Secretary's Report 2011

2011 has seen a small increase in tennis membership at Duffield, in the midst of a difficult financial climate. Our club coaching continues to do really well. We keep striving to improve our court surfaces, surrounds and facilities.

AGM 2011

The Junior Cup for the most promising Under - l2 player was presented to Hannah Barnden.

The Colonel Clarke Cup for the Over-12 player was presented to James Holt.

CLUB AWARDS

These were presented at the Derbyshire Tennis Presentation Evening at Pride Park in Feb. 2011.

Duffield won "Club of the Year"

Ashley Broomhead won "Veteran Player of the Year"

K. Murcutt won "Volunteer of the Year"

Duffield Men's 1 won Derby League Men's Division 1, captain Hudson Oakenfull

Duffield Men's 4 won Derby League Men's Division 3, captain John Killip

Duffield Ladies' 3 won Derby League Ladies Division 3, captain Marianne Dammer

COURTS and SURROUNDS

Just in front of the clubhouse, Courts 1 and 2 are the most widely used by our members. The surfaces remain good.

Courts 3, 4 and 5 have just been refurbished.  As a result, water drainage has improved and the bounce is slower. This will hopefully add a few years to their playing life.

Court 6 is in very good condition. It stands alone and we are looking at various ways to add low-level floodlights. 

The artificial clay Court 7 is popular with all ages. It provides an alternative for those who like longer rallies and the bounce is slower than our other courts. Players need to brush the surface following play.

Courts will be sanded and brushed regularly throughout the season.

Surrounding trees have been cut back to reduce shade and debris on the courts. The green pavilion will be repainted in 2012. New benches have been purchased, all benches will be re-varnished in 2012.

We considered installing a bubble for winter play, but it was much too expensive. We will maybe look for a second-hand, one-court bubble.

TEAMS and  PLAYERS

Duffield continues to field 11 teams in the Derby Summer League, 5 Men's, 4 Ladies' and 3 Mixed teams.

Winning and promoted teams in 2011 were:

Men's 1st Division - Duffield 2nd team was 1st ..... Duffield 1st team was 2nd.

Ladies' 2nd Division - Duffield 2nd team was 2nd, promoted.

Mixed 1st Division - Duffield Mixed 1 won the league.

Lawson-Wood Cup (Mixed) - won by Duffield.

Many congratulations to these and all our teams.

For social play, Lorraine Faulkner and Louise Walker organise a monthly Social tournament and, when weather allows, mixed social play now also takes place on Wednesday afternoons. This complements established mixed social play on Wednesday evenings and Sunday mornings.

DERBYSHIRE CLOSED Tennis Tournament

This tournament was held at Duffield for the second year, and the weather was much kinder to us this year. The tournament takes place at a very quiet time at the club, in late August so does not inconvenience members too much.

There were many winners from Duffield but we are hoping for a higher entry in 2012.

CLUBHOUSE

We installed a keyfob system in 2011. This has proven successful, but please remember to pay your subscription (when due) as fobs are de-activated the following month if the subs are unpaid.

We had been hoping to install solar panels to aid payment of very large utility bills. However the government deadline was unexpectedly brought forward and our planning permission still has not been given by the council. We have therefore missed the deadline and will reconsider the proposal.

A reminder that the clubhouse is centrally heated with showers available all day, sauna in both changing rooms, bar, pool room and gymnasium.

COACHING

Duffield Tennis Club is now recognised as having one of the strongest and best coaching programmes in the Midlands.

The coaching team has seen noticeable improvement in the development of players being coached, with many more juniors participating in tournaments.

During this year, four Duffield juniors have taken their Level 1 qualification and James Holt has progressed to Level 2. They have added to the established coaching team of Simon Thornewill and Ashley Broomhead, with Head Coach, James Grindell.

WEBSITE

Our website was re-designed and modernised by one of our members, Gill Holt. It contains a wealth of tennis news and information for both new and extablished members (www.duffieldtennisclub.co.uk). The pages have links to more sub-pages and to external sites.

Keith Murcutt,   Secretary.