Consolidated documents as tabled at the AGM on 22 October 2008

(a) Chairman’s Report (b) Mixed Captain’s Report

(c) Treasurer’s Report (d) Men’s Captain’s Report

(e) Ladies Captain’s Report (f) League Representative’s Report

(g) Head Coach’s Report (h) Coaching Treasurer’s Report

CHAIRMAN`S REPORT 2008

Three weeks ago I was at a club night playing a match on court 6. It was about 7p.m. and as I looked across the courts I became aware that we had all 6 courts in use, that’s 24 people playing tennis. We also had 6 other members waiting to play. I could not help but wonder how many other clubs are achieving this level of interest on cold, October evenings. I say evenings because what I saw was not a one off, it’s a regular occurrence and we should all be very proud to be a part of such a fine and popular club.

It is a fine and popular club not only for club sessions but also one that performed rather well in the league too. The team captains, of course, will have the finer details in their reports, but here are the highlights. We played a record 13 teams this year. We introduced a fifth men’s team which was captained by Mark Terrell with the objective of playing some of our up and coming juniors, they finished mid-way in their division. An excellent result for a team who fielded four juniors.

The Men’s `A` were truly outstanding and finished comfortably top of the league with the Men’s `B`, (also in the top division), close behind. Please make sure that you read the captains reports for full details of our other great performances including the Ladies `C` winning their division.

Whilst reflecting on the league season, it was not long before I was remembering the other things that we have made happen in the past 12 months:

1. We introduced the idea of a members suggestion box, installed it and have been discussing our members comments and suggestions at every committee meeting since. Some of the suggestions have been excellent including feedback on court lighting and a possible practice fence/wall area. Many more suggestions have resulted in us working to our members agenda on things like, `on court behavior`, health and safety etc. rather than us just working on what we feel is important.

2. We experimented with local advertising for three consecutive months, being March, April and May. The objective was to increase awareness and therefore possible membership.

3. We agreed and introduced club sportswear and have taken orders for over 60 pieces so far. Everyone that I have spoken to sees this as a quality product which I believe is absolutely right for a quality club.

4. We have planned and erected club signage out on the Bristol Road entrance. The objective was again, to increase people’s awareness and not just of the tennis club, but of the Sports Club and all its sections. The Sports Club have now adopted our logo linking the bouncing ball to the Brunel railway arches, with the message of, ‘the heart of sport in Chippenham`. There is now great opportunity for other sections to follow and thereby increase the profile of the club.

5. We have supported the LTA and British Tennis and continue to work on the Clubmark programme to the benefit of our members. For our secretary, Tony Clark, this has meant an enormous amount of extra work. My thanks and gratitude to him and also to Richard Farr who has been involved with Clubmark within coaching.

6. The Sports Club has also been working hard too and I am sure that by now, you are all aware that the proposed air hall will soon be a reality and will include two tennis courts.

So there’s plenty going on and there’s some great work being done by the committee yet in many ways, we are only scratching the surface. The committee really appreciates comments and feedback that we receive in the suggestion box. Please keep it coming. Very shortly now, we will be announcing improvements that will be taking place and this includes upgrading our club lighting. This has been the single most important project of the past few months and has been driven by you.

Remember, it’s your club, please continue to make it happen.

David Corcoran

Chairman

Treasurers Report for Year 2007/8

During this ‘club year’ we had two financial reporting periods that can be reported on:

1. October 07 – March 08 (financial year end)

2. April 08 - September 08.

The following are the key financial metrics for the past year:

The club had a net positive balance in March 08 of £47,233.20

Of this a ‘sinking fund’ of £15,963.05 is set aside for future court maintenance.

The net positive balance as of end September ‘08 is £48,303.21with £21,297.97 available in the sinking fund.

Highlights/challenges for the last year

Following the acquisition of the Portman by Nationwide, the Nationwide decided to close all Portman accounts and two club accounts are still held at Nationwide and one at Alliance and Leicester. None of the accounts held were greater than the (old) guarantee limit of £35,000 so the club’s money was fully protected at the peak of the financial crisis.

