There was a good entry of 43 teams at last Tuesday’s Annual General Meeting of the South Warwickshire & District Summer Tennis League, held at the Bowling Club, Bidford-on-Avon. The meeting was fully attended by 29 members from all 21 of the clubs involved. There were two teams that had dropped out from last season, Ullenhall and last year’s Stratford-on-Avon B team. With no new entries the league will consist of six divisions, with a Premier Division of eight teams and the remaining divisions consisting of seven teams.
This Men’s Doubles Summer Tennis League covers the South Warwickshire and district areas of the midlands including parts of Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. It includes a Junior Competition which this year stays at its own record 24 teams split into six Pools. Although the Junior League lost Harbury, Inkberrow and Alcester’s D, E and F teams, all five were replaced by new club entries from Warwick and Stratford plus new teams from Henley C and HDA Redditch D and E..
There will be a Play-Off Junior Pools Night at Bidford Tennis Club on Monday 8th July. The meeting also heard that the league will again be running a Presentation and Finals day when the Men’s inter-league Charity Cup Final celebrating it’s 12th anniversary will be played alongside the 10th Junior Cup Final. This will be held this year at the HDA Tennis Club Redditch on Sunday, 1st September, 2013. This event will be immediately followed by presentations of the finals medals along with the Annual Presentations for all League Divisional and other trophy winners.
The Secretary Corin Bishop announced that the League was searching for a new sponsor and would welcome any potential suitor to contact him at swastennis@aol.com or visit their web site at www.swastennis.net. League President and local Alcester man Tony King is sponsoring the Charity Cup Final and the Junior League while local area tennis coaching company Inspire2Coach continues its ball sponsorship.
Stratford-on-Avon was congratulated for retaining their League title for the tenth year in succession. They added to that the “Charity Cup” trophy when they represented the Summer League in the Inter-League Charity Cup, beating their Winter League opponents Leamington Spa in the process. The “Club of the Year” award the “King Cup” had been presented to HDA Tennis Club Redditch who enjoyed an immaculate record and entered three junior teams into the Junior Competition. Meanwhile, their club captain Darren Cutler was awarded the top administration trophy “The Millennium Scroll”. There was a new “Fair Play” Plate voted on by all the teams in the league which was won by Inkberrow C by popular vote.
Littletons took the Division One title, Alcester B topped Division Two, while Studley B took the Division Three honours. Inkberrow B took the Division Four title and Ardencote B finished in top spot in Division Five. Junior Champions were Henley-in-Arden who defeated HDA of Redditch in the Final. The 2013 Junior competition begins on 1st March. The Men’s league season begins week commencing Sunday, 14th April, 2013.