Pambula Tennis Club September Newsletter

The new path between the courts is finished and the Spring comp is finally underway after a short rescheduling as Royce McKay, Sam Slessor and the team completed the formwork and pour. The delay doesn’t seem to have affected the keenness of players and again there are new faces amongst the crowd.

We are looking for design ideas for replacing the gate at the end of the path so put your thinking caps on and send us your thoughts about this. Concept sketches welcome.

Thanks to Speed and Nicole for their organising efforts with the comp. Thanks also to Sandy for the signs around town and the membership paperwork.

Don’t forget to settle your membership and comp fees. If Sandy doesn’t get you then Nicole will! Same fees as last year and great value given the rising price of everything else.

After a lot of dedicated work and negotiation the Club Grant application was sent off by Sandy. We are keeping our fingers crossed that we pass the eligibility hurdle and are considered for part or all the funds we have asked for to resurface courts 3 to 6. This would mean replacing courts 3 and 4 with artificial turf and courts 5 and 6 with an acrylic surface.

Whilst the application required a large effort it has provided us with a grant application database for future grants and a lot was learnt during the whole process. We also identified other information and ideas that we can use in the future as well.

We have had to hold off applying for perimeter fence re-construction funds given that we have been advised that the retaining walls are not able to support replacement poles. Further advice suggests we could sink replacement poles on the outside of the walls. However, not knowing the boundaries of the Lot that the courts are on we have sought information from Reflections to establish exactly where the surveyed boundaries lie. We need to seek quotes for retaining wall replacement and to consider doing this in stages along with perimeter wire replacement.

We will also be bending Frank’s ear to see what he thinks about the retaining walls. (On the subject of Frank it was great to hear that he was presented with his OAM in Canberra the other week!).

The next funding opportunity for us will be the Crown Reserves Improvement Fund (CRIF) which was due to open in September but has been delayed now until October.

The social tennis group moved last Monday's play to Candelo courts where five of our number combined with 3 of their players. It was a wonderful mornings play and we particularly enjoyed the coffee and food experience at the Candelo Cafe afterwards. The group is also going to Dalgety for a couple of nights in mid-October for tennis with some of the locals.

Lastly, we have called a working bee for Sunday morning, the 15th of October from 9 to 11. We want to do some cleaning of the clubhouse and shed and sort what we need to keep and what to dispose of as far as equipment goes. So, bring some cleaning gear and gloves and we will see you there.