The club did well with bank interest accruements (given these are business accounts that attract a lower rate of interest). For the year ending Mar’08 the club benefited from interest payments of £2,035.76 and for the current financial year to September £894.56

There have been no unplanned costs in the last year and that is why there has been a significant growth in funds from the previous report (2006/7 - £36,094.42)

Visitors fees have dipped in the last year but hopefully this will be rectified with the new sports club sign having been erected.

Generally speaking this has been a sound financial year. My thanks again go to the membership secretary for all her hard work this year.

Peter Hopwood

19 October 2008

Men’s Tennis Report

Overall the season proved to be a very positive one for the club with a number of high points along the way. Competition for places this season was very strong with many players keen to play for the teams. The emphasis this year was very much on trying to get a balance between doing well in the leagues but also trying to give as many players a game as well.

Next season the men will hopefully be carrying on the improvement and a team is to be hopefully entered into the Swindon League in order to help develop the strength and depth of the teams. Competition for places is expected to be even greater with the expected addition to the squads of new players.

Men’s A Team

In what was arguably the most successful men’s season in the clubs history the first team emerged victorious in winning Division 1 by a staggering 25.5 sets. An unblemished campaign was only just prevented by a loss in the last game of the season. What was also extraordinary was that it was achieved through a squad rotation policy which meant a variety of different partnerships were formed with no real settled pairing system. However this did allow for a fresh approach to the pairings and the play itself.

The following statistics emerged within the men’s team.

Ted Daszkiewicz played 32 sets won 29 (91%)

John O Meara played 48 sets won 43 (90%)

Dave Ball played 36 sets won 28 (78%)

Richard Farr played 32 sets won 24 (75%)

Dylan Thompson played 44 sets won 31 (70%)

Andy Smith played 28 sets won 19 (68%)

Paul Bartram played 4 won 4 (100%)

A high profile success was also recorded in the National Club Singles league. For the first time in their history Chippenham A topped the South Wiltshire Division 1 section with victories recorded over Trowbridge, Devizes and Salisbury.

They were beaten by a powerful Swindon team, winners of the North Wiltshire section, with the winners going through to the South of England play-offs.

A big thank you to all those who contributed to the team’s overall success.

Ted Daszkiewicz

Men’s B team

What proved to be a highly competitive and strong men’s challenge also saw the second team narrowly missing out on second place by .5 of a set. A very successful first season in the top flight saw the team emerge with an overall record of played 14 won 7 drew 3 lost 4

Simon McCarthy

Men’s C team

A difficult start to the season meant that a third successive promotion was going to be a daunting proposition. However the team managed to pull their season together and eventually finished a highly creditable 5^th with an overall record of played 14 won 8 lost 6. Another 6 points would have seen them secure 2^nd spot. A good platform for next season.

Simon Parry

Men’s D team

Back in March in a moment of weakness or madness, I volunteered to be D-team captain. I have no idea what qualities I have which convinced Tony that I was the man for the job. I only played for the Ds once or twice last year, and was probably responsible for us losing those.

My selection policy was rigorous and totally above board, and was based on whoever was keenest to play. Here I was fortunate in that I had a number of proven combinations from the previous year, most of whom wanted to play. So we got off to a flying start thanks to Dave Corcoran, Tim, Alan Brown and Mark Power hammering Trowbridge 7-1 away.

Then the rain struck, and our game against Malmesbury suffered at least two postponements.

Then half of my winning team decided that they couldn’t be bothered to play against Kingdown, and I deployed the secret weapon of myself and Kevin Wright. An 8-0 home defeat convinced me that I’d be better keeping myself firmly in the background.

Fortunately that was the nadir of the season and we ended up with a respectable 3rd place in division 5 with a W5 D3 L4 record.

Thanks to the 10 players who played throughout the season.

Peter Moss

Men’s E Team

“I have enjoyed my first season captaining the Men’s E Team. The aim was to introduce some of our promising juniors to league tennis which proved to be quite successful. We managed to finish a respectable 5^th and gained a lot of experience in the process. The season passed without too much incident and generally all games were played in good spirit. It is apparent that some teams take their after match refreshments more seriously than others and my vote for the best has to go to Urchfont.

