touchtennis event a great success...

Andover Tennis Club held their first Touchtennis event at their indoor Centre last Saturday. Touchtennis is a fast-growing adaption of the game of tennis, played with sponge balls over a small court. Players are allowed only one serve, there are no lets and a sudden death deuce is played. This makes the games move swiftly onwards. The sponge balls make the game exciting for all ages and abilities and mean that adults can compete with young players on an equal footing. The event was organised by Josh Gook and Ed Percival, new coaches at the club, who are both excellent competitors in this game and great supporters of it. 24 club members, ranging in age from 7 years to over 70 years took part in a great morning of fun and enjoyment. The competitors played doubles and were divided into 3 sections for a round robin challenge, followed by semi-finals and a final.

Please click to view full report and pictures.

touchtennis event finalists 0218.png

Floodlights now available on the outdoor courts...

The floodlights are now in place for use on the outdoor courts.

  • The fee for the outdoor floodlight hire will be £4 per hour per court and can be booked in the normal way via the Clubspark on-line court booking system. 
  • When using floodlights for the outdoor courts, the booking must be a minimum of one hour. Please ensure you select this in the timing ‘pull-down’ option when booking your court on Clubspark.
  • As with any booking, the access gate is programmed to open 15 minutes prior to your booking. When using the outdoor floodlights, they will also automatically turn on at this time.
  • The lights will automatically turn off when the booking ends.
  • A 'safety light' (the floodlight by the court 3 access gate) will be lit throughout the booking and will turn off 5 minutes after the booking ends to ensure players can leave the courts safely.

The Committee would like to thank all the members for their co-operation during the installation and hope you enjoy the added facility to the outdoor courts.

DSC_2424.JPG

Introducing Josh, our new Head Coach

Andover Tennis Club is delighted to welcome Josh Gook as our new head Coach for ALTC from January 2018.

His company, JGTennis, will be the coaching provider and Josh and Ed will be working with Martyn, George and Bash to provide all the coaching at ALTC for our adults, juniors, minis and schools.

Josh is a Level 3 Coach and is taking his Level 4 award in 2018. He is an excellent player and is a young man with great enthusiasm, drive, ideas and experience. 

Please click to view

- Josh's full intro

- how to book your place on a coaching programme

 

Smashing Charity Tennis Day with Davis Cup Pros...

Bright Ideas for Tennis in association with The Tennis Circus recently bought Davis Cup tennis to our club.

Club members of all ages joined Davis Cup pros for a selection of masterclasses from minis to adults drills.

Davis Cup2.jpg

 

The Club was very grateful for this opportunity and enjoyed a wonderfully instructive and entertaining day. Refreshments were served by the Club's social team. 

 

Davis Cup1.jpg

 

A profit of nearly £300 was made, which (at the Davis Cup Pro's request) will be used to take tennis into Andover Schools next summer.

Please read the full report of the day.

Davis Cup3.png

H&IOW Ladies Team promoted to Division 2...

The ladies have had an excellent season in Division 3b winning all their 5 matches (results below). The match on Saturday 5th August against Kingsgate ensured promotion to Division 2 next season.

The team won 9-0 but it was not all plain sailing and, in particular, Fi Strachan and Vicki Blewitt showed grit and determination by winning their matches over a mammoth 5 hours non stop! Ros Hursell and Kate Sloan played first pair and won all 3 of their rubbers in a calm and collected way, losing only 10 games in all. Lizzie Austin and Claire Reid playing in wind and rain, occasionally being interrupted by torrential downpours, secured their 3 rubbers ensuring a full sweep.

Thanks to all the ladies that have taken the time to play for Andover during the summer to ensure promotion for the team. Jennie Pope, Anne Brook and Nicky Hepworth have also made a huge contribution as well as the 6 ladies mentioned above. Ladies tennis at Andover goes from strength to strength and we look forward to the challenges that next season will bring.

vs Totton and Eling      Won 8-1

vs Wellow                      Won 6-3

vs Salisbury                    Won 5-4

Vs Victoria Park             Won 9-0

vs Kingsgate                   Won 9-0

Road to Wimbledon U14 Finals - Mark reaches the County 'Final'

Mark Mackie, Club Junior player, reached the final of the County Road to Wimbledon Finals held at Southsea.

Every year, winners from their local Club's Road To Wimbledon tournament travel to play on the grass courts at Southsea. The winner of the tournament is then invited to play at Wimbledon.

 

After a close match, Mark just lost the final in a tie-break.

 

Well done Mark for reaching the final - an excellent achievement...

Adult Single League/Improve your game ... starts mid-July

Welcome to the start of the Adult "SINGLES LEAGUES"

Now the club is truly grounded at the new site it’s time to start focusing on playing and improving our games.

