BLACKWOOD TENNIS CLUB INCORPORATED

Annual General Meeting 21st March 2006

SECRETARY’S REPORT

Once again the past year has been an extremely busy time for the Club. Below is a brief précis of some areas of interest for the 2005/2006 season.

About The Club The Club now has over 200 junior and senior registered players, not including our reserve players. This year we have 9 courts with 7 courts under lights. During the year we negotiated with the Netball Club to resurface all three netball courts as tennis courts with netball markings and these were finished in November. Sharing the use of these courts with the Woods Panthers Netball Club means that we are only able to use all the courts in the summer months. Once again this year, due to the large number of junior teams, we have needed to hire courts at Gibbs Park and Clovelly Park for home courts. We are still negotiating with Mitcham Council to have an additional court built at the end of the Netball courts which will also be double-lined for netball and tennis. The Committee has also been looking at options to put lights on Courts 5 and 6. This may become necessary if social tennis, practice and coaching increase in the near future. Blackwood High School is going ahead with the upgrade of their tennis courts and it is possible that we will be able to use these as home courts, if required, possibly next season. In addition to the junior and senior competitions, we have social tennis on a Monday night (organised by Dean Lorraine), social ladies tennis on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings and other bookings on week nights from Monday to Thursday. Ladies social tennis is organised and run by three ladies, Julie Wortley, Netta Curlis and Anne Firth. Our very special thanks go to Julie, Netta, Anne and Dean for the time and commitment which they have given to our Club over the past year. During the winter months, netball is allowed to use courts 3 and 4 after 6 pm if there are no tennis bookings.

Club Coaches We have been operating with 2 coaches for a few years now. Justin Broughton was appointed as coach to replace Malcolm Cameron and Peter Broughton has also continued as coach. Unfortunately Justin was forced to resign last month due to family commitments and a move interstate. A temporary coach, Darren Aistrope, has been covering Club coaching and some of Justin’s private coaching until a new coach can be appointed. Interviews have been held to find a coach to replace Justin and we hope that we will move into a more stable time for coaching. Our extra special thanks go to Peter for all the time and effort he has put in this year with coaching and for the support he has given our players, the Club and the Committee.

Sponsorship One of the tasks completed each year is following up sponsorship for the Club so that we can endeavour to maintain fees at a reasonable level and also subsidise club coaching for our Juniors. New sponsors are always welcome with advertising being available on court signs, in newsletters, on the Club website (www.blackwoodtennis.org.au) and in the Clubrooms. Our major sponsors for 2005/2006 were Savings and Loans Credit Union (Blackwood); Dunlop Sport; Mike Newbound; Roselands Tennis World and Ring Partners. Other sponsors included Mal Klopp Pharmacy; Fairley’s Shoe Store; Aussie Glass; Waggon Wheels Fruit Market; Magnet Newsagency; Blackwood Copy and Print; Video Ezy and Hungry Jack’s (Blackwood). Other sponsors who we hope will be on board in the near future, are Shutters ‘n’ Shades and Adelaide Development Company. On behalf of the Club, I wish to sincerely thank all these sponsors for their support this year. We hope that you will try to support these businesses when possible.

Club Shirts A new look Club shirt is hopefully on the way. The new shirts will be made in a similar type of material as the popular “name brands”.

Maintenance Unfortunately , routine cleaning of Courts 1 & 2 led to irreparable damage and it was necessary to resurface these two courts in January. At last the car park has been sealed, lined and lit. New shade trees have been planted and an automatic watering system has been installed to water the lawns etc. We have been using our umbrellas for shade and at present we are looking at the option of a large pergola on the lawn (near the car park) which will give permanent shade for spectators for courts 3 & 4 and courts 5 & 6.

Other Changes and Improvements Changes which have occurred, include the moving of our storage area into the shower area of the ladies toilets. To do this, it was necessary to move the hand basin into an alcove outside the toilet. We realize that this is not an ideal situation, but we will need to live with this until an upgrade to Clubrooms can be done, which is a long term issue. Netball will be taking over our old store room. The Club has now 2 sets of plastic blinds which enclose the West and East sides of the pergola. In addition to this we have bought a gas patio heater to use in this area.

Senior Break-up This year we decided to have a fully catered, sit down, Senior Break-up at the Club. The new blinds and heater were certainly an asset and made the outside area very comfortable on the chilly night. About 50 people attended and included 2 of our Life Members, Jim Sellick and Don Venus (and Robyn, his wife).

Junior Break-up The Junior break-up was very well attended this year with about 130 people attending. The weather was exceptional and very different from most of the freezing nights in previous years. Tournament trophies and prizes were presented.

Club History I have supplied the following excerpts of our Club History for the interest of our new members. Our Club is the oldest in the SDTA with competitive tennis starting around 1920. Our Club was part of the local Hills competition and joined the SDTA in the 1950’s. The first tennis courts were built in the early 1900’s and Courts 3, 4, 5 and 6 weren’t built until after 1970. The Committee is still looking at having a “History of Blackwood Tennis Club” written.

After 7 years of being Secretary I thought that it was about time that we had some newer and younger blood on our Executive. I am hoping that this break will give me a chance to recharge my batteries. I have really enjoyed my position as Secretary and it has been a pleasure to work with such a great group of people on the committee. The last 7 years has past extremely quickly with plenty of laughter and fun.

I don’t have time to mention everyone by name, so please accept my sincere thanks to everyone involved at our Club whether you be on the Committee, a player or a family member. This Club would not be what it is without your continued support, time, interest and humour.

Thanks everyone. Good luck and best wishes to you all in the future.

Penny Thornton

Secretary