TENNIS REPORT 2007

Facilities
2007 was another busy year of tennis events even though significant resurfacing works were carried out on all eight of the Cumberland's acrylic courts. These were completely resurfaced during August and September with great care taken to ensure that the finish on these courts was the same as that previously laid on courts 1, 2 and 3. All eight courts now play at the same speed. Feedback on the way all the courts are playing has been very positive. Disruption to members was kept to a minimum by carrying out the works in August and September, which are traditionally quieter months at the Club (but sufficiently warm and dry for resurfacing).

Drainage on courts 1, 2 and 3 has also been improved by the introduction of a French drain beneath a strip of porous macadam that runs parallel to the wall at the north end of these courts. This new system has coped well in keeping water off the playing surface. However, large volumes of water flow under courts 1-5 with the result that on going maintenance of the playing surfaces will be necessary.

The grass courts are in the best condition they have been in for many years. Prior to Steve commencing as groundsman, the Club took advice from the head groundsman at Queen's on how best to care for the courts during the closed season. After his arrival from his previous job at Lord's, Steve and his assistants invested an enormous amount of time, effort and skill in producing grass courts of the highest standard throughout the 2007 grass court season. This condition should be maintained in 2008; extensive rolling, scarifying and re-seeding took place in favourably warm conditions at the end of the 2007 grass court season. The Club is very fortunate indeed to have such skilled and dedicated grounds staff.

Social Tennis
Wednesday Club night remained a very popular and well attended part of the Club's activities with around 100 members attending on some evenings in the summer. Our thanks to the coaches who organise the pairings which aim to ensure that everyone enjoys a good mix of tennis over the course of the evening. Opinions differ on the block booking of courts for Saturday club afternoon, as appears from the paper I drafted in April 2007 which was circulated to all members and the subject of lively debate at the AGM. During 2007 a great deal of time and effort was invested by the Tennis Sub-Committee and the Main Committee to find a fair compromise between all the different interests of members.

During the summer, acrylic courts 1, 2 and 3 were block booked between 3 and 5pm. This was reviewed again in the winter following further consultation with members at the November American Tournament (my thanks to Marilyn Brooks, Richard Churchman, Chris Bradnam and Paul Smart in connection with this further consultation). The unanimous decision of both the Tennis Sub-Committee and the Main Committee was that during the winter months Saturday club afternoon would be retained on courts 4 and 5 between 1.30pm and 3.30pm. The American Tournaments that have been organised during this time have proved popular with members and such social events will be continued in 2008.

It is clear to me that it is impossible to satisfy every member given the extremity of some of the views expressed to me and members of the Committees. The arrangements that have been put in place after full and careful consideration by both the Tennis Sub-Committee and the Main Committee represent what are considered to be the fairest solution satisfying as many members as possible.

Team Tennis
Team Tennis - Middlesex League
In 2007 the Cumberland fielded a total of nine teams in the Middlesex Leagues - five men's and four women's. The Club had some notable successes - three teams were either champions of their respective divisions or gained promotion. Particular congratulations go to the women's 1st team (captained by Caroline Jones) who were champions of the Premier Division for yet another year.

The men's 1st team (captained by Paul Smart) retained its position in the Premier Division. The 2nd team (captained by John Taylor) gained promotion to the Premier Division. The women's 2nd team (captained by Juliet Fox) retained their position in the Premier Division. For the 2008 season the Cumberland is the only tennis club in the Middlesex League with two teams in both the men's and women's Premier Divisions, which underlines the Club's strength in depth within Middlesex.

The men's third team (captained by James Churchman) retained their position in the First Division as did the fourth team (captained by Mark Abbot) in the Second Division. The women's 3rd team (captained by Karen Stoker) also retained their position, finishing a very creditable 3rd in the women's First Division.

