Langford Tennis Club, Club News

Club Announcements
League Play	We have 3 ladies doubles, 5 mixed doubles, 4 mens and 1 veteran doubles teams in the mid beds leagues, if you aren't already in a team but would like to be look at the league match list page and contact the relevant captain
General session	There are now general mix in sessions on Wednesday mornings from 9:30am until 12, Wednesday evening from 7:30pm and Saturday afternoons from 2pm These are for Adults and invited juniors, basically you just turn up and keep playing until people are too tired to continue. You don't need a partner as we mix up from set to set so it is a chance get to play with lots of different people and get some practice in


Winter Ladder	Well done to Shelly & Andrew on winning the 2018-19 Winter Ladder, Paul and Emma were this years runners up
2019 AGM	Another good year, membership close to capacity and the last I heard said we can take another 15 or so people so don't dilly dally if you are thinking of joining The courts are going to be re-finished again soon as the paint hasn't lasted as well as it should have so watch out for the court closure on the website diary
Winter 2018 Newsletter	A RATHER BUSY 6 MONTHS! Welcome to the LTC Winter Newsletter. Firstly, apologies for such a long gap between issues. We therefore have rather a lot to get through in this one! …….. SUMMER CHAMPIONSHIP Well, what a lovely warm Summer we just had (although it certainly feels like a long time ago now!) The weather stayed kind for our annual LTC Summer Championship, held on 15^th September. There were 3 hotly contested matches, that thrilled the crowds! (yes, we had a small crowd and we even had an umpire, thank you Kevin!) Singles – Matt v Mario Doubles – Matt/Amanda v Mike/Andrew Singles Runner-Up Plate – Andrew v Jo Thanks to all that took part and congratulations to the winners (pictured) Matt, Amanda & Andrew, with our Chair; Caroline, who presented the trophies. JUNIOR TOURNAMENT Lisa & Jo held another very successful Junior Tournament in June (with help from Justin & Paul J) The 14 Juniors that got off their gadgets for 3 hours, got rewarded with a lovely warm morning, and the standard of tennis was exceptional. All the children take turns in umpiring & being line judges, when they are not playing. Congratulations to Ella & Ethan, who won the coveted box of chocs! LTA SUMMER LEAGUE RESULTS Special mention to our MENS DOUBLES C TEAM, who topped their league for the Summer & MIXED B TEAM, who came 2^nd in their league. GIRLS JUNIOR TOURNAMENT More recently (18^th Nov), we hosted our first ever Junior Girls Tournament. With 4 of our younger female players, playing against 4 girls from Haslingfield Tennis Club. (another small-ish & friendly club nr. Cambridge) An incredible level of tennis was played, and of course great sportsmanship was shown throughout. Very well played to our strong pairings of, Kira & Emma, Lauren & Iris, who won overall. (I believe there will be an away match at somepoint as HTC enjoyed it so much, but maybe because they want revenge?!) A big thanks must go to Justin and his friend and fellow coach, Paul Bonnington from Haslingfield Tennis Club, for organising this. It was a great experience for all involved. WINTER LADDERS We have 14 pairings taking part this year. If you would still like to join in please email jo@thejaggards.com COMMITTEE UPDATES We have a very busy team of 9 volunteers, who meet up a few times a year to try and help run this lovely club. NEW VILLAGE DEFIBRILLATOR After a successful bid by the Playing Fields & Village Hall Committees to obtain a grant for the purchase of a new defibrillator. We are delighted to let you know that this is now in place and situated on the village hall wall opposite the courts. Please take the time to make yourselves aware of it’s location. Training on these machines and basic 1^st Aid CPR was offered out to the village residents and local clubs. A few LTC members took the opportunity to attend the training and learn life-saving skills. We also have 6 members that have agreed to be the ‘Defib Guardians’ and ensure that the machine is in full working order at all times. Well done to all involved in getting this vital piece of equipment in place. HEALTH & SAFETY The more observant of our members would have noticed our 3 lovely new post pads, the other members may just notice that they no longer hurt themselves when running into the spotlight posts!! This was completed as part of our annual Risk Assessment that is required by the LTA. There has been a key safe attached to the gate, which can be used to get out of the courts, in case of a power cut. We will also be painting the steps around the clubhouse, with non-slip paint. PLEASE ENSURE THAT CLUBHOUSE HEATERS ARE SWITCHED OFF BEFORE YOU LEAVE! PLAYING IN THE DARK? There has been a few ‘electrical issues’ with the spot lights recently. This has occurred when members have used the fuse box to turn off the lights. Please ensure that you only use the