Elmwood LTC

The club will be replacing the shale courts with 3 brand-spanking new floodlit tarmac courts before the end of the year!
We will also have a practice wall at the end of one court.
Maybe we can squeeze new fencing for Courts 4-6 out of the budget as well…

We have been awarded a £30,000 grant and a £50,000 interest free loan by the LTA.
We have been successful in the Planning application.
We are well on the way to obtaining Club Mark status – necessary for the LTA loan. (Club Mark is a procedural, administrative process to prove we are a well run club).

A lot of work has gone in to this  the from the Committee and other helpers, so thanks to all the Committee – Charles Dimpfl, Jackie Speechley, Hakeem Khalil, Roy Downing, Julian Williams, Rose Rouse, me, Paul Maskell, Barrie Neilson and Sara McHale.
The coaches -Rudi Ramroop & Peter Neathey- deserve a special thanks as they have had the largest contribution in filling in forms, etc. for Club Mark and the rapid rise in quality and quantity of Junior coaching and competitions has been essential in justifying the worth of the project to the LTA.
Special thanks to other members drafted in to help; Alice Lester for Planning input, Eduardo Silva and Thomas Zieglmeier for CAD, Patrick for environmental input, Onja Downing for membership recruitment and general help, Mindy for running the bar which is so important for income generation. Sava Mihajlov who will act as our Project Manager for the work.
And of course to all of you for supporting the club over the years by being members and taking a special interest in the health of the club.

The intention is to start the work when the shale courts become unplayable due to the weather in late September/early October.
The work should take about 8-weeks. We want to finish before January-11 to avoid the impact of the VAT increase and save the club money.

The intention is to cover the tarmac courts at a later date with an “artificial clay” surface – a carpet with a sand-type infill which plays like shale, but without the maintenance and dust problems. We will need a “sub-committee” who are willing to travel to other clubs with possible surfaces to play and recommend the final surface we will use – any volunteers?
When this can be achieved will depend on the future income of the club. If our projections are accurate this will be in 2012 or 2013.
The LTA gave us £20,000 less than we asked for, but the cost of the work will be £15,000 less than budgeted for due to scarcity of work at the moment and very competitive tenders.

Please bear with the disruption that the work will cause from October to January.
Hopefully it won’t really impact playing times as the shale courts we often too wet to play on during this period.

This is a momentous step change in the fortunes of the club and we hope that it will expand your playing opportunities (we have probably doubled the time available to play over the last 2-years) and attract new members to ensure the continued success and viability of the club.

From November 2008 the LTA INSIST that you need to have a BTM number.
The number of Wimbledon tickets the club are allocated is by the number of BTM members we have signed up.
If you want to be considered for a Wimbledon ticket, or play for a team you must have a BTM number.

How to be a British Tennis Member:
1. Click on the link https://www2.lta.org.uk/Membership/Join/
2. Click on the REGISTER button under the New Users section.
3. Fill in your details and click NEXT.
4. Click on the CONTINUE button when prompted to create a new account.
5. Fill in your details and click NEXT.
6. Confirm your ethnic origin and click NEXT.
7. Choose MIDDLESEX as your County and ELMWOOD LAWN TENNIS CLUB as your club and click NEXT.
8. Choose a username and Password and click NEXT.
9. Scroll down and accept the terms and conditions and and click NEXT.

Congratulations you are now a BTM! Make a note of your BTM Number.

The floodlights have been fully tested and commissioned.

They work by a coin token which you slot into the meters (to right-hand side at the top). The meters are located in the light-grey boxes next to the Trainers hut.
The meter boxes are unlocked, but please make sure the lids are closed to protect them from the worst of the English weather.

The tokens ware on sale at the bar on a Friday evening (19:30 – 22:30) so plan ahead!
Each token lasts for 30-minutes and cost £2.00 – so it costs £4.00/hour. We have to set a cost that covers the electricity, but also be sufficient to replace bulbs, etc. and eventually the whole installation in 20-years time!

There is a short period at the start while the lights “warm up”. There is a “protection circuit” that helps to maintain the life of each of the light bulbs, so if you try to turn them on immediately after they have gone off there will be a short period needed for them to “re-set” which can be up to 5-minutes. So we suggest that if you are keen to “continue play” immediately after someone else has finished playing, that you “feed the meter” before the lights go out, so that there is no interruption in the lighting.
5-minutes before the lights are due to go out you are warned by the red/ green lights on the posts by the club-house fence coming on.  There is no audible warning, but this would be a sensible time for the next players to feed the meter to enable continuation of play with no interruption to the lights.

The lights automatically go off at 22:00 regardless of if there is any time left on the meter. It is therefore obviously helpful and somewhat “socially responsible” for players to start their floodlit playing time slots “on the hour” or “on the half hour”. Otherwise the last players for that evening could end up paying for 30 minutes and only getting 12 minutes because someone started playing at twelve minutes to six that evening. Please remember, one day it could be you!

The lights will be switched on at the club’s expense on a Friday evening – as this is a general turn-up & play club night.

Enjoy!

A playing ladder is where you sign up to a list of players.
You can challenge another player to a match and if you win you move up the list.
In this way you end up surrounded by people who are a similar standard to you.

Elmwood have a singles playing ladder for juniors, men & ladies.
Click on the link http://www.ropeyladder.com/ladder.php?id=1481