Happy Christmas and Best wishes for 2025

That was a big year for the club - the 30th in fact and one which saw our club grow again to record new size. The new record of 270 members is great news and perhaps is a reasons for the improving performance of the teams in the inter-club leagues (East Hants and Aldershot). We have had 4 teams promoted throughout the year and the men's have grown to fielding 3 teams in the summer!

But growth has its own problems and we have made some change and will be making more. An early change is the creation of a selection committee to support the match secretary in assigning players to squads. Ross Welch has agreed to chair this committee so please help him to make it a success and to drive more participation and improvement in ATC teams.

We are pressing ahead with using LTA Clubspark to automate more of the membership administration, so please support Janet our new Membership secretary as she leads efforts to modernise the renewal process from March next year. We will also be looking at LTA Clubspark or SPOND for other aspects of support, including e-payment options.

The Padel court project now looks blocked which leaves room for other ambitious projects to grow the club. The court roof idea mooted at the AGM may be an option. But there may be others; now is the time to chat with your playing partners and have a think about what the club should do. We will be surveying opinions in the new year.

Other changes this last year included the sight screens behind Court 1 & 2 which were very popular. Despite the damage done by the storms of autumn we are trying to keep the remaining screens in place. CT3&4 are to be repainted and we are also moving ahead with a simplification of our boundary to remove the need for so many padlocks. We also have a legal task of renewing our Lease ( still looking for a member with legal expertise to assist).

So 2025 should be another busy a year at Alton Tennis Club!

Happy Christmas to all members.

Tony

ATC Chair