October 2018…

Phew, what a scorcher   that summer was! With temperatures often topping 30°C and more, the heat, while welcome, caused havoc  with many of our match fixtures and play generally.

Thankfully, the Club Tournament was not affected and went ahead as planned on Sunday, 9 September. Daphne Lunnon’s report, including a full list of winners and runners-up is attached. A big ‘thank you’ to the army of 15 or so volunteers who turned up the day before to make sure the club was looking its best for the tournament.

The finals of the Hospital Cup Tournament were also played in September and a full report by Debbie Lane is attached.

Every season brings its own challenges to the club and autumn is no exception. The trees that give such welcome shade in the summer have begun to shed their leaves in earnest. Shout out to Lynn Timms who has been faithfully clearing the leaf fall so far – keep up the good work, Lynn!

On a more serious note, wet leaves can be as slippery as ice, so if you are planning to play, make sure that you clear the courts of leaves first. Brooms are available in the clubhouse, in the cupboard opposite the entrance. If the door is locked, the keys can be found hanging next to the floodlight boxes in the cloakroom.

Following on from the EGM in May, the club now has a new Management Committee (a full list of members and their contact details is available here) The Committee has had 3 meetings since being formed. Generally speaking, the Committee meets every 6 weeks or so, Minutes will be published on the clubhouse noticeboard. If you have any suggestions or ideas that you would like the Committee to consider, then please use the suggestion box in the clubhouse or contact any of the Committee. The next meeting will be held on Thursday, 1 November.

The new season for the Essex Small Clubs League starts in a few weeks. Details of the teams playing in the winter league and their captains are on the attached sheet.

As part of an initiative to encourage youngsters to start playing tennis, the Committee has been working closely with Ollie Toms (who already runs Cardio Tennis at the club) to organise some Junior Coaching ‘Taster Days’. Please keep an eye out for emails regarding this exciting new venture!

The next ‘in-house’ tournament will be the Cayless Tournament on the morning of Sunday, 7 October starting at 9.00 am.

A full list of tournaments and competitions will be available after the next Committee meeting in November.

Felicity Shakespeare

On behalf of the STC Management Committee

FEEDBACK FROM HOSPITAL CUP PLAYED 22 SEPTEMBER 2018

HOSTED BY STEBBING TENNIS CLUB

This year’s Hospital Cup finals were very well hosted by Stebbing Tennis Club.  Despite the really miserable weather there were approx. 20 spectators.

All the players were very sporting to play in the rain & the standard of play, as usual, was extremely high.

Many congratulations to Mike & Richard Cosgrove ( Clavering ); Katie Harris ( Henham ); Petra & Julia Studholme ( Elsenham ) &Paul Kent & Clare Jackson ( Grove ) .  There was no men’s singles final awarded this year.  Also congratulations to the runners-up who played so well in very difficult conditions.

Unusually, the winners were from four different Clubs which is very pleasing.

Simon Playfair and Karen Ainsworth reached the semi finals of mixed doubles and Fiona Pye and Lisa King reached the semi finals of ladies doubles.

Jan, Garth, Debbie, Daphne and Fiona Pye all turned out from Stansted to watch the finals and we were extremely well looked after by Stebbing hosts who supplied us with lovely refreshments and lots of well received hot tea!

Debbie and Clare were the reps for Stansted TC this year and Clare made up two lovely hampers from the donations you gave for the raffle (we sold £100 worth of tickets).

Jan made the presentation to the winners at the end of the day.

There was no rep from the Hospital League of Friends who was available this year on finals day so Jan has been invited to present the cheque for £1200 at their next Committee Meeting on Tue 13^th November at 7.30 at Radwinter Road Hospital.  If anyone would like to attend please let Jan know.

Debbie Lane