The club’s AGM held last week resulted in a few changes – the Chairman, Stuart Colligon, stepped down after seven years sterling service to the club. We welcomed our new Chairman, David Long, who I’m sure will give the club good service as well. The meeting also elected two new vice Presidents – Stuart Colligon and Mrs Jan Gaskill - both have given years of their spare time to the service of our members. The annual award of the W K Dale Cup was presented to Clare Skelcher – this is given for service both on and off court and Clare certainly fits that description. The retiring Chairman gave a comprehensive report of the past year’s activities – on the court and improvement of facilities. The Treasurer, David Bufton, said the club had a fairly healthy financial state and was pleased to report that all club loans have been repaid. Money had been spent on upgrading the lounge and we now need to promote the facilities as an ideal venue for meetings and social gatherings. Tennis birthday parties are popular – these don’t have to be for Juniors only! Why not celebrate a 50th or 60th Birthday using the indoor court and the lounge? It was agreed that the club had subsidised the indoor court hire, by not charging for lights, for long enough and to cover the electricity expense court hire will be £12ph from 1st January. Officers elected: President Bryan Sharp; Life members are: Bryan Sharp, Mrs. Pat Sharp, Mrs. Jackie Clague and David Kennaugh; Vice Presidents – re-elected “en bloc”.
Chairman: David Long; Treasurer: David Bufton; Secretary/PRO: Pat Sharp; Membership Secretary: Jan Gaskill and Club Captain: Jackie Russell.
Club junior Charlotte Clarke (13) has been having more success in the UK. Having been selected for the IoM Women’s team for Winter Inter-County matches held two weeks ago, she played well with the team just missing out on promotion by count back on sets. Then last weekend she was back at the LTA National Tennis Centre in Roehampton, playing in a Grade 3 event for which she had qualified a month previously. This event was going to be tough and although Charlotte (rated 6.2) lost her first match against a higher rated player 6/4 6/4 she then won the consolation event, winning matches 6/4 6/0 versus a same rated player and then the final 6/4 6/0 against a 5.2 player. These are excellent results and “the icing on the cake” was meeting Gael Monfils – a world ranked player from France. This has been an amazing year for Charlotte - now she has to prepare for doing it all again next year. She will need financial support from commerce and if members have any suggestions of possible sponsors please contact me on 861497 or e-mail albanytennispr@manx.net. The club has other Juniors who are aiming to follow in Charlotte’s footsteps but, as I’ve said before, the cost of competing in the UK can be a barrier. I do hope that we can in some way assist these young players.