The men's 5th team (captained by Seb Stones) and the women's 4th team (captained by Marilyn Brooks) offer opportunities to the Club's up and coming juniors to make the transition from junior to senior league tennis. As far as possible juniors are paired with more experienced campaigners which is particularly helpful to the juniors in developing their doubles skills. Commiserations to the women's 4th team who were relegated to the Second Division. Congratulations to the men's 5th team who finished champions of their division and gaining promotion to the Third Division.

Team Tennis - Middlesex Cup
The Cumberland were champions of the Winter Mixed competition (captain Caroline Jones) beating Globe in the final. In the summer the men's team reached the semi finals of the Middlesex Cup, whilst the women's very impressive 9 year run as champions came to an end when they lost to Queen's in an early round. At the time of writing the Cumberland has recently retained the Winter Mixed title, beating Hazelwood in the final in February 2008. Congratulations to Caroline Jones, Suzie Dart, Tilly Callow, Simon Curtis, Flint Sperber and Paul Smart.

Team Tennis - National Club League
In 2007 there was one men's team and two women's teams from the Cumberland participating in the National Club League (4 singles and 2 doubles per match). Unfortunately both the men's and women's first teams lost their places this year in the top division. The women's second team maintained their position in National Division 2.

Team Tennis - Veterans Tennis
The Cumberland continued its participation in inter-club veterans tennis competitions at men's 35, 45 and 60 and women's 40 and 50. Particular mention should be made of the veterans winter league team (captained by Michelle Barber) who finished runners up in 2007.

Team Tennis - Team organisation and match scheduling
The Cumberland is proud of its traditionally strong teams and the depth of talent that the Club attracts. In order to run successful teams, the captains have to spend a great deal of time organising players by telephone and e-mail. We are grateful for their efforts. We are also very grateful to Peta Churchman in the Club office who carries out tireless work assisting the captains and liaising with other clubs and the various league secretaries.

The Club tries very hard to ensure that only one home match is played at any one time and this is the position for the vast majority of matches. However, on a small number of occasions clashes are unavoidable. In particular, under the NCL's Rules, matches have to be played on particular Sundays. Within these constraints the Club makes every effort to agree staggered start times with opposition teams. In addition, in 2007 the women's 2nd NCL team played all their matches away from home. That will continue to be the case in 2008.

The 2007 Club Championships
The Cumberland Tennis Championships took place over 2 weeks between 16th to 30th June. With 15 events in a two week period, a substantial amount of organisation was needed. Our thanks in that regard to Caroline Jones (also tournament referee) and to all those who put in time and effort assisting Caroline manning the phones and the tournament desk, including Peta Churchman, Michelle Wheeler, Mike Marsh, Marilyn Brooks and Anna Hay. Of course, even with the best organisation one can never legislate for the weather and unfortunately finals day was very wet and windy. Many finals had to be rearranged for later dates. We hope for better weather for the 2008 Championships. This will start on Saturday 5th July with finals day taking place on Saturday 19th July 2008 followed by the Chairman's cocktail party.

Congratulations to all the winners in 2007 and in particular Susie Dart, winner of the women's singles final for the 5th time and Simon Curtis winner of the men's title for the 5th time. The full results of the 2007 Championships were as follows:

Men's Open Singles
Simon Curtis beat Ekow Carboo w/o

Women's Open Singles
Susie Dart beat Zsofia Fodor 6-4, 6-2

Men's Open Doubles
Simon Curtis and Adam Boucher beat Ekow Carboo and JP Mbaka w/o

Women's Open Doubles
Susie Dart and Caroline Jones beat Zsofia Fodor and Svetlana Yachevskaya 6-1, 6-1

Mixed Open Doubles
Zsofia Fodor and Graham Tomkinson beat Susie Dart and Ekow Carboo w/o

Men's 45 Singles
Rajiv Batra beat Barry Skelding 6-1, 6-3

Women's 40 Singles
Lisa Gershon beat Michelle Barber 6-4, 6-4

Men's 45 Doubles
Mike Marsh and Barry Skelding beat Ivan Ezekiel and Gad Heuman 6-1, 6-0

