Month: March 2024

Great to see so many members at the club on Good Friday morning to play tennis. Nine courts in action despite the very windy conditions! Plenty of interest when Oli demonstrated the club’s new ball machine which is available to hire when Oli is at the club. Hot cross buns went down well as usual! Many thanks to Hazel & Di for their sterling efforts serving tea and coffee.

Success for some of our teams during the winter season 2023/2024. In the Leigh & Westcliff leagues, our Ladies 2 and Ladies 3 teams both won their respective divisions! And numerous teams took the runners up spot in their divisions including Ladies 4, Mens 1, Mens 5, Mixed 2, Mixed 4 and Mixed 6. All teams maintained their league status so congratulations to the players involved and thanks to our team captains for their hard work. In addition, our Mens 1 team in the Essex Winter Open Doubles League finished the season in second place in Division 2, gaining promotion to Division 1 for next winter. Very well done!

Some great tennis for the spectators at our Winter Handicap Tournament Finals Day! Two long, hard fought matches (with the handicap spot on as usual!) saw Karen Clark & Wendy Hackett beat Julie Rackham & Kelly Thomas to take the Ladies Doubles trophy, whilst Adam Moore & Alan Knightley won the Mens Doubles title beating Duncan Taylor & Ken Poole. Sadly, part way through the first set of the Mixed Doubles final, Wendy Hackett who was partnering Martin Powell had to retire injured, making Bez Berry & Suzy Bassett the Mixed Doubles champions. Very well done to all players involved!

Very well done to our Ladies Seniors team for reaching the final of the Essex Knock Out Cup Competition this winter, beating Frinton and Thorpe Bay along the way. Unfortunately, the team lost by two rubbers to one in the final to a strong Grove (Chelmsford) team who won the Harry Brickwood Cup for the second year running. Congratulations to Sarah Ball & Sarah Jolly who won their rubber on finals day. The team for the final also included Cally Flinders, Gill Sanderson, Diana Carradus and team captain Sarah O’Sullivan.

The Charity Canasta morning and lunch at the club was a great success! Very well done to Heather for organising the event which raised a massive £515 for The Brain Tumour Charity thanks to everyone’s generosity. Heather wants to thank all those who came along to support the event, with special thanks to Jane, Jac, Sheila & Linda for helping to organise both the play and the fabulous food. Also thanks to Celia, Cathy, Angela, Sarah Colman & Chris for the delicious cakes, to Gill, Jac & Deb for the patés and to Chris for her sterling work in the kitchen all morning with added help from Richard. Raffle prizes were also donated by many, whilst others helped quietly on the day sorting through the cards, selling raffle tickets & folding them, clearing up at the end, etc. All in all, a fantastic team effort! A final mention and thank you to Jane, who spent time teaching quite a number of the attendees to play canasta over the past few weeks!