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2014 Summer-Autumn Newsletter This newsletter straddles two seasons, the end of Summer and the start of Autumn. There was a lot a great tennis and croquet played at the Club over summer, including the recently completed Club Championships. In this newsletter are the highlights as well as updates on the many positive developments that are happening at the Club.

TENNIS

TOURNAMENTS

Club Championships A very successful Club Championships was run over the summer culminating in a great Final’s Day on the 20 September. This year for the first time we created an extra special day by holding the junior, open and veteran’s finals all on the one day. The highlight of the day was undoubtedly the epic 30+ shot rally deciding the winner of the Men's open age singles. A big thanks are due to Katy Nicholson-Lord , Ian De’Ath , and Jon Modica for running the open, veterans and junior tournaments over the summer. Thank you also to all those who organized, umpired and participated in Final’s Day and especially to Matt Cowie for bringing it all together on the day and to Jonathan Pearson who does a huge amount of work, often behind the scenes, coordinating and providing help and advice whenever needed. Thanks are due as well to Hannah Carley and all those who manned the BBQ and helped out on the social side which was a big success with the Prosecco flowing well. Finally thanks to David Cianfarani our Honorary Club President for 2014 for presenting the trophies on the day. It was great to see a host of new winners in the open section of the Championships, including Nikki Rohlfing , Jane Buswell and Mahvash Tavassoli . A special mention to Jon Modica and Vicky Flind who made it a hat trick of wins in the Mixed Doubles. Congratulations also to Will Skidelsky . Also very well done by Georgia Jerome who made it through to her debut singles final from the group stage.

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Open Winner Runner -up Gentlemen’s Singles Nikki Rohlfing Ben Randall Ladies Singles Jane Buswell Georgia Jerome Gentlemen’s Doubles Nikki Rohlfing & Will

Skidelsky George Cockbill & Ben Randall

Ladies Doubles Jane Buswell & Mahvash Tavassoli

Alison O’Mahony & Ann Traynor

Mixed Doubles Jon Modica & Vicky Flind Jeff Richards & Ann Traynor

The veteran’s finals were played in good spirit and enjoyed by all. Congratulations to Alison O’Mahony , Jeremy Labram & Rob Leonard , and Louise Michell & Sue Milton . The final of the mixed doubles is still to be played due to an injury incurred by Patrick in the men’s doubles final - but who still played on valiantly (and remarkably well given his injury) to complete the match.

Veteran’s Winner Runner -up Gentlemen’s Singles Peter Higgs Jeremy Labram Ladies Singles Alison O’Mahony Margaret Stone Gentlemen’s Doubles Jeremy Labram & Rob

Leonard Peter Higgs & Patrick Mears

Ladies Doubles Louise Michell & Sue Milton

Alison O’Mahony & Ann Traynor

Mixed Doubles Jeremy Labram & Sue Milton ) still to play Patrick Mears & Alison O’Mahony)

Finals day was particularly well attended by the juniors and their matches started the day at 8am and went right through to 4.30pm. The U18 boys was the pick of the matches with Hamish Kerr , last year’s winner, saving 3 match points before beating Felix Suther-Jones in 3 hard fought sets.

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Congratulations also to Rosa Marks , Freddie Coghill , Seth Mack , Miles Speer , Giulia Lesa and Otis Stuart and to all who the juniors who played on Finals Day.

Junior’s Winner Runner -up Third U18 Boys Hamish Kerr Felix Suther-Jones U18 Girls Rosa Marks Freya Tovey U15 Boys Freddie Coghill Alan Taylor U12 Boys Seth Mack Oliver Meredith Mini Green Miles Speer Jasper Callaway Luca Palazzi Mini Orange Giulia Lesa Hamza Chettati Harry McCallum Mini Red Otis Stuart Lyndon Tas Cassius Sullivan

Charity Singles Tournament

On Sunday 7th of September 30 members from Old College took part in an all-day Singles Tournament in support of the charity “Friends of Kianjai.” This is a charity closely associated with George Cockbill and his family, who ran the day. It was a big success, with the tournament, BBQ, Bar and raffle raising over £700. The money raised will go straight to building a school for disabled children in this rural region of Kenya.