I’d like to thank all my team for making my task of getting a team together an easy one, I know some may be disappointed that they didn’t get to play more games. One lesson I learnt was, as we were playing almost a different line up each week, we never gained any continuity with pairing which did make it difficult. Next season, if I’m asked to captain, I will try to keep pairings together where ever possible. With the enthusiasm of so many wanting to play there may be case for an additional team next year.”

Mark Terrell

Ladies Tennis Report

Congratulations and my thanks to everyone who played in the Ladies team this year especially to those who played regularly and those who willingly ‘filled in the gaps’ at short notice. At the beginning of the season we were very concerned that we would be unable to find sufficient players to keep the 4 teams going for the entire summer. But we succeeded and in the end all the teams did well. The “C” team came top of it’s division, the “D” team came 2^nd in it’s division and the ”A” and “B” teams were nicely in the middle.

The season seems to go by more quickly every year – this year was marked by poor weather but, despite this, only a few matches were affected and none were cancelled. Where did the long sunny summer evenings go? I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves on court and I know that there were many long and tight matches which were followed by delicious teas including home-made bread and cakes and lively conversation with the “opposition”, many of whom are old friends.

A special thank you to Anne and Angela who kindly helped me out with the “A” and “B” teams at the beginning of the season and to Sue and Rachael for organising the “C” and “D” teams – Rachael even did a questionnaire for her team!

Here’s hoping that the next season will be even better

Susan Mansfield

Mixed Tennis Report 2008

Both the mixed ‘A’ and ‘B’ teams were in Division 1 again this year. They played challenging and serious matches.

The ‘A’ team are to be congratulated on keeping their place in the top division. The ‘B’ team closely followed them but will probably be demoted to division 2. They both bravely took on the very best teams in Wiltshire and played with great sportsmanship and enjoyment. Chippenham club should be very proud of them.

Our ‘C’ and ‘D’ teams were both promoted at the beginning of the season to division 3 and 4 respectively. This gave them more ‘testing’ matches. Their results show that they have both risen to the middle of their divisions. Well done to all the players to have achieved that excellent result.

An enormous thank you must go to Helen, Becky, Angela and Rachael who were the captains, organising players, making numerous phone calls and watching the weather! It is so appreciated by all of us who enjoyed playing.

Sally Purkiss

Mixed ‘C’ Match Report

Having been promoted from Division 4 to Division 3 this season, we knew that we were in for some fairly challenging matches, especially having lost a couple of our young men, 1 to a higher division and the other to the call of the open road.

We finished with 5 wins and a draw which was enough to give us a mid table finish, an excellent result in view of the promotion.

Despite the extremely miserable weather throughout the summer the mixed ‘C’ managed to play all but 1 of their matches on the appointed day which is in itself quite an achievement.

Thanks to everyone who turned out for us and made the tennis enjoyable. A special thanks to Tony who stepped in at the 11^th hour (literally) to enable us to send a full team to Devizes.

Next year will I’m sure be equally challenging but as I’ve run the team for the last 8 years, I’ve decided it’s probably about time for a change. Georgina has kindly volunteered to take over, (hope I didn’t hurt your arm too much).

Angela Pomfret

Mixed ‘D’ Match Report

The Mixed d were promoted at the end of last season having come top of their division. It was my aim that we stay up in the new division and not yo-yo straight back down again.

We started off the season with a couple of convincing wins, but then relaxed a little and other teams were overtaking us in the division.

When the mid-season results were published we were in a precarious position but this seemed to fire the squad up and they gave the last few matches their all in order to stay up. The final tables show that we came a very respectable 4th which I’m sure that we can build on next season.

The camaraderie amongst the squad is fantastic. When players weren’t picked for a match they would quite often turn up to support or have a drink with the team later.  I fielded 11 players and after each match it was such fun just to catch up socially with each other.

Well done and thank you to all of the squad.

Rachael Corcoran

LEAGUE REP`S REPORT 2008

For those of you who have yet to play in the Chippenham and District Tennis League, here is a brief synopsis.

