It has been great to see the club coming back to life again and from next Monday things get even better.
The gym will be open and England squash have announced the following:
‘The UK Government has confirmed that Step 2 of the spring roadmap will go ahead from 12th April allowing squash courts to reopen for individual and same household activity, one-to-one coaching and out-of-school-setting activity only.
We are now working on updating the guidelines for squash clubs/venues, coaches and players which will be shared later this week once Government guidance is published.’
This does of course mean there will be no squash or racket ball club nights and leagues will not start up again.
As regards tennis please follow the link below to see what it is now possible to do but the main change is that inside play is now possible albeit with rules and restrictions:
Our booking system will be open for all sections and the further good news is that work begins on Monday next week to integrate the outdoor tennis court lights into the booking system. No need to buy tokens in future as the lights will come on automatically on a booked court when needed. The committee appreciate that this is a relatively small gesture to members. We have been asked by some members what we can do to repay their loyalty. Membership discounts have been mentioned by some. The point is that if we start giving back all the membership fees to members we have received, in order to keep the club running, we would have had to significantly increase the cost of membership renewal. During this latest lock down the vast majority of members have continued to make their monthly direct debit payment which has allowed the club to keep paying the recurring bills. Keeping the two tennis bubbles inflated costs us in excess of £2000 per month in electricity bills! Some of this has been offset by the payments we are receiving from the elite tennis players of JET using our facilities. This money has made a real difference to the facilities offered by your club. The money has enabled us to resurface courts 1,2 & 3 with new acrylic and now to offer members free outside lights on all courts. Had we not continued to receive members subscriptions this money would have had to have been used to pay the bills and the court/lighting improvements could not have taken place. You now have a truly top facility – far better than the corporates can offer.
https://www.lta.org.uk/globalassets/news/2021/summary-grid—permitted-tennis-activity.pdf
From Monday we will be able to serve drinks which have to be consumed outside in the garden. To kick off we will be opening the bar Friday, Saturday and Monday from 5pm – 8.30 pm and Sunday from 12am – 3pm. We will be offering a table service in line with guidelines, with orders taken at and delivered to the table. These opening times are subject to frequent review as ideally we should be open every night but financially this is not a sensible option at the present time.
The clubhouse will therefore close at 9pm on days when the bar is open, so the last squash and gym sessions will be one hour before this.
This coming weekend there is a Padel tournament being held at the club and on Saturday the ‘club’ players will be playing but on the Sunday we are expecting players from all over the UK. The standard will be high so please come along and support this event. The start is around 10.30am and the finish late in the afternoon. If you are a recreational player or just someone who knows nothing about Padel but would like to find out how it is played then please come along.
Please remember to pay your subs which are now due and enjoy our facilities to the full.
Thanks once again for your support over these unusual and challenging times.
Regards
Executive Committee.