The tennis was of a very high standard and the timed match format putting the emphasis on quick attacking play. As the day progressed, the knock out stages came, with a semi-final line up for the women’s draw of Rosa Marks and Elizabeth Vineall (both only 14!) taking on Sarah March and Rosie Allen respectively. For the men Nikki Rohlfing played Will Skideslky, while Ben Randall faced up against Jonathan Pearson.

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After some tight semi-finals, Sarah, Elizabeth, Jonathan and Nikki made it through to the finals, where Sarah March and Nikki Rohlfing both claimed top prize. Thank you to George Cockbill, his parents, girlfriend and friends and to Jonathan Pearson, Tim Marcot, Matt Cowie and Katy Nicholson-Lord at the Club for helping organize the day and thank you everyone for your generosity.

TEAMS

A great strength of the Club is our team tennis and we enjoyed many success over the summer. A big thanks are due to Rich Wilson (Men’s Captain), Alison O’Mahony (Ladies Captain) and Rebecca Jones (Mixed Captain) for all their efforts in organising the teams. The match-by-match results and individual player statistics for all the Old College teams entered in Surrey and AEGON competitions can be found here1 and found here2 (these links are also useful if you want to know how Old College teams are performing at any stage during a season as the results are usually posted quite soon after each match).

Open AEGON League

The highest standard competition where Old College teams compete is currently the AEGON open league where the format involves both singles and doubles matches. This summer we entered an Old College ladies AEGON team and they have performed extremely well and should be promoted to a higher division next season. Our men’s AEGON team has also done very well in a tough division. A big thanks to Will Skidelsky and Jess Moody for being the captains and organizing the AEGON teams.

2014 SUMMER AEGON LEAGUE Team Division Position Men’s 03 East 4th (ongoing) Ladies 04 1st (ongoing)

Surrey League The competition where most of our teams compete is in the Surrey leagues. It has been a very good season for Old College with two men’s teams (I and VI), three ladies teams (IV, V, and VI), and one mixed team (IV) winning making a total of six Old College teams winning their Surrey leagues. Further 11 of our teams finished either first or second which is a great result and means that in the summer of 2015 Old College will have 11 teams in higher divisions compared to this summer (in particular the mixed teams where three out of four teams finished first or second). Congratulations and thanks are due to: the captains of the men’s teams for the summer season Will Skidelsky, James Gubb, Jimmy Gasteen, Justin 1 If the hyperlink does not work the full URL is http://lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/clubstandings.aspx?id=6A86ADD7-8C33-41B3-96C0-57EBD16E0469&cid=53 2 http://lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/clubstandings.aspx?id=C0065C3D-A7C3-4D99-8086-FB27376057F2&cid=44

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Elcombe , Jamie Burnett , Clive Sherlock , and Rupe Gupta ; the captains of the ladies teams for the summer season Jane Buswell , Claire Myatt, Sophie Rutherford, Mabel Wanogho, Karen O'Keeffe and Claire Stuffins ; the captains of the mixed teams Chris Barker , Mahvash Tavassoli , Jimmy Gasteen , and Liz Emerson ; and of course all the players!

2014 SUMMER SURREY LEAGUE Team Division Result Men’s I 05 East 1st Men’s II 07 East 2nd Men’s III 07 East 6th Men’s IV 12 East 4th Men’s V 13 East 3rd Men’s VI 21 East 1st Men’s VII 25 East 6th Ladies I 06 East 2nd Ladies II 08 East 2nd Ladies III 09 East 6th Ladies IV 15 East 1st Ladies V 21 East 1st Ladies VI 22 East 1st Mixed I 04 2nd Mixed II 06 East 3rd Mixed III 08 East 2nd Mixed IV 11 East 1st Women’s Over 50 02 4th

Old College also entered a team in the Surrey LTA Men's Grade B Knockout . This competition is quite a high standard and congratulations to our winning team which was led by Hamid Irshad and included James Gubb, James Hooke, Jeff Richards, Nikki Rohlfing, and Joe Tyndell.