1. There are leagues for men, ladies and mixed doubles.

2. Chippenham field more teams than any other club in the league.

3. The chairman of the league is our very own Mike Powell.

4. It is usual to have three meetings a year, one being the AGM and as your league rep, I attend these meetings which are held in Melksham.

5. At the end of the season, there is a presentation evening held by one of the clubs in the league. This year it was White Horse and Chippenham were well represented by the Men’s A Team who came top of the 1^st division.

This year the league has discussed issues such as behavior on court. Unfortunately, there have been incidents this season of bad language and unsporting behavior by certain members of clubs in the league. Incidents like this are few and far between but when these matters arise, they are reported to the club rep who will then raise the point at the next league meeting. Other issues have been raised too such as the quality of courts at some clubs and how to tackle players that foot fault.

This has been my second year as league rep and it has been a privilege to be able to represent Chippenham Tennis Club and air the views of our league playing members.

Rachael Corcoran

HEAD COACH’S REPORT 2008.

At present we have 177 players on the coaching programme, this includes 88 mini players aged 10 and under.

We have 3 players representing Wilts and 5 more invited to county training at the Delta, The last time Chippenham had 3 players representing Wilts was 1984, so this is very good news.

Wiltshire Players

Fenella Cooper girls 12 and under

Sophie Macdonald girls 10 and under

Serena Jackson girls 10 and under.

Wiltshire invitation to County training.

-Cameron Fisher

- Jake Williams

- Bradley Sandford

-Edward Giles

- Christopher Isherwood.

Tournament Success

We have been very successful in Wilts events with following results:-

Fenella Cooper won Wilts 10 and under girls doubles title;

Cameron Fisher won two grade 5 boys singles and reached quarterfinals at Bristol Hardcourts:

Christopher Isherwood and Edward Giles won Pewsey open doubles;

Boys 18 and under won NJCL Division 2.

Mini Red team finished 7^th in Wilts

Mini Orange team in County finals (still to be played)

Mini Green team finished 4^th in wilts.

Sheldon school won county division at 14 and under and narrowly lost to Bristol Grammar in regional stages, Cameron Fisher and Sam Wild, Chippenham Tennis Club’s top two 14 and under players played very well in all matches.

School Links

Links have been made with the following schools - Redlands, St Peters, Frogwell, Ksm, Sheldon and Hardenhuish. These links are very important for the club, not only for the coaching programme but to help advertise the club in general.

Club Championships

Chippenham tennis club held Championship events in all ages from 8 and under to 18 and under for boys and girls; this was the first time in the clubs history that we achieved this.

Coaching Awards

The following coaches gained coaching awards during 2007-08

R.Farr PTR Professional

J.Shipp LTA DCA

J.Leigh LTA Level one

W.Giles LTA Level one

Finance

It has been a difficult year for the coaching programme for the following reasons

The coaching account has financed the following

The full remuneration of the coaching staff including the Head Coach’s retainer;

Solicitors fees due to contracts on behalf of Chippenham Tennis Club;

additional assistant Coaching hours to raise standards and produce a coach to player ratio in line with LTA guidelines.

Please see Coaching Treasurer’s report for full details.

Future Goals

To develop more community based tennis at the club;

To continue school links to attract more junior and adults to CTC;

To continue to support juniors who would like to qualify as coaches.

Richard Farr

Head Coach

Coaching Account Report

Despite the success of the coaching programme, with a large number of pupils both junior and adult, the programme has unfortunately lost money in the last financial year for a variety of reasons.

We have had to pay solicitors to sort out problems with the contractual obligations of the club to the head and assistant coaches.

Although the majority pay their coaching fees promptly we still have problems with late and non payers (Please note that new and stricter procedures have been put in place to deal with this)

We had a large number of junior coaching assistants last year (this year the number has been reduced wherever possible)

The cost of the indoor sports hall was high last year (the number of indoor hours has been reduced this year)

We have many ‘hidden’ expenses including school tennis promotion visits, performance programme, Head Coach retainer and tournaments. The LTA contribute something towards this and the main club contribute towards the performance programme

The junior members of the coaching programme contribute some £5,000 to the main club in membership fees (some juniors pay directly to the main club and some parents join to enable their children to have free membership)

Susan Mansfield