Mixed 45/40 doubles
Michelle Barber and Barry Skelding beat Maeve Feeny and Roger Cotton 7-5, 1-6, 6-3

Men's handicap singles
Milan Milojevic beat Scott Chase

Women's handicap singles
Juliet Broadbent beat Moira Duncan 6-3, 3-6, 6-1

Men's handicap doubles
Ian Jelbert and Darren Lee beat Edgar Mehl and Jeremy Raven 2-6, 11-9, 6-3

Women's handicap doubles
Regina Dodge and Debbie McCormack beat Ginny Ferdin and Liz Hill 6-0, 6-3

Mixed handicap doubles
Michelle Barber and Mark Abbott shared the title with Laura Whibley and Gavin Butt

Women's 40 doubles
Caroline Jones and Angela Billingham shared the title with Michelle Barber and Lisa Gershon

Tennis Leagues
As well as the Club Championships, competitive tennis is available to members through the very popular leagues that are efficiently managed and run by Chris Bradnam. In 2007 approximately 200 members participated in over 25 different leagues. Thanks also to Alex Edwards for all the work he does updating the leagues on the Club's website (www.cltc-hcc.com). Indeed, thanks to Alex the Club's website contains a host of up to date information with regular postings of notices, information concerning up coming events, coaching schedules, fixture lists, tournament results and other useful information.

Junior Tennis
Thanks to the great efforts of Marilyn Brooks, Nicki Siddall, Caroline Cohen, Carol Morgan, Chris Money and Chris Bradnam on the Junior Tennis Sub-Committee, the Club had another successful year of junior tennis in 2007.

Junior club night continued on Friday evenings (May to mid-July and September to October) and remains popular particularly during the warmer months. The end of season junior dinner in November was a great success and was attended by around 100 people. At that dinner the following were congratulated on being awarded the Bill Blake awards for 2007:
The junior tournament was played over a number of weeks in September and October 2007. Well done to all those who competed and congratulations to the finalists and winners of the various events:
Boys' singles under 12: Eoin Kelly beat Nikhill Sood 5-7, 6-1, 10-8
Girls' singles under 12: Phoebe Dart beat Georgina Cotton 7-6, 6-3
Boys' singles under 14: Mark Keothavong beat Ed Curtis 6-1, 6-1
Girls' singles under 14: Ellie Jacobs beat Lorna Hitchcock 6-0, 6-2
Boys' singles under 16: Ben Brooks beat Charles Salmon 6-1, 6-3
Girls' singles under 16: Georgina Pritchard beat Joanna Siddall 6-3, 6-1.
Boys' singles under 18: Benedict Vandespar beat Freddie Morgan 6-2, 6-2
Girls' singles under 18: Georgina Pritchard beat Emilie Abrams 6-2, 6-1
Boys' doubles under 14: Ed Curtis and Toby Cohen beat Jon Coller and Richard Law
Girls' doubles under 14: Antonia Curtis and Phoebe Dart beat Laura Hitchcock and Sarah Whibley 6-4, 6-0.

In 2007 there were regularly over 60 juniors participating in the Club's junior tennis leagues which cover all ages and standards and serve as an introduction to competitive tennis. A number of the juniors who have risen to the top of these leagues pass into the adult leagues and are given opportunities to play in the men's 5th and women's 4th teams.

In 2007 the Cumberland fielded 5 junior teams in the Middlesex Junior National Club League (2 girls' teams and 3 boys' teams). Congratulations to the girls under 18 team, the boys under 16 and the boys under 13 teams who all won their leagues.

In order to give greater opportunity to the Club's juniors, during 2007 the Tennis Sub-Committee recommended the following changes to the Tennis Regulations which were approved by the Main Committee:
Finally, the achievements of two of the Club's juniors deserve particular mention. Mark Huttman is presently ranked third in the country for boys 12 and under. Harriet Dart is presently ranked fourth in the country for girls 12 and under. These are fantastic achievements, as is their recent selection to represent Great Britain against Sweden in February 2008.

