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Many thanks to members of the social committee, Andrea, Gill, Jane, Linda, Sheila and Tash, for all their hard work hosting the various events throughout the month of December.  The events included craft workshops, festive choir nights, a junior fun & games morning, plus various social tennis sessions featuring festive refreshments, soup lunch, chilli supper and Christmas leftovers sharing lunch. Great to see so many different members entering into the Christmas spirit at one or more of the events.

A very good time was had by all at Bill’s gin tasting event held at the club. Tasting may not be quite the description as five different gins were on offer so rather more than a taste!! Many thanks to Bill for organising the event, sourcing all the gins, and providing detailed descriptions of their ingredients and origins. Thanks also to Marion for her delicious homemade patés, Linda and Jane for the rest of the food shopping and getting everything ready in the clubhouse, and Julian for helping serve all the gins.

Following the presentation of trophies to our American Tournament winners, club president Bob Guthrie presented the Club Championship trophies to the winners of this year’s events. Steve also chose the recipient of his Player of the Year trophy, this year awarding it to Mark Eldridge in recognition of his improvement over the past year. Congratulations to Mark and all our winners this year!

The second American Tournament of 2022 was a great success, with 40 players competing over seven rounds and both competitors and spectators enjoying the warm sunshine even near the end of October! The eventual winners were Julie Rackham and Dan Sanderson who received the Deb Saund and Beresford Marshall Memorial Trophies. Well played everyone and many thanks to Steve for organising the afternoon’s tournament so efficiently.

A very successful coffee morning was held at the club raising the grand sum of £484 for Macmillan Cancer Support! Many thanks to Andrea and Sheila for organising the event and to all those club members who supported the event either through generous monetary donations, providing fabulous home-made cakes and raffle prizes. Thanks also to others who helped on the day both in the kitchen or selling raffle tickets.

Five teams competed in Bez’s multimedia quiz, testing their knowledge over ten rounds of questions on various topics with every round finishing on a bonus question about the Queen with teams having to decide whether to take a gamble on doubling or halving their score for the round with a correct or wrong answer! The winning team was Wendy’s family and friends table who were helping Wendy celebrate her big birthday in style! Many thanks to quizmaster Bez for a great evening’s entertainment, to Carol for helping record the scores and to Andy for manning the bar once again.

This year’s finals were played on a warm, sunny day with many spectators at the club enjoying the matches. Congratulations to Dan Sanderson for winning the Mens Singles title for the first time and to Lottie Mitchell for retaining the Ladies Singles title. Special mention for Cally Flinders who played in four finals, winning three of them! Well done to all this year’s winners and commiserations to the runners up. Photos of all the finalists can be seen on Facebook (no account required to view the album). Many thanks to Sarah O’Sullivan for her hard work ensuring refreshments were available throughout the day and to those who made cakes or helped in the kitchen. Thanks also to Andy Barker and John Elliott for manning the bar and of course to Steve for organising the tournaments and finals day so efficiently as usual. The trophies will be presented on Saturday 29th October late afternoon following the next American Tournament so please save the date!

Excellent afternoon/evening at the club with some social tennis played despite the heat, and then Ashley providing food for 40 people, his take on a hog roast. Delicious slow roasted pork two ways with potatoes and salad, plus desserts made by some of the ladies. Lovely to see everyone staying for drinks outside as the evening cooled off slightly. Many thanks to Ashley for the wonderful food, the ladies who made desserts, Andy behind the bar and everyone else who helped either in the kitchen, behind the bar and clearing up afterwards.