switches (circled in red) to put the spots on or off. Thanks! CLUBHOUSE KEYS New Clubhouse keys coming soon! The lock will be changed and new keys issued to all members. Our Membership secretary will inform you of how and when this will happen. Good news is the new keys will be cheaper! DATE FOR YOUR DIARY LTC AGM 27^TH FEBRUARY 2019 @ LANGFORD CHURCH HALL. CHRISTMAS GIFT IDEA? There are a few Adult & Junior coaching spaces available. Session times for Juniors are Wed 4.30pm, 5.30pm, Thur 4.30pm, 5.30pm & Sat 10am, 11am. Session times for adults are Wed 6.30pm, Thur 6.30pm & Sat 12pm. They are hour long slots for a 10 week course. £5.50ph for members, or £7.50 for non-members, a bargain as we do have a rather good coach! If you’d rather a one-to-one with Justin, to top up your skills, the cost is £35ph. For more info please contact: pauln.metcalfe@ntlworld.com NEW MEMBERS WELCOME Club Membership is at 132 with 80 Adults and 52 Students/Juniors. We cap our membership at 150, so have plenty of availability if you know anyone who would like to join our local, friendly and successful club. Contact Shelly on membership@langfordtennisclub.org.uk CARDIO TENNIS CANCELLED! (DON’T PANIC IT WILL RETURN!) It has been temporarily cancelled throughout December. This is to increase court availability for the Winter Ladders Competition matches. They are therefore available from 7.30pm every Thursday in December. Please do make use of this extra time to get as many matches played before the end of the year. We will re-instate Cardio on 10^th January 2019. TENNIS BALL RECYCLING We continue to bag up and send off 250 used tennis balls for recycling. Unfortunately not all tennis balls are able to be recycled. These include ones that are heavily weathered, have damage to the nap and are non-pressurised. The ones we are unable to recycle are now put in the netted sack by the notice boards for anyone to take home for their pooches to play with! SOCIAL SURVEY MONKEY! A little Survey Monkey has been emailed out to all members to try and organise a social night in March 2019. Four options were put forward at our last committee meeting. 1/ Quiz, Live Music & Food evening at the Church Hall 2/ Pub/Restaurant Dinner 3/ Race Night with Food at the Church Hall. 4/ Greyhound Racing at Henlow Dog Track. Thanks to all those that have completed the survey so far, we do have one that is proving more popular than the others, but we will wait for more responses before a decision is made. Get voting! CLUB CLOTHING Jo Jaggard has placed another order with our suppliers for some more good quality LTC Merchandise. It really is great to see so many people wearing it. Look out for some branded JOMA clothing coming in the new year. This should provide a wider choice in addition to our current range. HOUSE KEEPING We are more than happy for you to make use of all the club’s kitchen facilities. But.. please do wash up after yourselves, and keep the kitchen area clean for the other members and visitors to the club. If the bin bag is overflowing, please change it. (There is a big bin in the carpark – key for this is in the top kitchen drawer) Any recycling bags can be left in back room for collection or taken home and added into your own recycling bin. And as for the toilet…..(joking) Thanks in advance. Moan over!! The committee would like to thank Steve Fielding for his hoodonation! (see, no excuses not to run that around too ha ha!) NEW FEATURE! JUSTIN’S TENNIS TOP TIPS! Our coach, Justin Layne, has kindly agreed to give a Tennis Top Tip for each Newsletter (hopefully we will run more than 2 a year in future!) So here is the first for your delectation…. “Change your grip before it wears too thin. It is the only contact you have with the racket and can make a large difference to your level and help prevent injury from gripping the racket too hard” FEEDBACK We value and welcome your feedback, good and bad, so please do not hesitate to contact us. In addition to this, we will be looking for a Junior Rep to help feed back the points of view from our youngest members - the next generation MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAIR “Dear Members, It gives me great pleasure to reach out to you as we enter this festive period. I’m sure you will all be delighted and impressed to read about all the activity going on at the club, organised by your committee, on your behalf. Please don’t be shy to come forward with any new ideas you may have, we are always pleased to hear from you. We’ve kicked off the Winter League, with a successful start across all teams. We now have 14 teams representing the club, that’s mighty impressive for such a small club. Good luck for the rest of the season. On behalf of your hard working committee, we would like to wish you and all your loved ones a very Happy Christmas and a Peaceful New Year!” CONTACT US Chairperson – Caroline Bowers chair@langfordtennisclub.org.uk Membership – Michelle Drakes membership@langfordtennisclub.org.uk Coaching & Juniors – Paul Metcalfe coaching@langfordtennisclub.org.uk Welfare Officers – Paul Jaggard & Lisa Oestreicher welfare@langfordtennisclub.org.uk
