Social Tennis
As well as making your own court booking and arranging your own matches, the Club offers a range of organised social tennis to help you get out there and start playing some tennis. The Wednesday Club Session (see below) is the best place for new members to start their journey into social tennis. If you want some guidance contact Nick Wilkins, the committee member responsible for social tennis, on 07931 758589.
Click on this link for a summary of the WINTER weekly sessions available
Club Sessions
These are the club's flagship sessions each week with the following characteristics.
- They are organised by the committee or their nominees
- They are open to every member regardless of ability
- They occur every week, winter and summer
- The appropriate number of courts will be allocated and booked by the committee
- There is no cost, floodlights (where necessary) and decent balls are provided by the club
- There is a social element, the bar is generally open after the club session
We have three club sessions;
Wednesdays from 6pm until 8pm – contact Paul Walton (07838 218994) or Nick Wilkins (07931 758585) to join. Especially suitable for members new to tennis or new to the club.
Tuesdays from 10am until 12pm (Hardy Perennials) - contact Ken Mitchell on (01260) 276348 to join
Saturdays from 1pm until 3pm - just turn up and play. A peg board is used to queue participants to go on court. The session will run on after 3pm if the participants have sufficient enthusiasm and stamina!
Club Groups
Club groups, like the club sessions, are an opportunity for people to come together to play social tennis for fun; they are not a competition. The difference to a club session, which is open to all members, is that each club group will be aimed at a certain playing standard. See below for the different levels and the playing times of the current club groups at each level.
For contact details and to join a session please see the organisers contact details on the WINTER weekly schedules
Level 1
Standard = acquiring basic tennis technique. Roughly equates to Level 1 coaching.
Tuesday's from 6pm to 8pm
Level 2
Playing standard = from being able to sustain a short rally to the lower levels of team tennis, Women’s E and F Team and Men’s H Team. Roughly equates to Level 2 coaching.
Monday's from 10am to 12pm (Manic Mondays)
Thursdays from 11am to 1pm (Me Time Tennis)
Fridays from 10am to 12pm (Friendly Fridays)
Fridays from 6pm to 8pm
Level 3
Standard = Women’s B, C, and D Teams and Men’s G and F Teams. Roughly equates to Level 3 coaching.
Fridays from 10am to 12pm (BW social group)
Friday's from 6pm until 8pm (Gordon's group)
Level 4
Playing Standard = Women’s A Team and Men’s C, D and E Teams
Mondays from 7pm until 9pm
Level 5
Playing standard = Men’s A and B Teams
Mondays from 7pm until 9pm
Joining a Club Group
To request to join a club group contact the organiser as listed on the summer or winter schedules and explain your playing experience. If they are unsure whether you will be a good fit for the group they will look at your results from social tennis competitions and ask for advice from the other social tennis organisers, the Committee member for social tennis, the Team Captains, the Club Captain's or experienced members of the group. They may decide to admit you to the group straight away, ask you to come along to try out or they may ask you to contact the organiser of a different ability group. If you are refused entry to a club group and are unhappy with the decision of the organiser you can appeal to the Chairperson of the club. The Chairperson will take opinion from the Club Coach, Club Captains and their advisors before reaching a decision. This decision is final.
To work out which group would be suitable for you please speak to the organiser at the level you think is your best fit or come down on a Wednesday and speak to one of the volunteers organising the Club Session. Alternatively attend an adult coaching session and Craig Leese/SMASH Tennis will advise you which group organiser to contact.
Fair access
To ensure fair access to club groups members should seek to play in only one club group per week. Those members who have nominated a particular group as their primary group will be given priority to play in that group. However the group organisers can approach any member when a group is short and ask them to play, even if the invitee is already a regular member of another group.
To ensure all members have fair access to courts regular players in a club group are requested not to privately book additional courts at the same time as the club group until 48 hours before the club group session.
Summer Doubles Ladder
A summer doubles ladder runs from April to September. You can sign up as a pair or as an individual and the organiser will try and match you with a suitable partner. The matches are arranged by the participants at a time and frequency that they choose. To join the Summer Doubles ladder please contact Russell Finch on (07918) 165098.
Singles
If playing singles is more your cup of tea, we also operate a WhatsApp group for like-minded players to find hitting partners and arrange singles matches. If you want to get even more serious about competitive singles the group also runs a singles ladder, to join the CLTC singles community contact Russell Finch on (07918) 165098.
Winter Tennis
We offer some additional social tennis opportunties during the winter months, because we have no weekday league matches taking up court time.
Winter Doubles Tennis League
You enter this competition with a partner. All playing standards welcome. The ladder runs from October to the end of March and there are 4 pairs in each division per month, where each pair plays each other once. Matches are first to 9 games with a championship tiebreak (first to 10 points) at 8 games all.
- 3 points for a win
- 1 point for playing a match
- 1 bonus point for completing all matches within the month
Each month, the top team in the division will be promoted and the team with the least amount of points relegated. When two pairs are tied on points at the end of a playing month, for either promotion or relegation, the team with the highest aggregate game score for that month will either gain promotion or avoid relegation. If that number Is also tied it will go down to whichever pair lost the least amount of games in the particular month. A 9-0 walkover can be awarded if agreed by both pairs.
To join the Winter League please contact Dave Lonsdale on (07790) 372731.
Winter Foursomes
This is an internal club competition and all adult members of CLTC are welcome to take part. You enter as an individual, no partner is required. You play three sets each month with three other club members, so it takes up about two hours a month for six months from October to March. You agree on the time to play with the other three players in your foursome, the players book their own court. At the end of each month, the player in each foursome with the most games won is promoted to the foursome group above. The player with the least games is relegated to the foursome group below. To join the Foursomes league please contact Lindsay and John Newton on (07825) 417550.