Please phone Julie Kimberley NOW on 07904122761 or mail her on juliekimberley7@gmail.com to book your tickets for the annual Christmas bash which will be held on Saturday 10th December at Old Fold Manor Golf Club.

Tickets are £40 per head.  Pre-dinner drinks served from 7pm, a 3-course meal and dancing until midnight.  Dress code Smart/Casual (bet let's face it ... we like to bling up a bit!)

Carolyn has very kindly offered to sort out a raffle for us and has already posted a notice on the Social Board in the Clubhouse asking for donations, so do please sign yourselves up for something so that we can make a deluxe prize that will be really worth winning!  All profit from the event will of course go directly into Club funds to benefit us all!

The draws for the winter handicap tournament have been made, with the Handicap Committee doing their best to balance the handicaps so that all matches should be close!  The draws are on the Clubhouse Noticeboard.

Last Sunday morning saw 27 people compete for Beth's Trophy which was great.  The sun shone at times despite a bad forecast but as Noel said he was sure that Beth had "had a word" and arranged that for us!

The competition was a very close run one with 4 players tying on 12 games each - Mair Beccarelli, Sue Warrington, Nic Armitage and Dick Elms - however there has to be a winner and so Steve Porter announced on "countback" the Top Lady trophy would be awarded to Mair, the Top Man trophy to Dick and the coveted outright winner Trophy would go to Dick too!  So well done the winners and well done the competitors and well done those that came to support, cook, eat, sell the raffle tickets, organise the play etc etc!

Over £80 was collected on the raffle and so including entrance fees and bacon butty revenue we collected £240 which will be divided between Cherry Lodge and our Club.  It would be nice to purchase something for the Club with our share so if anyone has any suggestions we would be interested to hear them please?

Next year's Tournament will be on the usual Sunday and will be organised by Jane Keogh aided and abetted by William Harvey!

Thanks for all your support and a special thanks to Steve for organising the play!

It is with deep regret that I have to inform the membership of the sad passing of Tom Illingworth.

Tom passed away peacefully at home aged 91 last Tuesday 12th July after a short illness.

Tom was a long time member of the club and played well into his 80s and will be remembered very fondly by a lot of us.  In particular by his trade mark white track suit and his giggle as you fell foul of his evil slice!

Our thoughts are with his family at this time.

Margaret Gibson

Cup results

Ladies Singles

Winner :               Kim Henderson                                 Runner-up : Jo Ireland

 Ladies Doubles

Winners :             Jo Ireland and Marisa Nicholes

Runners-up :      Kim Henderson and Margaret Gibson

 Mens Singles

Winner :               James Timbrell                 Runner-up : Chris Williams

 Mens Doubles

Winners :             Ian Pittams and Chris Williams   

Runners-up :      Adrian Todd and Tom Warrington

 Mixed Doubles

Winners :             Kim Henderson and Chris Williams         

Runners-up :      Marisa Nicholes and Isaac Moore

 Plate results

Ladies Singles

Winner :               Katie White                        Runner-up : Kate Milful

 Ladies Doubles

Winners :             Jane Keogh and Debbie Thompson         

Runners-up :      Jill Baker and Joan Naughton

 Mens Singles

Winner :               Will Jones                            Runner-up : James Falkingham

 Mens Doubles

Winners :             Gary Collins and Simon Golding

Runners-up :      Ian Butler and Alan Paterson

 Mixed Doubles

Winners :             Julie Kimberley and Gary Collins

Runners-up :      Jane Northam and Barry Henderson

Thank you to everyone who took part in this year's successful tournament and to everyone who helped to make Finals Day such a success on 10.7.11.

Special thanks to Julie and those who helped with the BBQ and food and all those who kindly donated salads and desserts. Thank you to the scorers.

Congratulations to all the fabulous finalists - the valiant runners up and the great plate winners and the brilliant winners of the 2011 cups. (Details to follow here soon!)

And a big thank you to Steve for organising this very successful tournament.

See you on court

Sue Warrington

What a great way to open the Ravenscroft Tennis season! 

On Saturday, armed with rubber gloves and Jif, a motley band of volunteers  attacked the clubhouse with an arsenal of mops, j-cloths and sponges to give the kitchen area a complete cleanup and freshen up the rest of the clubhouse too.  Even the gutters were cleared, and by the front gate a solar-powered security light has been installed so that late evening enthusiasts can negotiate the steps in safety.

Sunday was a glorious day, and 20 enthusiasts competed for the honour of 'first tournament champions of the year'.  Fuelled by hot-cross buns and mini-muffins, Alan Patterson and Liz Pugh out-scored the rest of us and go on the (virtual) honours board.  Thanks to Steve and Julie for their organisational input!

At our first committee meeting of 2011 on 17th January Margaret Gibson made a welcome return to the committee as President of the club.  Congratulations to Margaret and to RLTC as we are lucky to have someone with her experience of and commitment to the club, stepping into Graham Barnes' shoes.
 
Graham has stepped down as President after a distinguished career serving the club as player and President.  His commitment and huge contribution to the club were honoured at the Dinner in December - a great evening, thanks to Julie K and those who worked so hard to make it a great success.  Graham has written to thank everyone for his gift, the kind words from Barry at the dinner and to wish us all well in 2011.  I'm sure all RLTC members will join me in sending our warmest wishes to Graham and Doreen.
 
Dick has emailed everyone regarding 2011 subscriptions and I'm sure members will be pleased to see that they remain at 2008 rates (see website to download subscription form).  Large expenses are looming as the courts will need resurfacing in the next few (1 - 3) years so we will be trying to raise funds through social events like St Patrick's QUIZ NIGHT on 18th March and by saving where we can.  One such saving is on BALLS!  Steve provides new balls for matches and thanks to Steve these are recycled for social play on Thursday evenings and again on Sunday mornings.  This will continue in 2011 but we ask players to return balls to the clubhouse so that they are available for others to use or to consider bringing our own can of balls.    Please help us to keep costs down in 2011.
 
The website provides details of all RLTC events and we are keen to save paper so please make the RLTC website a favourite www.ravenscrofttennis.co.uk and log on regularly to catch up on dates and events including the Winter Handicap Tournament - good luck to all those taking part.
 
Our next committee meeting is on 28th March so if you have any issues to raise or ideas for how we can improve our club, please speak to or contact any of the committee or email me on sue.warrington@hotmail.co.uk.  Unfortunately the committee has no power over the weather but let's hope for drier frost free courts so we can get back to tennis!!
 
See you on court
 
Best wishes
 
Sue

Membership subscriptions are being collected and so NOW is the time to get out on court to maximise the value of the fees that you have just paid out!