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The Dedanists’ Foundation Report
DEDANISTS’ By David Mills, Chairman We are a grant-giving charity (No.1145526) whose sole aim is to increase the number of young people, from all backgrounds, FOUNDATION playing Real Tennis.
Achievements During the Past Year
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In the past 12 months, we have continued to give our support for junior Real Tennis development at clubs around the country, We aim to assist in the formation and delivery of their junior Tennis programmes aimed at attracting new junior players into the game with particular emphasis on enthusing youngsters from state school backgrounds. As well as the support we already give to many clubs, we have also started new initiatives at Canford, Leamington, and Bristol.
British U18’s Handicap Singles 2021
Sponsored by The Dedanists’ Foundation
There was an excellent entry of 21 juniors for the 2021 Handicap Singles event held at the Wellington court over the weekend of 18th/19th December. The 12 youngsters with the highest handicaps played on Saturday in the “B” competition. For many of them, it was their first taste of tournament play and there were many closefought matches.The final of the “B” competition was between two young players from Wellington, Lila HueWilliams and Seb Edwards, and was Max receiving the U18 Handicap won by Seb 8/3. Singles trophy from Paul Weaver The main competition took place on Sunday with players from many clubs taking part. 10 year old Max Warner qualified through to the final to play last year’s winner Cesca Sweet. The final produced yet another comeback from young Max who came back from 3-6 down to win the match and the tournament 8/6. Prizes were presented by Paul Weaver (Director of Junior Tennis UK and Dedanists’ Foundation Ambassador). He took the opportunity to thank The Dedanists’ Foundation for their sponsorship of the event and for all the other good work that the Foundation does for Junior Tennis.
Open Days - A great half-term for Junior Tennis! At Bristol, Moreton Morrell & The Oratory
During the October school half-term break in Autumn 2021, the Dedanists’ Foundation coordinated a major campaign to introduce a new batch of junior players into clubs to experience Real Tennis for the first time. Encouragingly, most of the clubs involved were courts that had previously had little or no junior activity.
At Bristol Chris Ronaldson and Maggie Henderson-Tew had a 6-month secondment to revive the fortunes of the Bristol club. One of their priorities was to create an active new junior section. To help achieve this they turned to the Dedanists’ Foundation for help and guidance. With considerable funding from the Foundation they held a very successful Junior Open Day. An amazing total of 42 new junior players, (including 17 girls) aged from 5-14 attended these events and all of those who played have signed up for follow-up sessions at the club. Moreton Morrell, with our financial support and advice, organised its first Junior Open Day in October 2021. 250 flyers were designed by Tory Wall and printed by the Foundation to help advertise the event. These flyers were sent to local schools and posted on social media platforms, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As a result, seven youngsters were recruited who had never played Real Tennis before.
At the Oratory The Dedanists’ Foundation was delighted to sponsor a Junior Open Day at the Oratory Real Tennis Club in October. The Foundation contributes £1500* per year towards an enhanced remuneration package for assistant professional Levi Gale. This contribution has enabled Levi to stay in the game and has given him the opportunity to help create this junior initiative at the club. 14 youngsters attended for three hours of on-court coaching with Claire Fahey. * Levi is also supported by the Dedanists’ Society and the T&RA.
The Peter Luck-Hille Cup 2021/22
The PLH Cup is an inter-club junior competition that encourages junior players to get involved in club matches for the first time and meet juniors from other clubs. It is sponsored by The Dedanists’ Foundation and is aimed at the average junior player rather than elite players. This season a record 12 clubs entered teams. The final was played on the 12th June 2022. Teams from Oratory and Seacourt reached the final with Seacourt taking the trophy with a 4-2 victory. Photo: The team from The Oratory, left & the Seacourt right.
LRTA
We are delighted to announce that the Ladies Real Tennis Association has become a Diamond Patron of the Dedanists’ Foundation. This signals the start of a concentrated effort by The Dedanists’ Foundation to attract more girls into the many junior Real Tennis activities that are taking place around the country. Over the past 10 years, the Dedanists’Foundation has given financial support to many university Real Tennis groups. We see university Tennis as an important bridge between playing the game as a junior and playing again as an adult. It is a very effective means of recruiting new young players and well worth our support. The InterUniversity Tournament, sponsored by The Foundation is now the focal point in the Universities’ Real Tennis calendar.
Other Recent Initiatives
The Jesters
The Dedanists’ Foundation is delighted to announce that they are now working on some joint projects with the Jesters Club. These projects focus on encouraging youngsters to play Real Tennis in clubs around the UK. The Jesters Club has over 3,000 members worldwide and is dedicated in large part to the organisation and promotion of racket sports throughout the world and to the encouragement of the games, including Real Tennis.
As a result of this cooperation, the Dedanists’ Foundation and the Jesters Club will be jointly funding initiatives at Oratory, Bristol, Moreton Morrell, Canford, and Cambridge Real Tennis clubs. On all of these initiatives, we will be working together with the Jesters to achieve our joint aim which is to increase junior participation in Real Tennis on an open-access basis.
Investing In Professionals
The Dedanists’ Foundation made an initial £4000 grant towards the funding of the IiP programme. This programme offers new trainees and existing young professionals a highly professional educational environment in order to develop a meaningful career in Real Tennis. In tandem with court training and courtrelated skills, the programme offers learning and training in the business skills relevant to becoming an accredited Real Tennis professional.
How Do I Become A Patron?
We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our Founder Patrons who have between them raised a considerable amount of money which we use to fund all of our projects. In order to carry on with the good work we are doing the Charity always needs to secure further donations. Up until now there has only been a single option for potential donors which was to become a Founder Patron of the Foundation. Now we are pleased to announce that in future there will be a new category of Patron for the Charity, namely Diamond Patrons. If you would like to become a Founder Patron or a Diamond Patron to help us continue with this good work please email one of the following:-
David Mills, Chairman dsmills1949@gmail.com Josh Farrall, Director josh@dedanistsfoundation.org Julian Wilkinson, Treasurer ardquinwest@btopenworld.com
Paul Weaver, Ambassador pweaver@btopenworld.com
