The highlight of the year was the accolade of Derwentside Sports Club of the Year 2011 being awarded to the Club. Won thanks in particular to the tremendous work that has been put in by Phil Atess in winning and he has provided an extensive tennis coaching programme to all ages and abilities in the community and in schools. We have also welcomed Zumba and Boot Camps at the club, which has improve our reputation in the community.
With the support of our Committee and many members volunteering their time, we continue to provide excellent opportunities for playing tennis and I would like to thank all for their help. Our Clubmark status is also very valuable in ensuring our systems and procedures remain up to date and in the interests of all members.
Looking to the future, we have now signed an extension to our lease until 2061 that gives us security of tenure for the tennis club site for 50 more years.
Another great success of 2011 has been the introduction of Junior Night. The fantastic response to Junior Night was proof of the need. I would like to thank Angela Page and Katy Severs for their time and commitment to set this up, and also to Janet Atkinson and Geoff Telford for their unstinting support. We hope Junior Night will go from strength to strength in the coming year.
David and Callum Graham have proven to be a fine double act in maintaining the Club. I am sure Callum would welcome other volunteers stepping forward this year to allow him to concentrate on school work. I would also like to thank Vince Kennedy who took on the role of Match Secretary and brought great organisation to the task, including the running of several teams while he was out of commission.
It is pleasing to report that our membership numbers a total of 193, in spite of the tough economic climate and reports of many Clubs struggling.
The Committee felt it was essential to maintain our facilities. We cleaned the courts to remove moss, de-compact surfaces and improve drainage, and also had the tree line severely cut back to improve court drying without reducing the protection they can give from wind.
Our policy remains to invest surpluses into a sinking fund for future use whenever possible. We expect much lower expenditure in the coming year, though we do have an ambitious plan to completely renew the changing and toilet facilities which we hope to complete before the season starts.
With the support of Janet Atkinson, the Junior section has run bag packs at Sainsbury’s in Durham, raising significant amounts towards the cost of both a new ball machine for the Club and an upcoming trip to Daniel Kiernan’s Tennis Academy in Spain for 5 of our top Juniors. Our thanks to all Juniors and parents who helped make this happen and be so successful. The new ball machine, which the Club has also supported financially, will arrive shortly.
The coaching team continues to flourish. The Committee has agreed to renew the Head Coach’s contract for a period of 5 years and I am delighted to confirm that this is now agreed with Phil Atess and we can look forward to his growing commitment of time to match the energy he has always given this work. We are already seeing the return on these efforts as Juniors force their way into our senior teams
TEAMS
We congratulate all our teams on competing in leagues at all ages and levels. As a Club, we have an excellent record at completing fixtures – and offering unrivalled hospitality to our opponents. Thanks to everyone who gave their time to play – competitive tennis is an important part of what we offer as a Club. It was great to watch Alex Kerr and Tom Collicott come in as No.1 couple in the Mens 4th team and complete the season undefeated in a league-winning team. And possibly the most memorable performance was the sight of John McIntyre and Callum Atkinson stepping in to help the Mens 5th team and coming away from Northumberland undefeated,.
Our winning teams this year were:
Boys U10 Aegon League
Matthew Telford, Stephen Turnbull, Oran Kurowski, Andrew O’Neil
Boys U16 Aegon league
Callum Atkinson, John McIntyre, Henry Bower, Connor Atess
Mens 4th team
Alex Kerr, Tom Collicott, Jeff Dean, Jonny Quinlan, Bill Elliott, Jonathan Severs, Keith Dyson, Peter Dilley, Max Leonard
Mens Vets 1
Phil Atess, Russell Turnbull, Gary Bishop, Eddie Kirkup, Malcolm Baldridge, John Dilley, Graham Clarkson
Mixed Vets 1
Jayne Speight, Janet Strong, Joan Dilley, Phil Atess, Russell Turnbull, Eddie Kirkup, John Dilley, Gary Bishop
O55’s Men
Vince Kennedy, John Dilley, Keith Dyson, Jeff Dean, Eddie Kirkup, Tony Pensom
We also have Matthew Telford representing Durham & Cleveland County at mini-green level all season, and Sarah Clarke, Abbie Dixon, Alex Dellow, Christina Bower, John McIntyre and Tom Collicott rated in the top 20 in their age groups in the County.
We ran successful Junior Championships this year, but unfortunately a combination of injury and bad weather meant we failed to complete the senior championships – with the exception of Jayne Speight who was our Ladies Singles Champion for 2012. Congratulations, Jayne!