Following the latest Government relaxations announced at the weekend, the LTA have now changed their guidelines once again. We are now allowed to play doubles with people outside our own family groups. So, 4 people, all from different families, can play doubles together. This is great news and means that ALL our members will now have a chance to play.
However the LTA says players should not congregate on or around the courts before or after play, so at the moment we cannot reinstate our mix ins or hold any social events. There will be a BIG event when this is all over!
The Clubhouse will remain closed, but we are hoping to reopen it for access to the toilet as soon as possible.
Your committee feel that now that we all have the opportunity to play again that members should be asked to pay their annual subscriptions. These will of course be pro rata’d for the period when play was not possible. We hope to issue these sometime in June.
These are the new conditions for play from Wednesday 3rd June:
1. All courts MUST still be booked in advance on the club website, even at times when open to the public. The booking form should now be completed like this ‘Booked by‘ ‘Just your name, ‘Court’ choose COURT 1, 2 or 3, ‘Players’ add the names of all the people you will be playing with. This may seem tedious but, if someone does contract the virus, we need to be able to trace people they have been in close contact with. You can now use the ‘Show Type’ filter at the top of the calendar to show individual court availability.
2. If you have forgotten your website login details or have any difficulties booking a court, please contact Roger, who will be happy to help. 07807 786532 (inc Whatsapp) or
roger.rossi@sky.com3. Play is now allowed on all 3 courts. Court 3 can be booked if you want to use the practice wall on your own.
4. Courts can now be booked for any time period, but players must not congregate around the gate and must allow for 2 metres social distancing when entering or leaving the courts.
5. Members may have no more than 4 ‘live’ bookings open at any one time. To be clear this means a member can only be booked to play a maximum of 4 times, regardless of who made the physical booking.
6. There is no weekly limit for court bookings. Members can play every day so long as they only have 4 ‘live’ bookings on the website at any one time.
7. Please, please, please change your booking on the website if you find you can’t play when you have booked!
8. Please don’t leave used balls, water bottles or used hand wipes on the court. Take everything home with you and dispose of properly.
9. Please save your used balls (at home) for when the Club reopens. We send our used balls for recycling and receive 30p per ball for Club funds.
10. Although we are proposing to start charging subscriptions, we are still happy to accept voluntary donations to a suitable charity if members wish. If you want to do this please pay to the usual club account with ‘covid donation’ in the narrative.
11. There must never be more than 12 people in total on the courts at any one time, and social distancing of at least 2 metres shall be observed at all times.
12. The gate and padlock are the areas where the virus will be more easily transferred. Please follow government guidelines and wash hands thoroughly, and/or use hand sanitiser, after touching these areas. There will be some hand wipes and sanitiser available on the courts, but due to the difficulty in sourcing this it would help the Club if members could bring their own wipes and sanitiser if possible.
13. The LTA now say that we can share balls, but please ensure that you don’t touch your face during play. Remember to clean your hands when you finish playing. If members need to purchase balls from the Club, please contact Graham –
grahamhepworth1@virginmedia.com14. The LTA have removed their recommendation about not changing ends. We suggest that players decide before the match when they are happy to change ends.
15. Members can now play both singles and doubles with guests. Please transfer £3 (£2 for juniors) to the clubs a/c for each guest (outside of public time). Please state “guest” and guests name in the narrative
So that is all for now, until the LTA change their guidelines again.
