News update, 30 July 2018

Hello everyone,

Our teams have been doing remarkably well...

Mixed A team in the West Somerset League
Most remarkably, after years of relegation battles or languishing in mid-table while Trull or Taunton School took the glory, the mixed A team is now one match away from being champions of the West Somerset League. They need seven points from their final match against Wellington. Currently, they are six points behind Taunton School with one match left to play. The school have played all their matches. The table is shown in the attached file.

Ladies' team in the North Somerset League
In their final match of the season last week, the ladies secured promotion to Division 1, finishing second, four points behind Wrington. Here's the table: http://nstl.org.uk/Summer18/LADIES2_.TXT

Men's team in the North Somerset League
The team has won promotion to Division 2, securing second place, just two points behind Congresbury, the leaders. Here's the table: http://nstl.org.uk/Summer18/MENS3_LG.TXT

Men's team in the Yeovil & District League
The team won Division 2 last week with a 7-4 win over North Cadbury and two matches still to play. The table is here.

Mixed B team in the West Somerset League
The team is currently third with two matches to go and, as things stand, could still come first or second, in which case they'd be involved in a play-off for promotion.

Committee meeting
We had our first committee meeting since the AGM on Saturday, our first with David Walter as chairman. Present were:

David: chairman
Oli: men's club captain
Hayley: ladies' club captain
Shingo: new player recruiter-in-chief
Mike: communications
Matt (not a committee member but helping to organise the club tournament)
Laurence (happened to be there and joined in)

Apologies from Karin, Nigel and Kerry.

We discussed:

The club tournament
Men's singles: We've had 14 entries for the men's singles, and Shingo and Matt have made the draw. Players are arranging their own matches, and the final will be played on Finals Day on 8 September.

Women's singles: no entries!

Mixed doubles: We've had four pairs entering so far, with three players still looking for a partner.

Men's doubles: We've had three pairs enter so far, and there are two players looking for a partner.

Ladies' doubles: Two pairs have entered so far.

If you haven't entered yet, please do, regardless of your standard. If we get people of very different standards entering, we can organise separate events. You don't even need to be a member - just a Blackbrook user. Please enter by 19 August, preferably sooner. You can do so by replying to this email. If you don't have a partner, we'll find you one.

All doubles matches will be single-set matches on Finals Day (Saturday 8 September).

Winter teams
We need to think about the winter. Our one winter team is now in Division 1, which is a pretty high standard. We need another team so that others get some tennis in the winter too. We think we probably have enough people for another team – but we'd like to hear it from you in writing! If you are interested in playing and haven't told me already, please reply to this. The options are to enter a mixed team in Division 4 of the Yeovil and District League or Division 7 of the North Somerset League. In both you get some mixed tennis and some single-sex tennis.

New members
We're very pleased to report that we've had a couple of new people turn up on Wednesday night – the Walsh brothers, Kevin and Will – and we're hoping for more. 

Club sessions
We had 13 people at club night on Wednesday last week, and that should increase as we move towards the autumn. On Saturday two courts were in use on a very windy afternoon. On Thursday evening at 7 pm only one court is used generally, I think, so there is definitely a lot of room for more. We want to encourage people from other sessions at Blackbrook to come along to Thursdays and Saturdays.

Communications
We've had a couple of match reports in the Gazette, and hopefully there will be a couple more before the end of the season. This should be a good way to promote the club. We have a Facebook page (you don't need to be a Facebook user to see it), which should also help. You can find it by googling "Taunton Tennis Club" (it's the fifth or sixth hit). If you're a Facebook user, please LIKE it! And if you'd like to contribute, please let me know. We will soon have a website. I'll let you know when we do.

Competitive indoor doubles
We are going to try and continue the competitive indoor doubles we enjoyed earlier in the year and turn it into some sort of league format.

That's all for now.

Mike