Chairman's Report 2008/2009

2008 and the early months of 2009 have proved to be yet another successful period for all sections and members of the Club. Our finances remain in a very healthy state with good cash balances to start the year when we will see whether the impact of the global credit squeeze hits the Club's income streams - this will be tested in the next couple of months when we issue the 2009/2010 tennis subscriptions which account for circa £400,000 of our annual income - if people do feel unable to re-new their memberships and we see a decline in income we have several areas of the budget where we can make corresponding savings primarily by deferring planned capital expenditure associated with improvements to our existing facilities. We will keep members informed as we progress through the next few months

Since the last AGM and Chairman's Report, Michelle Wheeler, our Club Manager, has continued to support all members and sports sections in her usual impressive manner for which we remain very grateful.

Steve Jarvis, our head groundsman who joined us from Lord's Cricket Ground in March 2007 has continued to transform the quality of both the grass tennis courts and the cricket square/outfield way beyond our expectations and we remain extremely fortunate to have the benefit of Steve's expertise and enthusiasm ably supported by Elaine and baby Jack.

The facilities upgrade programme has continued over the past 12 months with further general internal refurbishment to the CLTC and HCC Clubhouses, the re-roofing of Squash courts 3 and 4 at the CLTC site and more recently the installation of new roof decking and railings to the outside terraces at both the HCC and CLTC clubhouses.

As reported previously over the course of the year two committee members, Regina Dodge and Marilyn Brooks have commenced a dialogue with a selection of our neighbours aiming to improve relations and assist any future planning applications.

The tennis section enjoyed another successful year with the Ladies first team winning the Middlesex Premier Division and regaining the Middlesex Cup after their first defeat in this competition last year following twelve consecutive years previous success. The Ladies 1st National Club League (NCL) Team were promoted back to National Division 1 which was a great effort whilst the Ladies 2nd NCL team retained their place in Division 2.

The Ladies 2nd Team performed extremely well to win promotion to the Middlesex Premier Division whilst the 3rd team remained in Middlesex Intermediate Division and the 4th team managed to retain their place in Division 2.

The Men's 1st Team were unfortunately knocked out of the Middlesex Cup in the first round surprisingly by Paddington but in the Middlesex League competition retained their place in the Premier League where disappointingly the 2nd Team were relegated back to Intermediate Division. The Men's 3rd Team performed creditably but were narrowly relegated to Division 2 whilst the 4th Team stayed in Division 2 and the 5th Team remained in Division 3.

The Winter Middlesex Cup mixed team won the 2008 competition for the third year in succession which has not been achieved previously by any other club but surprisingly were eliminated in the first round of this Winter's competition.

The Club Open and Handicap Tournament as ever saw all events fiercely contested with our youngest ever Ladies Champion, Harriet Dart, winning the Ladies' Singles defeating Gemma O'Donoghue in the final. Pierre Pourquery emerged as the 2008 Men's champion after a hard fought final against Men's first team captain Colin Taylor. The 2009 tournament will take place between 4th and 18th July. The Committee and all participants in the Tournament are especially grateful for all the scheduling efforts and refereeing expertise provided by Mike Marsh assisted by Peta Churchman, both of whom somehow managed to retain their composure and sense of humour whilst trying to balance competitors' individual diaries, court preferences, handicap appeals, etc, and still managed to complete all events on schedule!

John Taylor was re-elected as Chair of Tennis at the 2008 AGM and has continued to improve all aspects of the tennis section supported by the sub – committee he formed to provide feedback and guidance through the year comprising Ivan Ezekiel, Caroline Jones, Colin Taylor, Chris Bradnam, Marilyn Brooks, David Turfrey supported by Michelle Wheeler and Peta Churchman. John's second year in the role of Chair has been very successful including the resurrection of social American Tournaments, extension of juniors playing rights, review of coaching policy, implementation of a revised Saturday Club Afternoon format and the Committee has also benefited from John's legal background when confronted by several difficult challenges over the year.

We are also very grateful for all the efforts of the Junior Tennis Committee who promote the interests of our Junior players which is chaired by Marilyn Brooks supported by Nicki Siddall, Caroline Cohen, Jennifer Labrom, David Kilbourn, Liz Shinder, Susie Dart, David Turfrey and Chris Bradnam.

The LTA have once again invited us to host a $10,000 Men's Event as well as a $10,000 Women's Event from 29th August - 6th September 2009 following another successful tournament held last summer, when members enjoyed seeing the rising starts of the future in action.

Many thanks to are due Donald Macleod supported by Brian Hatton and John Taylor who represent our interests in the exclusive Centenary Club Association. In 2009 the Club's under 12 junior teams will be representing the Cumberland at a tournament hosted by Carrickmines LTC in Ireland, which will be attended by other Association clubs from Spain and the Czech Republic.