Southwark League

Old College enters two teams in the local Southwark league where there is a men’s league and a mixed league (but no ladies league at the moment). The men’s team, captained by Peter Wright, finished second. The mixed team won their division for the second time running this year - a fantastic performance led by the indefatigable Sarah Walsh .

2014 SUMMER SOUTHWARK LEAGUE Team Result Men’s 2nd Mixed 1st

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Old College also entered a men’s team in the Southwark Men’s Teams knockout tournament. Old College were the 2014 winners of the Southwark Cup! The team was led by Peter Wright and included Justin Elcombe, Peter Higgs, Ben Randall, Ivan Savage and Owen Savage.

Junior AEGON League

Many of our Junior Members have been representing the Club in matches against other clubs, and here we have achieved great victories at every age group. A big thank you to the committed parents who have ferried their children around the County and special thanks to our parent captains for their patience and organisational skills. Without them none of this would be possible.

The match-by-match results for all the Old College teams entered in the junior AEGON league can be found here3 (this link is also useful if you want to know how Old College’s junior teams are performing at any stage during a season). Well done to all our Junior Members who played in matches and a special congratulations to the 14U Girls, 16U Girls, and 18U Boys who won their divisions!

2014 SUMMER JUNIOR AEGON LEAGUE Team Division Result 8U Mixed: OC Cougars 2 K 4th 9U Mixed: OC Cougars 2 I 3rd 10U Mixed: OC Cougars 2 H 3rd 12U Boys: OC Cougars 2 I 3rd 12U Boys: OC Coyotes 2 I 5th 14U Boys: OC Cougars 2 D 4th 14U Girls: OC Cougars 2 E 1st 16U Boys: OC Coyotes 2 E 4th 16U Boys: OC Cougars 2 E 5th 16U Girls: OC Cougars 2 D 1st 18U Boys: OC Cougars 2 E 1st

3 http://lta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/clubstandings.aspx?id=C0065C3D-A7C3-4D99-8086-FB27376057F2&cid=44

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SATURDAY CARDIO TENNIS & COACH LED CLUB PLAY SESSIONS The Tennis Committee has been working hard to improve Saturday’s for Members. A new schedule was developed based on initial feedback from Members, further feedback from Members was sought and then a final schedule was implemented (see here4 for an easy to read version).

Cardio Tennis

The new schedule includes a trial of cardio tennis with a session from 1.30pm to 2.30pm. Cardio Tennis is a fun way to get fit and it is set to motivating music, see here5. The new schedule got off to a flying start with good attendance at the Cardio tennis session. To quote one enthusiastic participant (Jeremy), the cardio session was one hour of unrelenting fun, energy and competition with lots of friends, old and new. I gladly paid £6 to be taken on this exhilarating roller coaster – not just for 2 minutes: thirty times that.

Coach Led Club Play Sessions

The major change to Saturday concerned the afternoon Advanced Club Play session. Many ideas had been trialed in the past to improve Saturday Club Play, some worked for a short time but then petered out. The reality is that there is a wide range of abilities in the Advanced section. It is also the case that it is unrealistic for players attending Club Play to always expect to play players of the same or better standard. This expectation leads to a trickle-down effect and over time the better players drop off and no longer attend. However it is realistic to expect play in at least a few good competitive sets and some where you may be the ‘better player’ for others. To ensure that all players attending Club Play get a few good sets we have introduced an approach used successfully at other clubs and Saturday Advanced Club Play is now run by a coach. So from 2.30pm – 5.15pm our Head Coach, Jon Modica, arranges fours taking into account the range of

