Our Club - Autumn 2025

November 16, 2025

Since our last newsletter, over 70 of our members competed in our annual BTC Tournament and the full results are (almost) in! We're also firmly into the swing of our Winter Tennis season and 80+ members have signed up for winter tennis rotas - it's lovely to see so many of you out in the winter evenings. Our AGM is on 19 November and we invite all members to attend. Now is the time we start planning for next year's activity...so if there's anything new you want to see at the club then now is the time to get involved!

Emma Pattison
Club Chair

our club tournament - the summer season finale!

Our Backwell Tennis Club Tournament culminated with a Finals Weekend on 13 and 14 September. A weekend of two halves saw an American Doubles tournament on the Saturday and a schedule of nineteen Finals on the Sunday, across Adult and Junior categories...

Saturday was a glorious day for our American Doubles - a competition that was hotly contested by 26 members from across the club. The beauty of this format is that we can level the playing field - whether that's via seeding of players, restrictions on first serves, and/or sneaky penalty points!! Entered as an individual, doubles partners are rotated every round in a fun and friendly format, all powered by tea and cake. Thank you to everyone who took part with such enthusiasm!

American Team

What a difference a day makes...and unfortunately the weather on Sunday for our main Tournament Finals was not so good. As a result our audiences were a little lower than normal but those who braved the weather enjoyed some great tennis and a mountain of edibles, including a tasty (if slightly soggy) barbecue. Some quick thinking and adept scrambling by our Tournament team (thank you, Zoe Fearnley!) brought forward as many matches as possible to the morning and by some miracle we were able to complete fifteen Finals before torrential rain stopped play. On the plus side, this has meant the Tournament has given us joy for longer due to the inevitable difficulty in rescheduling the postponed matches!

Juniors Playing

Weather for ducks

Well done to all those that competed throughout the tournament and particularly to our finalists and winners. And thank you to everyone who attended and helped out with such enthusiasm (despite the rain!) - a lovely event spent with great company.

Specific thanks to: our photographers (Ben & Graham); our umpires (Paul, Peter, Michael, Nick, Hannah, Nikita, Karen, Tom); our barbecuers (Karl & Neil, and Christine for the sausages); and our tribe of cake makers (too many to mention) who yet again did us proud. And of course the Tournament organisers - Nick, Neil and especially Zoe. Pulling together this event is no easy task and they achieve it with such passion and detemination. Your efforts are really appreciated by everyone!

The results for all adult & junior competitions will be available on the Tournament page of our website very soon.

Cake

Barbecue

Coaching Team

A new coaching year

September marked the start of another coaching year and we're extremely proud of the size and quality of our coaching programme at Backwell Tennis Club. Led by Ben Tilling (Matchpointtennis), we have a fabulous team of accredited LTA coaches (Tom, Sam, Andy, Katie, Nikita and Dan - supported by Alys and Issy).

For a village club, we have a large number of coaching sessions on offer - there are currently 70+ adults across 9 coaching groups, and 110+ children across 13 coaching groups - with more planned for 2026. In addition, the team delivers coaching at local schools to an additional 30+ children. With coaching groups for juniors from ages 4-18 and for adults from beginners to league players, there is something available for everyone. Private coaching is also available.

If you're interested in Coaching please contact Ben at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

LTA & Avon Tennis Awards

The window is open for nominations in the LTA Awards and Avon Tennis Awards. There are many different award categories available including but not limited to: Club of the Year (LTA Award); Coach of the Year (LTA Award); and Unsung Hero (Avon Tennis Award). Successful nominees are assessed at regional level, with regional winners then put through to the national awards.

new fridges & benches

You may have spotted some new additions to our kitchen - as part of the ongoing clubhouse refurbishment we have invested in a new fridge and a drinks fridge (thank you to Zoe Fearnley for procuring!). The drinks fridge is lockable if it needs to be - please contact Zoe if you need access to the key. We've also invested in two new external wooden benches - a big thank you to Steve Stephens and Tom Chambers for selecting and assembling the benches!

There are still a few jobs left around the clubhouse following the refurbishment earlier in the year. We'll set a date in the Spring to invite members to help finish these off - please look out for the date and join us if you can.

drop shots

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Backwell Playing Fields Charity are running a survey to gather thoughts on what residents want from this brilliant local resource - have your say before 30 November (Complete the Survey)