With Wimbledon well underway – it’s a great time to celebrate the mental and physical benefits of our sport as well as the sheer enjoyment of playing and watching it. Have a great summer!
Emma Pattison
Club Chair
Our Unsung Hero
On Saturday 19 June, Avon Tennis held their annual celebration event (‘Big Night Out’) at Ashton Gate Stadium, attended by a small posse from Backwell Tennis Club. We’re incredibly proud that our amazing John Tate was presented with his Unsung Hero Award – an award that recognises the commitment and dedication of volunteers in local tennis clubs.
David Howells, our Club Secretary, nominated John for his award and, in David’s words,
‘There is no space here to list all John’s many achievements. For many years, John has led and personally undertaken every project…for the physical betterment of the club. The latest was the project to replace three of our tarmac surfaced courts with an artificial surface. The project was onerous, detailed, expensive…but has proved a great success with members and helped enhance our reputation in the area.’
We’re so lucky to have John at our club – with his unwavering determination to ensure we maintain amazing playing facilities, but also his eye on making sure the little things work every day. Sticking doors, broken net tapes, stiff padlocks – John deals with it all and much more besides!
John prepared some notes for the awards night but didn’t get the chance to deliver a speech – it’s a great summary of how the club has progressed over the years, so please take a look at it here
John - massive congratulations again on this much deserved award – you are a star!
Play Your Way to Wimbledon
The Play Your Way to Wimbledon tournament gives players an opportunity to follow in their heroes’ footsteps and play on the grass courts at Wimbledon. The competition starts at local level, with winners moving through to regional finals, and then to the national finals on the hallowed turf of the All England Club.
We ran a singles tournament on 2 June for 11-14 year-olds. The weather on the day was fantastic and so was the quality of the tennis. It was well attended with 8 players taking part in a quick fire ‘fast 4’ round robin competition. There were lots of close matches on the day - many going to tiebreaks.
After the group stages and semi-finals, Craig and Sam won through to the final. There were some great rallies and amazing points, with Craig emerging as winner on the day. All the players taking part received medals and certificates and it was great to see so many people down supporting the tournament on the day. Well done to everyone that played!
Best of luck to Craig for the regional finals on 15/16 July, and a big thank you to Tom Fowler and Tommy Simpson for volunteering to organise and run the competition.
Would You Know What to Do?
According to the British Heart Foundation (BHF), in most cases of cardiac arrest the prompt use of CPR and defibrillation can be the difference between life and death. Defibrillators are currently only used in 10% of cases where public-access devices are available – either because bystanders cannot find the defibrillator, or because they don’t know how to use it.
Backwell Tennis Club invested in a defibrillator in 2022 and ensuring it can be used to the benefit of everyone, it is accessible to the public and is registered on ‘The Circuit’ (a BHF sponsored database which maps all the publicly available defibrillators so that they can be located in an emergency).
We want to help our members feel equipped to use the defibrillator should the need arise. Diane Zimmer, our Welfare Officer, has organised for St Johns Ambulance to conduct defib training sessions at 10.30am on Sunday 3 Sept and Sunday 8 October. Please contact Diane on
Floodlights
Did you know that changing to LED floodlights will save us an estimated £5,000 per year on electricity? That’s more than 15% of our annual club expenses and enough to buy us A LOT of new tennis balls!
We’re delighted that we’ve been awarded a grant of £20,000 from National Grid’s Community Grant Programme to help towards the cost of our new lights. This is in addition to the grant of £8,000 from Bristol Airport Community Fund and we’re incredibly grateful to both organisations for their support.
The new floodlights are due to be installed in the week commencing 21 August and, while our contractors will work to ensure any disruption to court use is minimised, please bear in mind there will inevitably be some impact on court availability during that week. This will be reflected in the Clubspark booking system nearer the time.
Our Club Needs You
Ever fancied playing a bigger role? We are dependent on willing volunteers in our club, none more so than our committee who make things run smoothly day to day, but also help set the future direction of the club and ensure we have everything in place to meet the needs of our membership.
My experience of stepping onto the committee is that being part of the conversation is energising, it gives you the chance to both harness existing strengths and to learn new things, and there are plenty of ways to make your mark. You may be worried about the time commitment (our lives aren’t just about tennis!) but I’d say have a conversation anyway – we would love as much or as little time as you can give!
If you’d like to get more involved in the club then please contact Emma on
Drop Shots…
Club Tournament – time scurries on and a reminder to please get your matches completed by the dates set out in the tournament timetable. This makes everyone’s lives easier!
A reminder that evening Club Play is available to all members throughout the summer on Tuesday nights (6pm to 10pm); and Thursday nights (6.30pm to 10pm). Please join in if you can – it’s a great way to meet new people.
There’s still just a few spaces left on junior Summer Camps – please book here