The 2024 Autumn Comp was successfully wrapped up last week by Mitch Venables’ Team who triumphed over Neil Bakers Team.

Congratulations to Aidyn Joiner, Mitch Venables, Peter Cross (who filled in for Catriona Cole on the night), Ebony Joiner and Sarah De Fegley – in the photo below.

Well done to Neil Baker, Ben Bayliss, Shelley Smallwood, Leisel Haar and Taylor Venables (who filled in for Kathy Baker on the night) for making it to the big round – see below.

There has been a new presence making the rounds at the club the last couple of weeks which we hope to see more of in the next Spring comp and the Monday and Thursday social tennis.

What am I talking about? The new club peaked caps. This time around they are available in white and bright yellow with the club emblem on them. They are $25 each and all proceeds go to the club’s kitty to fund future improvements.

Our submission late last year for the Clubgrants Category 3 Infrastructure funding round has again been unsuccessful. This means we must keep plugging away at the funding bodies to try and jag a grant for new surfaces and other replacements.

Sandy, our secretary, and chief grant applier is also waiting to hear about our application to the Community Building Partnership 2023 grants to replace the seats which were removed for the new path.

Sandy and I are also preparing for the next round of the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF). We are attempting to arrange a meeting with Tiarne Cronk the local Reflections manager to make sure we get our ducks all in a row for their next round of this fund. We hope to head off the delays that occurred when we last attempted to apply for this grant.

The social tennis group is enjoying their Monday and Thursday and there is a regular roll up of about 10 to 12 players this year. Feel welcome to come and have a hit if you get the chance, even if you can only make it from time to time.

We have committed to hold the January holiday twilight doubles tournaments again next year but we are working on a slightly different timetable for them in the future. More news on this as the year progresses. This year’s round was well organised, albeit numbers weren’t as high as we expected to see, but all those who attended had a fun time. We didn’t run a BBQ and this wasn’t really missed by the participants.

We are also in the process of navigating our way through the yearly renewals of affiliation and insurance through Tennis NSW. This is in addition to the looming yearly licensing with Reflections.

The committee has made the decision to put up our yearly membership fees for next year, these which have remained the same for many years. Single adult membership will be $70, family membership will be $120 and Junior membership will remain the same at $30.

I’m pleased to report that Pambula Public School played Merimbula Public School at the Pambula courts this month and won and will now progress to the next district round. Its good to see the kids involved.

Our new broom heads have arrived and are to be adapted to use on the courts soon. General maintenance continues to happen around the place but we will need a Working Bee in the spring to share the workload.

See you aroud the courts.

Rick Farrell

President.