2018 AGM	Another successful year, membership continues at close to the maximum, people keep playing and the courts have been re-finished again
2017 Summer Tournaments	There are informal social summer tournaments planned for • Saturday 8th July 2pm • Saturday 5th August 2pm The format is decided on the day depending on numbers but it usually takes the form of an American Tournament. You play 4 games with your partner (drawn on the day) and then 4 games with the opposing gentleman/lady against your partner. Confused? You will be…. But it’s great fun. The tea and cake is always worth turning up for! To enter just turn-up on the day. There is a small entrance fee to cover the refreshments
2016 AGM	Caroline takes over from Mike as Club Chair, let the celebrations commence
Sunday 20th September	Summer Championships 2015 - Finals Day
Sunday 21st September	Summer Championships 2014 - Finals Day An excellent day, strong play, aching feet, heartache and great joy for results click on Internal Club Competitions
Saturday 31st May	First Fun Tournament of the year Thank you to Clare for organising. Winning lady was Caroline and winning man was Neil. A special mention (thank you) to Verity for a particularly scrummy cake (easy to see what motivates me the most!)
Friday 16th May	The clubs first ever Social Evening and an excellent evening it was to! Thank you to Deirdre for organising, Marjorie, Christine and Clare for cooking and helping. A special thanks to Kevin, for organising an excellent quiz (and I say that despite not being in the winning team) and Chris M for entertaining us all and very good he was to
Summer 2014	Club Championships: The draw has now been published so PLAY! PLAY! PLAY! Tennis From May to the end of August. Finals in September Happy Summer and good luck to everyone
2013 Winter Ladder	Our new handicapped winter ladder proved to be very popular with 14 pairs entering and lots of play during the winter season The winners were Clare and Colin, an aggressive partnership that managed to win despite having their handicap adjusted in the middle of competition Runners up were Sarah and Julian who made a slow start but finished strongly to a solid second place Well done to everyone who played and don't forget, we can do it all again next year!
Saturday 6th July	Langford Village Fete Another well attended session, thank you to the members that volunteered to man the stand. The fastest serve competition was won by Robbie Irvine who was exceedingly subtle about letting Paul know that he had been beaten. Never mind Paul there is always next year!
Sunday 23rd June	Open Day 2pm-5pm In conjunction with the Bedfordshire LTA we are participated in "Play Tennis in Beds" event Over 40 potential members attended and nine people signed up on the day! Thank you to everyone that helped on the day
Saturday 18th May	60th Anniversary tournament The tournament was organised by Clare and Caroline, thank you both. We had an excellent day and well done to all attendees The winning lady was Sarah Cullip and the winning man was Paul Metcalfe. They showed their prowess by winning the final set 6-0, congratulations on some excellent play The finalists still had enough energy left to pose for a picture at the end of the day. Thank you to our resident happy snapper Kevin Howell
Winter Ladders 2012-13	The doubles ladder was won by Colin Plumb and Christine Deeks They had been runners up the previous year but this year they improved and took the top position. Well done to you both
October 1st	Summer Ladders finished, Winter Ladders Start Leanne Klopper and Mike Deeks won the mixed ladder and Andrew Fox won the singles ladder. As the winter ladders have just started now is a very good time to enter and start playing before the weather closes in
September 22nd	Last Saturday Tournament of the year Thank you to Clare for organising and catering an excellent day and a special thank you for organising the great weather. We had 12 entrants, for once balanced equally between boys and girls (ok men, women and a few grandparents) Perhaps we should call it the Langford Tennis Olympics as the updated format resulted in two final sets to rank the top players. Clare and Mike achieved Gold, Christine and Colin took the Silver with Vicky and William a very close 3rd for the Bronze
July 7th	Langford Village Fete - the Tennis club joins in the fun A good day although the weather made it a bit stop start, despite this a lot of people took part in the fastest serve (over 90 mph) and beat the coach (nobody did)
28th June	Things are hotting up in the club ladders with two ladder matches on the same evening, we will need a court booking system at this rate! The evening also saw new Doubles ladder leaders with Jenni and Robbie moving to the top spot with a well deserved win over Leanne and Mike Plenty of time to go so Contact Mike to join in the fun!
