New Years Message and News

Well I don’t expect any of us will be sorry to see the end of 2020. At best we will all have been inconvenienced whilst some will have suffered considerably and lost friends and relatives.

We were fortunate that outdoor tennis was able to be played throughout most of the summer albeit with no League matches and in slightly different formats than usual. However playing social tennis in the new air bubble was only possible for a few weeks and so after all the trials and tribulations of bringing indoor tennis to Lytham the majority of us have been unable to benefit from our latest facility.

Looking forward, certainly in the short term, it would seem that there is no prospect of using the dome for the next month or two and of course it has to be taken down at the end of March. We are already wondering whether to try and arrange for it to come down sooner to enable us to use 2 extra courts but for the time being we are waiting, perhaps over-optimistically, for the situation to improve. Being unable to use the dome will cost the Club in the region of £8,000 in lost income and despite our best endeavours we have been unable to get any assistance to cover all or part of this although we are incredibly thankful to those who waived the refunds due to them for cancelled pre-bookings.

I think we are all confident that at some time in the future things will get back to some semblance of normality and hopefully by the time the grass courts open at the end of April the worst will be behind us.

The Committee are already making plans for the future for both tennis and social events. Whilst it would have been nice to reduce subscriptions to compensate for the restrictions, the reality is that Club does need the finance and so the best we can do is keep them all at the same levels as last year except for day time members who we believe get exceptional value for the amount they pay and consequently we have raised these subscriptions to a more realistic level. Details of all the subscriptions, which are due on 1^st April, will be posted on the website.

We have also decided to cap the number of day time members but increase the number of full members. We do have quite a large waiting list and it is possible that we will still not be able to accommodate all who wish to join. The process of offering membership will start in about 4 weeks time and as always will be done on the basis of first come – first served.

As is the norm a full Newsletter will be sent out in February when we should have a clearer idea about the future but in the meantime thanks to all of you who have done your bit to ensure that the Tennis Club remains as safe as possible from the coronavirus threat.

Happy New Year and enjoy your singles!

Bernard (Acting Chairman)