Rules
Club Rules
Payment of the membership fee for St Finbar’s Tennis Club acknowledges acceptance of the following Terms & Conditions of our club:
Membership
Membership is valid from July to June financial year every year. Membership continues until you advise us otherwise. Members will be responsible for any outstanding amounts up to the time they have returned the key and informed us of their decision to terminate membership.
Membership Category
It is the individual member’s responsibility to join the relevant member category. A visitor who has played more than 5 times is expected to join the club.
When you can use the courts?
To give you certainty, we introduced court bookings in Spring, 2021.
Tennis courts can be booked at any time between 8.00am and 10.00pm other than competition times, coaching sessions and night bookings.
It is rare that both doubles courts are in use. We have only 1 ‘blackout’ time when both courts are in use based on a review of recurring bookings. This is based on the courts being used 95% of the time and this time is:
- Tuesday nights after 7.00pm
Our coach Ray Kent also has priority access to 1 of the 2 courts when required for coaching – this is generally Monday through Thursday until 6.30pm and Saturday mornings until 1.00pm.
If courts are wet they will be slippery and un-safe for play due to the nature of the surface. The Committee advises that play should not be undertaken if we have had heavy rain in previous days.
Lights
Charges for using the lights are $14 per hour and $2 coins are to be inserted into the coin box inside the cupboard in the clubrooms (between kitchen and bathroom) to start the lights. A minimum of $14 is required before the lights turn on. If you wish to play longer than I hour, insert more $2 coins when the red warning light facing the courts comes on. Lights will automatically cut out at 10:30pm to cater for our residential neighbours. We must adhere to this finishing time or we run the risk of losing our permit.
Visitors
Visitors of financial members are allowed to play tennis whilst the member is present. A fee of $5.00 is to be deposited into the honesty box inside the cupboard in the clubrooms when non-members are playing. If a non-member has played more than 5 times then they should become a member.
Please remember that this is your responsibility as a member to ensure that your non-financial friends do contribute to this box.
Use of the clubrooms and courts
As a member you gain access to the clubroom and courts. The clubroom is to be treated as your home and we would appreciate it being cleaned up after use.
This means that all cups are to be washed up and put away, tables to be cleared and cleaned, all recyclable rubbish to be placed in the recycle bin outside and all other rubbish placed into the other garbage bin outside.
The club employs a cleaner to do a weekly clean of toilets and floors etc but they are not to be spending time cleaning up after individuals.
Only water is to be consumed on the playing surface and under no circumstances are food and alcohol allowed in the court area.
The club BBQ is available for use and it is located in the shed just inside the external gate. If using the BBQ, it is to be cleaned and replaced in the shed after use.
Competitions
Competition tennis played at our club is on:
- Tuesday after 7.00pm as part of BRTA
- Annual tournament for members (generally November)
We do hold tennis “social” evenings or afternoons and these are on an ad hoc basis. They can be in the format of an adult’s social competition or a kid’s round robin. An email will be sent around to members advertising these tennis socials.
Hiring of the courts and facilities
The courts and facilities are available for hire by any of the members for functions for a small donation. Please contact Michael Verberne via mverberne2@gmail.com to check on the availability on specific days. An email will be sent to all members informing them of the private function being held and the date that the courts would be unavailable.