Two new courts and plenty of competitions for 2024

Spring is in the air and hopefully your thoughts are turning to the new tennis season that is nearly upon us. We have exciting plans to entice you down to the club to play more tennis. You will shortly be invited to play in 3 new senior competitions:

Club Championship: The clubs blue riband event continues in 2024 with entries invited across a range of categories for a knockout competition that culminates in the finals day in September.

Box League Doubles: This is a new competition for this year that is the "Premiership" to the Club Championships "FA Cup". Players will play in a series of small leagues across the year, with winners promoted (and losers relegated!).

Singles Competition: There will be a new competition for all those people who have the energy and want to play singles; the purest form of tennis. No blaming your partner when you lose in this competition!

These competitions are open to all standards of player and a great way to hone your tennis skills. The more people who enter, the better the chance of good matches against players of your standard. Initially the new competitions will be "open", but as soon as enough people in a category want to form their own league we can breakout new competitions, for example for ladies, Friday evenings, veterans, etc.

In addition, the inter club match teams have been achieving considerable success, with one team promoted (Aldershot Men's) and another couple still in the running for promotion. Men's match play is going so well that Julie (Match Secretary) is fielding 3 men's teams this summer. Ladies teams are also looking for keen match players so plenty of opportunity if you want to get into the most competitive form of tennis at the club.

For those not yet playing or being picked for the club, why not try one of the internal competitions: it will be a great way to get "match fit" and capture the attention of the team captains to get selected!

I am also pleased to announce the further development of the Club with the addition of a Court 5 and Court 6!

Court 5: The George pub has agreed to be ATC honorary "Court 5" in the grand tradition of golfs "hole 19". They will give a 10% discount on drinks to any ATC member arriving in tennis attire after playing a match. I hope this encourages those who wish to socialise after tennis to continue onto court 5!

Court 6: The committee is proposingto expand the club buy the addition of a Padel Tennis Court. Padel Tennis is a fun new form of tennis that can complement the Lawn Tennis already played at the club (we are and will remain a Lawn Tennis club). Padel is currently growing fast and is likely to bring in new members. It has been adopted by the LTA as a good partner to Lawn Tennis and it would be great for the club to tap into some of this growth and use it as a feeder to get new members into the Lawn Tennis game variant.

For more details consult the plan on our website: http://www.altontennisclub.org.uk/community/alton-tennis-club-7792/atc-padel-court/

As a committee we would be interested in your feedback on this plan. If there is demand, we can hold an open evening to discuss the plan, why we chose Padel and the benefits that should ensue. At the moment this is just an ambition so if you have experience, expertise, or even just enthusiasm for Padel, we would love to get your help to make it come to fruition! Contact Tony Bull on Spond.

I hope this has got you revved up for the new tennis season and ready to snatch your early bird discount for the 2024-25 renewal which will be coming out imminently.

ATC Committee