Please contact either of us for more information.

Kind regards,
Keith and Jorg.

Right, I think that is all for now, and hopefully the courts will now remain open for the foreseeable future.

Enjoy your tennis, and continue to take great care.

Regards

Martin Tooth

COURT UPGRADE PROJECT

To remind you, we are resurfacing the two courts nearest the Leisure Centre, and we are upgrading their floodlighting to a better quality and more energy efficient LED system. In addition, we shall also be resurfacing the small “Mini Court”. We are going for a colour change (red courts with blue surround) following positive observations of such colouring at some other clubs. The project is financed principally by club funds and a substantial grant from Sport England, and “Mini Court” sponsorship monies raised by Keith Brown (Assistant Coach) in undertaking the 2018 London Marathon.

Our selected specialist contractor (Fosse Contracts limited) will commence activity on Monday 21 September 2020 as will their lighting sub-contractor (Exclusive Leisure). Provided there are no unforeseen challenges we expect the work to last 7 weeks, so the 3 courts affected are expected to be out of action until Monday 9th November. We will keep you informed as the project progresses.

To minimise neighbourhood disturbance, Contractors will work Monday to Friday within an approximate 8.00am to 6.00pm window. Key club contacts such as Henfield Parish Council (our lease holders) Horsham District Council and the Leisure Centre are fully aware of the plans. We will also be contacting neighbouring residents over the next few days.

During the work programme, play will be restricted to Courts 3 and 4 and we shall ensure appropriate and safe access for players, whenever this is practical. We do recognise that this will almost certainly cause booking congestion of 3 & 4 at popular times, these being most mornings, and Thursday afternoons/evenings. To try to give court access to the largest number of people during the above most popular times, we respectfully ask:-

a) That all members do not make advance bookings of courts to play singles during the above popular times. However, if a court is un-booked 24 hours, or less, beforehand, then please feel free to book it for singles, better to be used by 2 players than not used.

b) That you do your best to abide by the above requests, out of consideration for your fellow members, and for the benefit and enjoyment of all

To make life easier, and as a small thank you for playing later in the day, we will make any floodlighting requirement free of charge for the contractor work period.

Please note, that the Sussex Winter Leagues have recently been cancelled by the organisers, whilst this is unfortunate it does have the advantage of more free play time during the work period.

In summary we ask for your patience and understanding over the coming weeks and apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused. We hope that once the project is complete you will enjoy the improved facilities and that the upgrades will help in attracting additional membership. A phrase I use when running on the disused railway line comes to mind “no pain, no gain”.

UPDATE - 17TH OCTOBER

You will be pleased to know that courts 1 & 2 are now back in partial use.

They can be booked between the hours of 8.00 and 16.30, but not beyond, because currently there are no floodlights on those courts.

We expect to have our existing floodlights in use again in the near future, and new LED floodlights within 8 to 10 weeks.

Your patience is appreciated as this major upgrade project (courts 1&2 and the mini-court) progresses.

The contractors tell us that the general care of the courts by players, that is always advised, is even more important when the surface is newly laid. So please extra care to wear the correct footwear, curb any urge you might have for racket abuse, and generally take care of the courts please.

Many Thanks

Martin