Chris Bradnam with his team of coaches continue to run the coaching programme and the junior tennis school with great success. A significant addition to the coaching team arrived a few months ago in the form of David Turfrey who, as I have mentioned, already participates in both the Club's tennis sub-committees. David is an exceptionally experienced coach having previously worked at the world renowned Bollettieri academy in Florida and has re-energised our junior coaching programme. Many members benefit from individual coaching from the team albeit demand, at times, outstrips supply of coaches/court availability so early booking of lessons is recommended. In an attempt to make more coaching time available to members we have reviewed and tightened the opportunities and arrangements for non-members receiving coaching which have generated more capacity for those members who wish to sharpen their game. Chris continues to be actively involved with both the BBC and Eurosport tennis commentary teams and we all enjoyed his daily bulletins earlier this year from the 2009 Australian Open and recent Qatar ATP event. A sad loss from the coaching team during the year was Steve Poxon's decision to concentrate his efforts at his other base - we wish Steve continuing success and remain grateful for the many years he has devoted to coaching at CLTC and also his impressive efforts in our Men's First team.

Wednesday evening tennis "club nights" are ever popular and during the summer, acrylic courts 1, 2 and 3 were made available for Saturday Club afternoon between 3 and 5pm. Following this Saturday Club afternoon has continued over the winter on acrylic courts 4 and 5 during the daylight hours of 1.30pm to 3.30pm. In time for the longer daylight hours and warmer weather that brings out more participants, Saturday Club afternoon will revert to acrylic courts 1, 2 and 3 between 3pm and 5pm on Saturday 4 April 2009.

Our younger tennis members continue to benefit from the income generated by the Eleanor Caplin Fund which has a new board of Trustees, namely John Taylor, Marilyn Brooks, Richard Churchman and Chris Halder who are committed to use to the full benefit of all younger members and non-members in the local community - we are very grateful for their efforts. For the second year the Club hosted a very successful summer tennis camp for over 20 children from local state primary schools. Another camp is planned for 2009 as are initiatives where the Club's coaches take their coaching skills into local state schools.

The Squash section has, as usual, been active with teams competing in the Middlesex Leagues, as well as the prestigious Bath and Queens Cup competitions. All our teams have battled away in their various League and Cup Competitions and are currently coming towards the end of this season. The Men's Cumberland Cup team are currently in the semi finals of the 2008/09 event and will shortly play MCC for a place in the finals. Congratulations are due to our Men's 1st team who have won Division 2 and will be promoted to Middlesex League Premier Division, and to our Mens Bath Cup 2nd team who are champions of Division 2. Our Bath Cup 1st team are lying 2nd in Division 1 (at the time of going to press) in the hope that other results may result in their own promotion as champions. The lower teams have generally got off to a good start to the season with the Men's 2nd team lying 6th in Division 3 and the Men's third team lying 7th in Division 4 at the date of writing this report. The Ladies 1st team are currently top of Division 1.

The Men's Veterans competition held in early 2009 saw some stiff competition amongst our more experienced players with the finals played recently which saw Berge Kay overcome John Alcock in the Men's 55 Finals, Jon Siddall triumphing against Simon Esplen in the 45 Final and Simon Evans taking the 35 title defeating Nick Dart.

We continue to benefit from the coaching support from our former world ranked squash professional, Zubair Khan. Zubair has continued to play an active role in conjunction with Mark Rayner in promoting the Middlesex Junior Squash programme which sees a number of talented youngsters coming to the Club on a regular basis. 2008 also saw an impressive invitation event organised by Zubair where some of the world's top players competed at the club. Our thanks are due to Zubair for promoting this new tournament supported by the organising Committee including Chris Rogal, Mark Rayner, Tracy Parker and Matt Crawcour which we hope to see repeated in 2009.

The winter team squash event took place in January earlier in the year and was as usual incredibly popular and well supported. Thanks are due once again to Rikki Kent and Peta Churchman for giving up their weekend to organise the event.

The squash members also remain, as ever, very grateful for Rikki Kent's input into the organisation of the Squash Leagues and Monday evening "club nights".

The Cricket Section were very pleased with their performance during the 2008 cricket season. The 1st XI consolidated and improved its position in the ECB Premier Division of the Middlesex County League ending up in 3rd position for the third year in succession. The 2nd XI maintained their place in the Middlesex 2nd XI Division One where they finished in a creditable 4th position whilst the 3rd XI only managed eighth spot in the Middlesex 3rd XI Division One. The Club performed well in the two limited over knock-out competitions.

We were very fortunate when the Middlesex and ex-England player, Paul Weekes, joined the Club as Director of Cricket in 2007 and all teams have benefited from Paul's experience and coaching skills. Even more impressive was Paul's contribution to the 1st XI where he finished top of not only the batting averages in the Middlesex League but also took top position in the bowling averages - the first time this feat has been achieved for 42 years!! Not wishing to be out-done by Paul, Brandon Buckley our overseas player topped the aggregate run rate in the Middlesex rankings during the season!