THE PLAN:

  • We will now be running singles leagues for all club members who wish to take part.
  • Each of the leagues will be set-up with 4 - 8 persons 
  • Everybody has the opportunity to play everyone in their league within the time period (2-3 months / depending on numbers)
  • At the end of 2-3 months period the top 1-2 players will progress to the higher league and the bottom 1-2 will be relegated to the lower league

Please can any member who is interested in joining the league express your interest to Adrian Shapter (Committee member) who will be running the leagues

email: Adrian Shapter adrianshapter@hotmail.com

Please express your interest by 14/07/17 so we can get playing

Further details available once interest has been expressed.

This is a great opportunity to everybody to really fast track your game whether it’s just for fun, fitness or whether you are looking to add a competitive edge; due to the nature of the singles league this really caters for all, points will be allocated fairly and if you can't make all the games it doesn't matter... there is no penalty if you don't play but, of course you increase your chances of promotion if you play all the games.

We look forward to receiving your interest ASAP

Club landscaping is looking good ...

The patio area between the clubhouse and outside courts is nearly complete. The area looks fantastic and will become an additional social area for members and visitors to use whilst at the Club. It will be great for a beer and a bbq in the summer…

Paths to the courts and further car park work will be completed over the coming weeks. Plus post and rail fencing will be erected to give our new facility real definition.

The majority of these works have been funded by Veolia Environment Trust, which was gained due to a successful grant application submitted by the Club earlier in the year.

Please also view the Gallery for the more photos of the Club … more to follow soon…

The Committee wishes to thank its members for their co-operation during this phase of the construction.

Working with Tesco 'Bags of Help' to raise funds for the outdoor floodlights

After being shortlisted for the Tesco BagsofHelp campaign, the Club is delighted to announce it has been awarded £8,000 to go towards floodlights for the outdoor courts.

The Club wishes to thank everyone who supported the campaign by voting in Tesco stores during the 2 week voting period.

The next step regarding outdoor floodlighting involves technical information being supplied to the local Planning Authority for their approval - this takes a minimum of 8 weeks and finalising costs with our preferred supplier. Inevitably, this takes time, therefore it is very unlikely that outdoor floodlights will be available for this Winter's season.

The Club will give a further update over the coming months.

Thank you for supporting the Club.

For further information on the Tesco Bags of Help initative, please view www.tesco.com/bagsofhelp

Tesco has teamed up with Groundwork on its Bags of Help initiative in hundreds of regions across England and Wales. The scheme will see three community groups and projects in each of these regions awarded grants of £12,000, £10,000 and £8,000 – all raised from the 5p bag charge.

 

 

Hat-trick of wins for Will

Will Moon from Andover Lawn Tennis Club, has struck for the third consecutive time by recently winning the Salisbury Grade 4 U14 Open tennis tournament. This followed tournament wins at the Oxtalls (Gloucester) U14 Open and Portsmouth U14 Open. 

Fourteen year old Will is amongst a number of promising young players who play at the club, two former juniors have progressed tennis scholarships in the USA.

Andover Lawn Tennis Club is now enjoying their fantastic new Indoor Tennis Centre at Balksbury Hill on the outskirts of Andover. The club is currently operating two indoor and three outdoor courts and the construction of the clubhouse is underway.

Community engagement and growth of tennis is at the heart of the clubs ethos and the club warmly welcomes players of all ages and abilities to join in one of the many sessions ran by the clubs coaching team.  Please contact info@altc.net for further information – you may be the next Wimbledon champion!

Construction works

Construction work is due to be conducted in the car park from 31st August for about a week. This will involve trenching for the Club’s electrical supply to be connected. Please note there may be limited access to the Pavilion and part of the car park.  On no account should any members or visitors cross any barriers erected as part of this work. Thank you.

Furthermore, with respect to construction, the clubhouse structure has been erected and work will continue over the next few weeks to complete the clubhouse structure. Further work will then be required by the Club, to complete the internal fit-out.

The Committee apologies for any inconvenience caused whilst construction is carried out.

Construction re-starts

We are pleased to announce that we have finalised a further contract with Dove Construction to build the clubhouse structure with viewing windows to the indoor courts. KJM Windows has kindly sponsored ALTC in the form of providing the windows and doors for the clubhouse. This work will include a sewage treatment system and drainage plus landscaping of the site but does not include the internal fit-out of the clubhouse.

We are also pleased to announce that ALTC have been successfully awarded a grant of £14.2K from Veolia Envrionmental Services. This will be used to complete the landscaping and join the facility to the cyclepath/footpath to and from Andover.

Existing transition to new club underway! Brackenbury courts are now closed.

After 42 years of playing tennis at Brackenbury the gates were closed for a final time on Sunday 8th May.

The new purpose built indoor courts should be open for use at the end of May closely followed by the outdoor courts.

During this transition, Adult Club Nights (6pm - Wednesdays and Fridays), mid-week Coaching and Saturday morning junior coaching will be held at Rookwood School.

The Committee would like to thank our members for their co-operation and understanding during this time.

Please email info@altc.net with any queries.