3 minute read
Review by the Chairman of the Tennis Committee
Chris Vigrass, Chairman of The Tennis Committee
As commented already by the Chairman, this season has been one of frustration and intermittency from the narrow view of a sporting lens.
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My last report recorded that all competitions stopped on 20th March 2020 due to the Covid lockdown but there was still then a hope that we could have a full programme of Tennis for the 2020/21 season. That hope was unfortunately dashed and at the time of writing we still await the government decision on the 19th July as to the extent of future restrictions, if any. I am extremely grateful to CEO, Chris Davies, and the other members of the Project Restart Team (Owen Saunders, Chris Lintott and Ronald Paterson) for all their help in producing the Playsafe Guidelines and updating them at each development of the restrictions. I repeat the hope that we can return to a full season’s competitions for 2021/22 when the first competition is intended to be the British Juniors at Queen’s in August.
This hiatus has given us opportunity to progress other issues although it is not always easy to balance this when the prime focus of the Committee on the games is prevented by the lockdown and relaxing that has the foremost attention.
The proposals to update and modernise the Real Tennis Online handicap and booking and finance system has been quietly progressing through the excellent efforts of Chris Lintott and Owen Saunders as ‘project managers’ with the Chris Davies CEO as ‘customer’. It is hoped that this will be in place in time for the new season after which further improvements and facilities will be added if possible and appropriate as requested by the membership and clubs. I am very grateful for Chris and Owen’s work on this and for their liaison with all the necessary people.
As detailed by the Chairman, the Investing in Professionals Programme has also progressed very well. It has been facilitated most ably by John Whiting, along with many others, whose efforts and input are greatly appreciated. Due to the lockdown it has not launched as quickly as we would have hoped but nonetheless there has been a very successful start of the programme at Middlesex where Jack Josephs is proving very popular. One slightly unexpected feature of the lockdown was the need to consider the effect upon the dormancy adjustment in RTO, i.e. if you do not play and enter a game score for 12 months your handicap is automatically increased. This was the subject of much discussion led by Chris Lintott and Owen Saunders. It became a classic illustration of where logic has to recognise and accommodate emotion. In the end the decision was to suspend the usual dormancy adjustment in RTO with effect from 23 March 2020 until the restrictions are removed.
The Tennis Committee has continued to meet virtually through Zoom. During the season David Sloan retired from the Committee and his 10 years or more of contribution will be greatly missed. I am pleased to say that Vix Harvey of Cambridge has put herself forward and is on the Committee.
The Tennis Committee has discussed and is very supportive of the improvements of the website development and the marketing strategy and rebrand which are discussed by the CEO more fully in this Annual Report.
To end on a positive note, it was good notwithstanding the previous truncated season to award the Baerlein Cup for the best amateur performance to Tara Lumley, the Greenwood Trophy for the most improved player to William Flynn and the Warburg Plate for the best professional performance to Ben Taylor-Matthews. The awards could not be presented as usual at the Annual Dinner, so were made virtually. All are to be congratulated for their achievements.
I earnestly hope that both life generally and particularly in our game will proceed to some sense of normality for the forthcoming season. As always, I express my appreciation of the work done by the many volunteers who keep our game going.