Our Ladies 1st team, ably managed by Jim Carter, managed a creditable 3rd position in their league competition.

The Colts Section continued to thrive and thanks are due to Alan Brooks and Roger Carter for ensuring the success and progress of the section.

We are grateful for all the efforts of the cricket sub-committee chaired by Frank Berendt supported bu our Cricket President Chris Wynn and wish them success in their 2009 season.

The Hockey section is thriving both on and off the pitch under the leadership of Chairman Timur Asar, fielding 6 ladies teams and 7 mens teams each week and enjoying a full calendar of social activity in the HCC Clubhouse. The 2007/08 season so far sees the Men's 1's, 6's and 7's all lying second in their respective divisions and hoping for promotion next season with all other teams lying mid table within their leagues looking for improvement in the second half of the season.

The 2008 AGM regrettably saw the resignation of our club treasurer who has served the club and membership in outstanding fashion for the last 16 years in this role – we are immensely grateful to Chris for his many years of tireless work on our behalf and he will be sadly missed - there were no nominations for Treasurer received at the AGM so the position has remained vacant over the year however we are extremely fortunate that Chris has remained in touch "ex officio" and that Alan Brooks has devoted many hours over the year to prepare management accounts and year end results which Alan will present to the 2009 AGM. I am sure Alan will continue to advocate that we should budget for a surplus each year in order to make provision for continued improvement of the Club facilities and also to cater for any unforeseen emergencies.

The Social Committee led by Anna Hay organised a series of excellent social events during 2008 including the annual ball which returned to Highgate Golf Club together with ever popular Quiz nights and several new innovations in the form of Comedy Nights and Musical Evenings all of which have been incredibly well attended and very enjoyable occasions. Thanks are due to the other members of the Social Committee who are Nick Jones, James Churchman, Valerie Barber, and Steve McCormack.

Tony Corby has continued to successfully lead a thriving Bridge section throughout the year with regular Friday evening sessions mixed with several popular matches against The All England Club, Hurlingham, etc.

Paul Tereo, our gym instructor, is available to introduce and induct new members to the gym equipment and also offers members personal training/fitness programmes.

The Annual Tennis Section Cricket match against The All England Lawn Tennis Club was scheduled to take place at the end of August at Raynes Park but for once the weather got the better of this most enjoyable fixture which was abandoned without a ball being bowled. We hope for better weather for the 2009 fixture.

Rob Sumner took over the role of Snooker Chair in 2008 and has organised a number of successful tournaments throughout the year.

The Cumberland Golf society played various matches during the year and the well supported knock out tournaments were very capably organised by Pat Broadway whose ongoing efforts are greatly appreciated by the golfing members.

2008 and early 2009 has seen the continuing growth and popularity of the newest section of the Club, the Backgammon Group, which came together due to the enthusiasm of Ray Kershaw. Regular social evenings have continued to take place where players of all abilities are welcomed. Ray also enters a "Cumberland" team in the London Backgammon League where we compete against an impressive list of other members clubs, including Hurlingham, MCC and Roehampton.

As ever our thanks are due to John Mark for all his behind the scenes input in organising the Staff Xmas Fund which, thanks to the generosity of members, saw a sizeable sum collected and distributed by John to thank all our hardworking staff.

For those computer literate members who have visited our website over the past 12 months, you will have seen significant improvements to the style and content of the site for which thanks are due to our "Webmaster" Alex Edwards, who has dedicated many hours of work.

James Barlow has again diligently spent a significant time in his role as Honorary Secretary advising the committee on various constitutional issues relating to the club and also guiding us through the increasing amount of external legislation with which we now have to comply which has been invaluable.

I would also like to take the opportunity of thanking all our other colleagues on the Main Committee, Alan Brooks, Marilyn Brooks, Regina Dodge, Charles Woodruffe, Timur Asar, Matt Crawcour, John Taylor, Frank Berendt, Richard Churchman and our President Donald Macleod for all their help, support and contributions during the year.

All members benefit from the support and service we receive from our magnificent staff team for which we remain very grateful. Particular thanks are appropriate to Adriana in her role as clubhouse/bar manager closely supported by Rob Kocur whose catering team provide such a wonderful good value menu of food throughout the year for members and visiting teams. Peta Churchman as ever has played a significant role in the day to day administration of the Club office and membership for which we are very grateful.

I hope you will all agree that 2008/2009 was a successful year for the club at all levels and in all sports, however the Main Committee supported by the various sub-committees will continue to drive forward for further improvements both on and off court in 2009/2010 whilst closely watching whether we are affected by the global recession.



Simon A Jones
Chairman