The 2021 season marked the 40th year of the club being based at the Gallows & a tournament was held on July 4th to mark the occasion. This was won by Alan Lawson & Becky Palmer. Lunch was arranged afterwards at the sports centre. To mark both Robert North’s 80th birthday & his standing down from the committee having held several positions over many years, he was presented with a garden seat on behalf of the club.
The ladies had enjoyed some really good matches, but with strong opposition & difficulties getting a team on some occasions, they had suffered some heavy losses & were relegated at the end of the season.
For the Castle Acre team, Becky reported that the team had only lost 1 match, against North Elmham, drawn 1 & won the rest, so finished joint 2nd. She had asked as many different players as possible & thanked them all for playing.
For the men’s team Bryan said that they had won 2, drawn 2 & lost 6 of their matches, in a division of some very strong teams & a second group of similar standards. They had finishing above Marsh, on the same points as Taverham & only 2 points behind Reepham, but in relegation position through game difference. He said that he had struggled to get players at the end of the season & had played Taverham with only 1 pair.
The courts have not yet deteriorated too much there was very little chance of us getting any help from the centre to get them re-surfaced, but that this was an item in the centre’s business plan.
The planning permission for the new clubhouse had been granted, but because of rising costs & the fact that Grocott & Murfitt seemed to have withdrawn from this project, there is no way that we can continue with that plan at present. Mike suggested that we investigate Norfolk community funding as a possible financial funding. Bryan had spoken to Gary Sutton, the centre’s groundsman & he is willing to attempt to lift the current clubhouse so that we could put some more substantial supports underneath, which should help.
It had been a very good year of coaching & the numbers had risen, although nights had varied vastly, especially recently, as COVID had affected the local schools. She said that there are 2 – 16-year-olds, who she has invited to come up to senior club, & she hopes we will see them soon. Becky has done training for the ‘tennis for kids’ course & has run a course at Fakenham.
There is a quiz booked for Saturday March 19th 2022 & it was agreed that due to the rising & set costs of meals at the Gallows, we would no longer offer a meal with the quiz & could therefore drop the price to £5 per head.
It was agreed that we would like to have a tournament & the date for this was set as Sunday, April 10th.