ALMONDSBURY & BRADLEY STOKE TENNIS CLUB
CHAIR’S REPORT Sept 2020-21
The last year has seen membership continue to increase and while we recognise that this is in part due to the national upsurge in interest when tennis was one of the few activities allowed under Covid restrictions, retention rates have been good and we are confident that we can maintain the increase. Our Membership Secretary contacts all new members personally to ensure they can access all facilities and activities that they want to be involved in.
The booking systems introduced due to Covid regulations proved successful and are to be retained. This has also allowed some courts to be made available to the general public on a Pay & Play basis using the Clubspark booking system. This has not yet been heavily marketed and we expect these bookings, and therefore the revenue generated, to increase in future.
Members have taken part enthusiastically in club sessions, box league, league matches and occasional events, such as the American Doubles tournament. The recently completed Club Championship had the highest number of entrants ever and Finals Day proved to be a successful event. Participation at all club sessions remains high with Monday nights proving particularly popular.
Our first organised social tennis weekend away took place in October 2020, when a group of 16 members went to The Manor Hotel in Devon. Committee Member Cheryl Freston organised the trip and Naomi Buckler ran some friendly doubles events on the courts. Thanks to this success plans for another weekend at The Manor are underway for a larger group to go there in November 2021.
Our Head Coach, Toby Huddlestone, continued to expand the coaching programme for all age groups, to the extent that James Wagstaff has now joined the team as a full time coach. Toby continues to encourage all the young people who assist him to gain coaching qualifications and ensures they all work to LTA safeguarding standards. The coaching team actively promote club membership, which has lifted the percentage of young members but also brought in new adult members. In addition to coaching Toby and James manage the junior league teams.
We increased the number of teams taking part in the Avon Leagues, with 3 Ladies and 3 Mens teams competing in the Summer League. The Ladies 2[nd] & 3[rd] teams both gained promotion, as did the Men’s 1[st] & 2[nd] teams. We also had success with new teams entered into Avon National League. The Women’s team won the County Division, the Men’s team were runners up and our new Junior teams at 8U, 10U & 16U topped their divisions. The adults Late Summer League entry increased from 2 to 4 teams and the club has entered a record 9 teams into the Winter league starting in October.
The increased revenue from Membership is significant and general maintenance costs have been relatively low, allowing us to add nearly £10,000 to our court resurfacing fund. There are also some outstanding maintenance jobs to be completed, such as repairing the perimeter fencing and refurbishing the kitchen. The clubroom was closed to members for much of the year but has re-opened
and the committee have concluded that to continue to retain new members the facility needs to be upgraded.
While the increase in membership has many advantages it does put pressure on court availability at peak times. Late afternoon is particularly difficult as the coaching programme expands and keeping a balance between members needs and coaching is challenging. We know that the coaching programme can expand much further and there is reason to believe that we can retain members and continue to attract more. The Trustees have therefore begun investigating the possibility of adding two further courts to the club and have had discussions with the Trustees of our landlord charity, Almondsbury Sports & Community Centre and with an architect, to look at the possibility of such a project. The consensus is that there needs to be a plan for the whole site, taking into consideration the aspirations of the cricket and football clubs. Progress is slower than we would wish but the ASCC trustees have now agreed to employ the architect to draw up initial plans, showing how such aspirations might be accommodated. There has also been informal, positive, contact with the Air Ambulance charity to explore the possibility of using some of their land into the project.
ASCC have also undergone some changes with the formation of a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) taking over from the previous unincorporated charity. The previous charity, due to its unincorporated status was finding difficulty recruiting trustees. Now there are new trustees who have ambitions to improve the general facilities and ensure that they are run more efficiently, to provide a greater service to the community than was previously possible. The sports clubs operating on the complex are entitled to nominate a trustee to the ASCC and Maggie Tyrrell has been nominated from the tennis club.
The Trustees agreed to delegate some responsibilities to a Tennis Committee, who work within a given budget to ensure that the day to day work of running the club was carried out efficiently and in a timely manner. At present all Trustees are members of the Tennis Committee and retain responsibility for the strategic direction and financial viability of the club. The advantage of this model of management is that members who do not want the responsibility of a Trustee but wish to help the club thrive are able to make a positive contribution. Thanks to Cheryl Freston, Lynda Riddle, Margrielle Blake for taking this role this year.
Andrew Alhadeff
Almondsbury Tennis Club
Income & Expenditure Account
| Income Catering Clothing Coaching Tournament Entry Fees Disability Account Bonus Ball Grants Holiday Courses LTA Event income Match Fees Guest Fees Membership Dues Miscellaneous Income Bank Interest Tennis Expenditure Coaching Fees LMA Coaching Major Maintenance Fund Court Hire Electric Entry Fees Equipment Major Maintenance LTA Membership Clothing Tennis Balls Trophies / Prizes Wimbledon Tickets Total Tennis Expenditure Overheads Advertising Membership Pack Miscellaneous Office Expenses Complex Management Charge Almondsbury Social Club Repairs Telephone Net Surplus/(Loss) Balance Sheet Bank Balance Funded By Reserves B/fwd Surplus/(Loss) in year Reserves C/fwd |
£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ -£ £ £ -£ £ -£ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ £ |
As At 31/03/21 80 78 2,278 118 - 696 30 - 98 371 16,965 141 5 20,860 - - - - 2,088 35 - 4,813 459 390 146 24 - 6,674 737 - 241 - 2,384 - 530 288 4,180 10,006 24,082 14,076 10,006 24,082 |
As At 31 March 20 0 -£ 729 £ 643 £ 1,471 £ 25 £ 670 £ - £ - £ - £ - £ 12,778 £ 113 -£ 6 £ 16,209 £ 2,505 £ - £ 376 £ 673 £ 208 £ 6 £ 7,364 £ 440 £ 691 £ 604 £ 148 £ - £ 13,015 £ 670 £ - £ 37 £ £15 adjustment 79 £ 1,986 £ - £ 88 £ 966 £ 3,826 £ 632 -£ 14,076 £ 14,708 £ 632 -£ 14,076 £ |
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