The Ladies Real Tennis Association

Katie Leppard, Chairman of The Ladies Real Tennis Association

We have a lot to look forward to, do you join us!

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and that has certainly been the case this year as we have returned to play a full season of Tennis. We have very much enjoyed reconnecting with clubs, pros and members in the UK and beyond. We may have had a few disruptions, illness and a lot of covid caution to deal with, but almost all of our fixtures this season went ahead despite covid’s best attempts to stop us, which is fantastic.

Some highlights during the year:

• Claire Fahey retained her world championship title defeating Lea Van Der Zwalmen in Fontainebleau in April 2022. Claire has held the ladies world title since 2011 which is a phenomenal achievement and we salute her. We are excited to be hosting the next World Championships in the UK in April 2023 and we cannot wait to showcase the very best of the women’s game on our home turf. • We ran a very successful Ladies British Open at Seacourt in April 2022 after two years without it. Claire Fahey retained her British Open singles title and her British Open doubles title with her sister Sarah Shuckburgh. • Our British Handicap Tournament at Prested in November included a celebration of our 40 years as an Association. The standard of women’s Tennis has certainly improved over the last 40 years and the LRTA has evolved with developments in their own sponsorship, technology, website, merchandise and branding. We are looking forward to the next 40 years to see how much further we can progress to benefit the women’s game. • We have run some well attended junior events and would like to congratulate all our talented players with special mention to Cesca Sweet, Felicity Riddall Bell and Lydia Compton-Burnett who have all deservedly won junior tournament titles this year. • We continued to run regular junior Tennis clinics through the season for a variety of ages, mainly based at The Oratory but going further a field where we have a group who would benefit from Claire Fahey’s coaching. Together we aim to build on the pool of talented juniors engaging with Tennis and forming friendship groups to bring on the next generation under our LRTA Academy. • We have continued to promote all levels of women’s Tennis and have provided a range of tournaments and matches that cater for everyone, encouraging participation across the board. • Our membership has increased steadily through the year; we always welcome new members. • We continue to work closely with the Dedanists’ Academy and other partners developing initiatives to focus on junior Tennis. • We are proud to be a diamond patron of the Dedanists’ Foundation. We would like to congratulate all our tournament winners over our 2021/22 season and a big thank you to everyone who participated in our fixtures, we have had a lot of fun at a variety of clubs around the country. Thank you to all the clubs who have hosted us.

Sponsorship

Sponsorship has been a little more challenging this year, especially for the junior tournaments, some of which have been without. We are keen to find some replacements to enable us to continue to provide these important competitive opportunities. Please do get in touch if you can help us. As ever, we are indebted to our existing sponsors namely Peter Luck-Hille, Addison Law Solicitors, The Jesters, Champagne Pol Roger, The Dedanists’ Society and our anonymous donors. Thank you all for your generosity over another difficult year and for helping us to promote womens’ Tennis.

Committee and volunteers

I cannot write an annual report without a special mention for our terrific committee, all of whom play a vital and often unsung role carrying out important and necessary work for the LRTA. They give a lot of time voluntarily and I am hugely grateful for their support and input; together we make a real difference. We have had a few changes on the committee this year - Georgie Willis was co-opted as Secretary and we said goodbye to Linda Fairbrother, our fixtures secretary, after 12 years on the committee. We were also delighted to appoint a new Honorary Auditor, Vicky Rogers at our AGM in April. I am extremely grateful to those on our subcommittees, our match and tournament managers, club representatives and volunteers – without you the LRTA would simply not function.

T&RA members can also support us, here are a number of ways you can do so:

• Become a LRTA member for as little as £10 per annum – women and men, young and old are all welcome • Encourage all women at your clubs to sign up for our matches and tournaments • Sponsor a match, event or tournament • Follow us on social media and help to raise awareness • Make a donation for girls or womens’ Tennis • Offer the most precious thing, your time - we always welcome volunteers, good initiatives, and feedback We are excited for the new season which will be action packed. In addition to our LRTA fixtures we are delighted that, for the first time, there will be a Ladies Bathurst Cup alongside the men’s event in the autumn. We then have the excitement and build up to the Ladies World Championships in the spring which will be the pinnacle of this coming year.