Matchless Relief!

NEW FACILITIES AT COX GREEN EASE COURT PRESSURE FOR MATCHPLAY

At MLTC we try very hard to allow team, general club and junior play, all, to have a share of court time – especially at weekends, when most people have the time to play. To relieve pressure on courts for matches at MLTC, we can now book alternative courts at the facilities (below), being developed by RBWM at Cox Green.

They are not fully operational, yet, and their use, as the most suitable (or least unsuitable), local solution to a shortage of courts stimulated interesting debate with another club, recently.

Having 12 courts, we had not faced the problem before. When finished, this facility will have excellent court, changing room, reception and catering facilities but they are not quite ready and staffing, at weekends, is only from midday until 4pm, which means a midday start time, at least, for the present. Apparently, the new, asphalt courts, as yet, lack one or two things one usually takes for granted and play was delayed for half an hour while that was sorted out. RBWM have been informed about a lack of net winders, measuring sticks and about locked gates (making it impossible to retrieve balls) and have committed to rectifying all of these issues in the coming months as the centre is finished.

How does the problem arise? The current rules of the LTA, and British Tennis sponsors, AEGON, call for Mens and Ladies regional and county matches to be played on the same day. Also, the regional matches are stipulated to start at midday, so the county matches have to be played either at a time which guarantees the courts will be free (e.g. 8am start) or on other courts.

For a large club, like Maidenhead, which runs many teams, including 3 Mens and 2 Ladies AEGON teams, that puts an impossible demand on its 12 courts, within the dates given; especially true as the AEGON matches require 4 courts for the singles rubbers. That’s despite our low ratio of teams to courts. Many clubs around the country have contacted the LTA to express concern.

My camera's battery died, otherwise I would have included a photo of the impressive building containing the changing room / catering facilities to be opened in a month or two.

JEFF CRYER

SUCCESSFUL JUNIOR OPEN

Now in its 21st year the Easter Junior Open Tournament was a great success with over 300 youngsters competing aged from 8 to 18. The standard seems to get higher each year with the opportunity for Maidenhead's youngsters to test their skills against some of the best players in the country.

Of the local entrants, Lindsay Young was the sole Maidenhead player to reach one of the main finals winning the Girls 18u Doubles-ironically the last event of the day.
The referee this year was the experienced Sarah Tricks from Bucks ably assisted by Chris Mann, Sue Gash & Brian Warren whilst some of the club's juniors helped the minis by scoring their matches.

Off the court club members led by Mary Stanley did a superb job in the kitchen managing to empty Waitrose out of bacon at least twice in the week whilst the "Band of Brothers" kept the traffic parking under control in All Saints Avenue!

It was great that both our previous referee Peter Herke and catering queen Liz Moore were able to present the prizes on Finals Day.

Derek Hope was on site most days on behalf of the Club Committee to keep us in order whilst thanks of course are principally due to MLTC for providing the courts for the event.

DELAYED SUBSCRIPTION ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

There has been a fire at the shoe tag manufacturer's premises, resulting in delay in acknowledging receipt of membership renewal subscriptions. The club regrets any inconvenience to members. Acknowledgements and shoe tags will be sent out as soon as possible. In the meantime, your patience would be appreciated.

NEW PLANS FOR WEBSITE
We have new plans for the website. The new controller is Jeff Cryer and he will be looking to keep the web site up to date, easy to use, useful and interesting. Paul Messing is initially helping in the changeover. One of the first things is to get more people involved. As it is Nigel Mann and the coaches add bits of news and Junior related stuff as well as info on courses etc. Mary Coleman keeps the fixtures list up to date, Mike New updates the minutes of various committee meetings. Is there something you would like to look after? Photos? Ladies? Blog site? Social events? Items for sale? Let jcryer@tiscali.co.uk know and we can make plans.

MLTC HOSTS INAUGURAL OPEN VETERANS TOURNAMENT

On September 26-28, MLTC will host an Open Veterans Tennis tournament. As we host a junior tournament over Easter, it was thought that we could do the same for veterans. The tournament has been sanctioned by the LTA, and will be a Grade 4 tournament. There will be singles and doubles events, in the O-45, O-55 and O-65 categories for men, and O-40, O-50 and O-60 categories for ladies. An entry form is currently available at the http://www.vetstennisgb.org/ website, and also at our own website http://www.mltc.co.uk/ so please feel free to enter if you so desire. As the tournament is being advertised on the vetstennisgb website, we would hope to attract some of the top UK players to play, and would ask that you come along to both support our local entrants, and to watch some very competitive tennis. Catering and bar facilities will be available throughout the tournament. Based on the number of entrants, the courts at 79 All Saints will likely be unavailable to general members during the duration of the tournament, and the committee asks for your understanding regarding this.
For more details click here to go to the tournament website.

Maidenhead LTC Boys under 12's
Champions of South-East England

Maidenhead LTC boys U12's team participated in the nationwide team tennis tournament for juniors run by the LTA - 'National Junior Club League' (NJCL), which runs from March to September.

Throughout March and April the Maidenhead Under 12 team played other Berkshire and Oxfordshire clubs, winning all their matches to finish top of Division 1. They then advanced to the Regional knockout stage - the UK being divided into four regions. On reaching the quarter final, the team had to travel to Hackney, playing in extremely difficult conditions. The boys remained focused and positive and came away with a 5-1 result in their favour.

The semi-final of the knock-out stage saw them drawn at home to play Bromley. Unfortunately, the forecast of heavy rainfall proved to be accurate, and after twenty minutes, the match had to be re-located to High Wycombe's indoor tennis centre. The squad of George Hedley, Tintin Smith, Connor Pearce and Callum Turner fought hard against solid opposition, and after all matches had been played, the score stood at 3 matches all. At this point, the tennis equivalent of a penalty shoot-out occurred; with each team selecting a doubles pair to play a ten-point championship tie-break. Maidenheads George Hedley and Tintin Smith were calm and composed, and produced some awesome tennis under such pressure to take the tie-break 10-6.

The final of the regional knock-out took place on 20th July at Halton RAF High Performance Centre in Buckinghamshire. The squad was George Hedley, Tintin Smith, Callum Turner and Nathan Shaw.

George and Tintin overcame strong opposition playing the number one and two for Bucks, winning their singles, whilst Callum and Nathan showed great teamwork and fine tennis to seal a victory in their doubles match. This put Maidenhead 3-0 up at the half-way stage.

The two remaining singles were lost in closely fought matches, but victory was sealed when George and Tintin came away with a 6-2, 6-2 victory in their doubles match. This resulted in the Maidenhead team being the South-East England Champions. Maidenhead boys under 12's will represent the South-East of England in National Final play-offs between the last four remaining clubs in the country. This will take place in September.

The Maidenhead Under 12 boys have all worked extremely hard and thoroughly deserve this great achievement. They have to thank their coach Nigel Mann who works tirelessly with the boys and has been to support them in all of their matches. They also appreciate the Maidenhead Club members and committee who have supported the team.

Good luck to the team in the National Finals !

Catherine Hedley and Judith Turner

x