16th June	Thank you to Caroline Bowers for organising this Fun Tournament. There were 9 entrants this time and I believe that congratulations are due to Shane who won at his first ever Fun Tournament
5th May	Thank you to Clare Warren for organising this Fun Tournament and good weather to go with it again. 12 entrants played in the American Tournament style and Clare won the ladies side and Robbie won the mens. Well done to both of you Second month in a row for Clare, have you been having coaching??
April - May	Get back into Tennis Course Runs from Sat April 21 to Sat 26 May inclusive
14th April	Congratulations to Clare Warren for organising, and winning, this Fun Tournament and sorting out some good weather to go with it. Clare won 14 out of a possible 16 games on her way to victory. Well done Clare Did I hear someone call FIX! surely not. In case you were wondering there were 8 other entrants
31st March	The Winter Ladders have finished today Congratulations to Paul Metcalfe for winning the Mens Ladder. Paul managed to beat all challengers on his way to victory Congratulations to Sarah Cullip and Mike Deeks for winning the Mixed Doubles. They were beaten on their way to becoming champions but managed to win sufficient games to gain overall victory
3rd March	The Fun Tournament was well attended with a three way tie for first place Congratulations to Paul Metcalfe, Steve Fielding and Colin Plumb all scoring 11 wins out of a possible 16
January 1	2011 Junior League Finished - 2012 League begins A round of applause please for Chris Warren who won the clubs first ever Junior League
January 2	Winter Ladders finish end of March When the weather permits you should be planning your campaign on the clubs Winter Ladders Currently in the Ladies Ladder there are no entrants so put your name down and you could win! Mixed and Mens Ladders have seen a reasonable amount of play so if you are wanting to win it is time to get those challenges in
28th December	Ladies afternoon Not sure what they were in the morning but in the afternoon they were definitiely ladies, lots of fun, tennis, mince pies and tea or alcohol depending on who was driving. The event was another success for Caroline and there is a rumour going round that the next event will be at Easter so watch this space
30th November	More Mixed ladder action A round of applause please for Shirley and Andrew on winning their first ladder match, more coaching needed for Sarah and Mike
1st November	Mixed ladder action Kudos (and valuable points!) to the first pair of couples taking to the courts, Christine and Colin snagged the winning points at the 11th hour with victory in the tie break
31st October	Mens singles ladder action Having seen the glory that is bestowed upon the winning players it appears that people are starting their winter ladder campaigns early as we have already had two matches with Paul M taking an early lead in the tables
22nd October	Caroline'll fix it Almost immediately an appeal for a replacement fridge was launched Caroline came up trumps with an excellent replacement, appeal over Now if you could just organise me winning the lottery....
21st October	The external renovation of the club house has now been completed to a high standard Internally, the dunny has been cleaned and re-painted, thank you Neil A modern wood table and comfy chairs have replaced the previous garden furniture, thank you Caroline The fridge is looking tatty, if anyone knows of a good one that is going spare then the club would be delighted to accept, collection can be arranged
1st October	Jenni and Robbie won the mixed doubles ladder - well done for a sterling performance Robbie won the Singles League after only one challenge, maybe we will see more activity in the Winter Ladder The Winter 2011 Ladder is now open - let battle commence
Also 1st October	Octobers Fun Tournament the winning lady was Vicky and the winning man was Paul M. Well done to both of you and commiserations to everyone else With the fantastic weather we were expecting more entrants but the eight that did turn up had a cracking afternoons tennis followed by a very sociable time on the patio with the barbecue
21st September	Congratulations to the Mixed A team for coming 2nd in the LTA Summer League Division 3 which should see them promoted to Division 2 for next summer "Must try harder" to the Mixed B team who came 3rd in Division 4 and therefore missed promotion
17th September to 22nd October	Owing to the success of the present 'Return to tennis' course, we are running another one aimed at adults (new club members and non-members) who are starting out and want some coaching with like-minded souls! The course will be run by Justin Layne, our LTA qualified and experienced coach, for up to eight adults (aged 16+) and will run 12 - 1pm for six weeks - Sat 17th Sept to Sat 22nd Oct inclusive. Price is £18 for the six-week course payable upfront, or £24 if paying on a weekly basis. The low cost is because of kind sponsorship from Team Beds & Luton (with lottery funding). Places are limited to the first 8 to register. Click the image to enrol and pay online... or email Paul Metcalfe for more information.