Association of Centenary Clubs
The Cumberland continued its active participation as a member of the Association of Centenary Tennis Clubs ("ACC") (www.centenarytennisclubs.com). The Cumberland was a founder member of the ACC in 1995 under a constitution which prescribes that members must be member owned, at least 100 years old, host international and/or open tournaments and offer tennis for juniors, club players and teams of high standard.

In August 2007 the Cumberland participated in an 8 team tournament hosted by the Real Club de Tenis Barcelona-1899, another founder member club. As well as teams from Barcelona, there were founder member teams from Milano A. Bonacossa, LTTC RotWeiss Berlin, Kungliga LTK (Sweden), Royal Leopold Club (Belgium) and the Tennis Club of Geneva. The Cumberland was represented by Susie Dart (women's 30), Lisa Gershon and Michelle Barber (women's 40), Adam Boucher and Paul Smart (men's 35), Russell Howat and David Hobson (men's 45). The team put in a very creditable performance on clay finishing 4th (Paul Smart fighting to the death in a 3 hour battle in one match) with the tournament being won by the Tennis Club of Geneva.

Now that all founder member clubs have hosted at least one annual tournament, the plan is for such events to take place every 3 or 4 years to maintain the links between the clubs. In the interim there are opportunities for the Cumberland to participate in matches with the other 40+ members of the Association.

The Eleanor Caplin Trust
2007 brought a first for the Eleanor Caplin Trust. Thirty children from local schools Beckford Primary, Holy Trinity Primary and St Mary's Primary participated in tennis coaching sessions in July and August 2007 on the HCC artificial grass courts. The coaching was provided by the Club's regular coaching professionals under the guidance of head coach Chris Bradnam. New rackets were generously donated by Simon and Caroline Jones. The sessions introduced a very enthusiastic group of young people to the game of tennis and were a great success. It is planned to repeat this coaching programme in 2008.

The LTA Futures Tournament
The Cumberland was again the proud host of an LTA Futures Tournament for some of the world's up and coming stars of the future. The tournament again took place in the holiday month of August when pressure on the courts is much reduced. The tournament was again successfully refereed by our own Sultan Gangji. The winners were: Men's singles: Thomas Oger (The number 1 seed from France, ranked 303 in the world) Women's singles: Pauline Wong (The number 2 seed from the Netherlands, ranked 450 in the world). I am delighted to say that both the men's and women's tournament will return again to the Cumberland between 10th - 17th August 2008.

The Cumberland's Staff
In order for the Cumberland to provide its members with outstanding tennis facilities and related fitness and social facilities it relies very heavily on its committed members of staff. Almost all members will at some point in 2007 have enjoyed the dining facilities managed by Robbie and Adriana and enjoyed the bar managed by Trudy. Our thanks to them for their efficient management and to all the staff who help make the Club's dining facilities a success. Thanks also to those who coach at the Club. Many members from both the junior and senior sections take the opportunity to improve their games with coaching provided by the Club's range of coaches under the management of Chris Bradnam. Overseeing all of the Cumberland's various tennis-related facilities are Michelle and Peta in the office. Their contribution to the smooth running of the Cumberland cannot be overstated. The work carried out by the office covers all of the matters outlined above plus a huge amount of other day to day work that keeps the Cumberland running smoothly. We are very lucky to have such a hard working and loyal staff. Without their efforts the Club would not be the place it is.

Finally, I would like to thank those who have given their time this year on the Tennis Sub-Committee: Marilyn Brooks, Ivan Ezekiel, Caroline Jones, Chris Bradnam, Paul Smart, Michelle Wheeler and Peta Churchman. If you have any tennis related issues, please do not hesitate to raise these with me or a member of the Tennis Sub- Committee.

John Taylor
Chairman of the Tennis Sub-Committee