It is my great privilege to deliver this annual report as President of St Christopher's Tennis Club.

I would like to begin by acknowledging the efforts of the Committee members who have all contributed strongly in their own ways to guiding the Club through the year.

As Vice President, Jeff Webb led several grant applications and secured the game-changing injection of $75,000 through the Suburban Rail Loop Community Projects Fund which is further explained below. Supriyo Sinha has been a diligent and supportive Secretary. Vincent Pang has moved into the position of Treasurer in a challenging year and has overseen the most substantial turnover our Club has ever recorded. Graham Pang, Hari Haritharan, Sri Amareswaran, Sandy Chandranath all continued in important Committee roles, and we
welcomed Barbara McHenry, James Chan and Godfrey Wilson onto the Committee. Barbara looked after clubroom housekeeping while Alan McHenry, in his first year for decades "off' the Committee was integral in supporting Vincent as he came to terms with the logistics of the Treasurer's role and was an energetic presence at working bees.

As always, the Club is seeking to welcome enthusiastic new Committee members stepping up from among the membership to take on leadership and management roles, and to provide fresh perspectives and ideas to take  our club forward.

Financials

Vincent will present the detailed financial report in his Treasurer's report. However, in broad terms we have recorded a narrow deficit over the year, largely the result of our $5K contribution to the facilities upgrade substantially resourced by the SRL grant. Subscriptions for 2023/24 remain unchanged but we will need to identify new sources of revenue to rebuild a financial buffer against inevitable maintenance costs over time.

We thank our long-term honorary Auditor Noel Mannix for continuing in that role.

SRL Grant

Although we have unfortunately been unsuccessful in several small grant applications during the year, we were thrilled to receive a positive response to the application which Jeff Webb led to the Suburban Rail Loop Community Projects Fund. The proposed Suburban Rail Loop tunnels are planned to pass very close to the tennis club/ parish property between Glen Waverley and Burwood. We applied for the maximum $80K and were awarded $75k late in 2022.

We have spent the funds on several important upgrade projects which would otherwise have been beyond our reach, specifically:

•  Conversion of tennis court lights to LED;
•  Rendering of northern and western external walls of the club rooms (matching external render on the Church upgrade works);

• Painting of internal walls white to freshen and beautify the facility;

•  Upgrade and expansion of the kitchen

• Construction of an internal vestibule to provide access to unisex (formerly male) toilet facility for all members;

• Levelling of former playground area and installation of a concrete practice area utilizing the eastern wall of the clubrooms; and

• Purchase and erection of a new shed in the western garden area to more than replace the function of the former shed in the playground area.

We are grateful to our contractors, Ben Weston and his team from Byrd Electrical who supplied and installed the LED court lights and Dino Livanidis ("Ask The Man") who undertook all the other work, and to Committee members who assisted with various supervisory and other tasks. Some minor tasks remain, including laying of new turf along the edges of the practice area, (to be undertaken in the coming spring as the ground warms), and it will be essential that all members (and guests) respect, care for and maintain our new assets. But we now have a facility which will serve our club well for many years to come.

I expect that the incoming Committee will plan a formal "launch" event a little later in the year when we can plan in the hope of better weather.

Teams

Spring 2022 featured the Open doubles Ultraman (a new team formed by coach Tao He) and the Frogmouths  on Monday nights, the Open singles/ doubles Lapwings on Tuesday nights, Red and Gold Mid-week Mens doubles teams on Wednesday mornings and Metro Masters Weekend Hacks on Thursday afternoons.

Ultraman played in the top Monday night doubles grade and performed creditably, finishing third in a tough four-team grade and going down in the semi-final. The Lapwings also reached the semi-final, going down narrowly four sets to two to the eventual runners-up.

The Mid-week Mens Gold team finished just two points outside the four in a tight eight team grade (other than runaway leaders and eventual premiers Endeavour Hills, which recorded a percentage of almost 300). Sri did an excellent job assembling competitive teams week after week, including club royalty Alan McHenry and Leo Sargeant, who were both recognized by WDTA for their durability, continuing to play competitively into their eighties. George Mantzanidis's Weekend Hacks competed hard in Metro Masters Section 2, finishing fifth in a very strong grade.

Led by Godfrey Wilson in his second season as captain, the Frogmouths performed well in a four team grade to finish on top of the ladder and recorded a comfortable semi-final win. The grand final performance at home against Lum Reserve Lummigrubs was exemplary, Graham Pang, Veera Sriamareswaran, Jack Krohn and Godfrey winning all six sets to record an emphatic premiership victory.

St Christopher's Red Mid-week Mens team, also led by the enthusiastic George Mantzanidis, topped the Section 2 ladder and conceded only a single set in the semi-final. The team repeated that scoreline in the grand final, with Rick Kiddie, Phil Bradwell, George, Sandy Chandrananth and Hari Haritharan accounting for Wheelers Hill Emerald Frogs.

Autumn 2023 MWM: George Mantzanidis led the Reds to third place in the top grade (Section 1), and despite conceding home court advantage to Lum Reserve progressed to the grand final in a tight contest. Although top side Glen Waverley Stars proved too good in the grand final, the team's overall season was excellent. In Section 3, Sri's Gold team scraped into fourth place by half a point with a stirring last round victory over Essex Heights Dragons, but could not repeat the result in the semi final a week later and bowed out.

Autumn 2023 Metro Masters: St Christopher's Weekend Hacks finished sixth in a very tough Section 2 grade, but continued to compete energetically and to work on improving their tennis.

Autumn 2023 Open Doubles: The Frogmouths and Tuesday night Nightjars: Godfrey Wilson continued to captain the Frogmouths and did an outstanding job in conjunction with Adarsh Pakanati, who took over captaincy of the Nightjars from James Chan, in rostering a long list of players, several of whom were finding their way into competition tennis.

Playing under the new name of One Piece, Tao's Monday night Open Doubles team earned second place on the ladder after the home and away season, and won their semi final without dropping a set. Top side White's Lane Whackers, who had dismissed Godfrey Wilson's Frogmouths in the semi, went on to claim the premiership when bad weather prevented the grand final from going ahead.

Autumn 2023 Tuesday night Open Triples A Reserve 1 Grade: Following Jay Sempio's move away from the eastern suburbs, David Wang stepped up to lead the Lapwings, who finished seventh in a difficult grade where only 10.5 points separated second from sixth.

Once again, we did not have a Saturday team representing St Christopher's in WDTA senior competition. However, some St Christopher's players played occasionally for an Ashburton Uniting Tennis Club team during the 2022 Winter season, and St Christopher's has provided outside courts for Ashburton Uniting when asked to do so.

Overall, it has been a successful year of competition, with two more flags added to the imposing collection hanging from the clubroom roof-beams. I would like to thank all the team captains and all those players who played either regularly or as fill-ins to enable the club to maintain such a strong competition.

I am very pleased to report that we have sufficient definite numbers to enable the entry of five night competition teams for the 2022 Spring season which commences shortly. In addition to the continuing Lapwings, Frogmouths and Nightjars, One Piece is moving to Blackburn and District Night tennis Association as the St Christopher's Owls, and we will also enter the Boobooks on BDNTA on Thursday nights. The Weekend Hacks will compete again in the Masters, and we plan to continue the two regular Midweek Mens teams, so we will have strong and increased competitive representation in the Spring 2023 season.

I would still love to see St Christopher's re-establish a weekend competition presence, as one way of strengthening the club. Teams are not set in stone, and I would encourage everyone with the desire to play some competition tennis to let us know so that when team entries fall due, which for the 2023/24 Summer season will be very soon, we can provide for everyone's wishes as far as possible.