1st September	Clare and Geoff move to first place on the doubles ladder by beating the current leaders, talk about doing it in style. Make the most of the good weather and challenge another couple today
23rd August	More mixed doubles play in the ladders, its a crazy mixed up world but Deirdre and Don move to 1st equal in the ladder by losing to Jenni and Robbie. What do points make? Prizes!
11th August	We have now given the go ahead for the external refurbishment of the clubhouse which will improve the general appearance of the site and make it weatherproof again! The work is expected to start around mid september and may involve some disruption to play although it is hoped this will be minimal
6th August	A very enjoyable fun tournament, peak holiday time and we still got 10 entrants. Teams were well picked (I was on one of the joint winning teams so I would say that) and everything flowed smoothly. Thank you John for organising the day and the food
26th July	There are now 5 pairs with scores on the board in the Mixed Doubles Ladder, if you have joined yet then still plenty of opportunity to run up the ladder as it is played on a leap frog system. The scoring that is, not the tennis
20th July	Membership is now up to 75, excellent news. Of course if all those 75 people get a friend to join why then we would have, um 1,2,3... lots of players
23rd July to 27th August	Team Beds & Luton are sponsoring places on coaching sessions at Langford, to qualify you need to be aged 16 or over and returning to, or wanting to start playing, tennis Places are limited so Contact Paul Metcalfe for details or click the image to the right
9th July	Fun tournament organised by Mike, lots of people played other people, pairings drawn out of a hat. Various "constructive" criticism was received so John has a cunning plan for the next fun tournament to increase the enjoyment If you want to see just how cunning John's plan is then you had better come to the next tournament on the 6th August
3rd July	The first match in the Singles Ladder has just been played with Robbie beating Geoff, congratulations to the both as they are now 1 and 2 on the ladder
2nd July	The Fete was very successful, a big thank you to Paul, Justin and Caroline for all their efforts in putting it together and everyone else who "helped". The serving speedometer proved especially popular with people coming back time after time. There should be quite a few new members coming from this event and with Justin already planning what more can be done for next year it looks like a permanent fixture
27th June	There are now 7 pairs in the Mixed Doubles Ladder, one game played and a new challenge issued, almost as much action as at Wimbledon
20th June	The first match in the Ladders has just been played with Clare and Geoff beating Sarah and Mike, congratulations to the new ladder leaders
13th June	The singles ladder is now underway with 5 people signed up for it, if you have the energy click the link and join the Ladder
11th June	Two more pairs have signed up for the mixed doubles ladder, at this rate the whole club will be in there soon which is great
10th June	Ladders get added to the club website see the new link for Ladders above this comment, if it isn't there then press F5 to refresh the page and it will appear
9th June	Club Mixed Doubles ladder gets 3rd team entered - Christine and Colin are feeling competitive meanwhile Sarah and Mike remain at the top of the table (ok, they are there because they entered first and no matches have been played yet but they are looking comfortable and aren't going to move without a fight)
4th June	Fun Tournament - Superbly organised by Caroline Congratulations to the winners Sarah and Mike and must try harder to everyone else
3rd June	Club Mixed Doubles ladder gets 2nd team entered - are Sarah and Mike going to have to fight for first place, Geoff and Clare think so
1st or 2nd June	Looking after the courts There are already long tyre skid marks on the surround to the courts, I am fairly sure we can rule out adults so those of you with younger members please can you impress upon them that the courts cost a lot of money and bikes MUST be kept off the court surface.
20th May	Courts are now open again - bring your sun glasses
w/c 16th May	Courts are being cleaned and repainted and will be out of action for most of this week
7th May	Fun Tournament - Fed, watered and organised by Clare - excellent day Well done to the winners Caroline and Neil and commiserations to everyone else