4 http://www.oldcollege.co.uk/saturday-schedule-13-september-2014/ 5 http://www.lta.org.uk/players-parents/Cardio-Tennis/Home/

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abilities of the players attending Club Play. He monitors the results of each set and has been very successful at ensuring that all those attending Club Play get quite a few very good competitive sets. Jon also often joins in and plays in some sets. So if you have not been to Saturday afternoon Club Play for a while you are missing out on a great aft ernoon’s tennis! The Tennis Committee will be next looking at ways to improve the tennis experience for Members on Sundays.

JUNIORS

The Junior section is thriving, with 161 Junior members and 39 Minis, we've had a fantastic summer season, the weather on the most part has been perfect for tennis, and it's been great to see so many Juniors and Minis regularly playing, attending camps and coaching sessions. We currently have over 100 Juniors and Mini's regularly taking regular coaching at the club, so the future looks bright for the Junior teams next season. Thanks are due to Jon Modica and all our coaches as well as to Virginia Morley and all the parent captains: Red - Jason Stuart ; Orange - Corrine Callaway ; Green - Sally Robinson ; U12 boys coyotes - Claire Richards ; U12 boys cougars - Bill Meredith ; U14 boys - Hilary Woof ; U14 Girls - Sarah Thurman ; U16 Boys Coyotes - Karin Barnick ; U16 Boys Cougars - Laila Ram ; U16 Girls - Virginia Morley ; and U18 Boys - Gillian Kerr . And a big thanks to Tim Marcot for managing all the court bookings! Some of our best juniors have also been mixing in with the adults in Club Play, and we even had 2 junior girls Rosa Marks and Liz Vineall making it to the semi-final and final respectively of the charity singles event, a great effort! We've also had external success with some of our younger Juniors and Minis winning tournaments: Edouardo Bucca won the Dulwich Open; and Giulia Lessa has won a number of Mini Orange tournaments and is now an Orange 1 star, to name but a few. Autumn Junior courses are well underway and have had a good uptake in the most part, there are however still spaces on the following sessions: Thursday- 4.15pm Orange (9-10 years) Friday - 4.15pm Red level (6-9 years) Friday - 5.15pm Juniors (12-15 years) Saturday - 9am Green level (10-11 years) Saturday - 1.30pm Juniors (11-14 years) Please contact our Head Coach Jon Modica if you wish to get involved. Don't Forget Junior Club Play sessions will kick off again with Chris Barker every Sunday from 2/11/14 at 3pm for 1 hour for all members aged 9 and up. If this session is well attended it may well get extended, so why not come down and join in the fun!

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SINGLES LADDER

A singles ladder has just been launched and it is being run by Ben Randall . There is a lot of interest in this following on from the singles events in the Club Championships as well as the competitive singles matches in the AEGON league. So far about 100 Members have signed up. Well done Ben and please contact him if you like to join in.

MEMBERS BECOMMING COACHES

Congratulations to Matt Cowie and Rebecca Jones for passing their Level 2 LTA Tennis Coaching Qualification in June, and a big thank you on their behalf to the Club, Jon Modica and Chris Barker who were extremely supportive.

CROQUET

Croquet has had a successful season, the good weather was a bonus which meant it was very pleasant to spend time at the Club playing croquet. Our two wine, cheese & croquet evenings, as ever, were very sociable and enjoyable events. Likewise our friendly matches, both home and away, were fun and all were followed by delicious teas. Croquet members took part in the Multi-Sport event organised jointly by the croquet and tennis sections and this too was a most enjoyable affair and lots of fun.

The down side of hot dry spells is the need to frequently water the lawn. This was a problem as the pump which had been a bit temperamental last year was condemned in April. It took some time to sort out a replacement pump so the lawn suffered but we now have the irrigation system up and running and LawnsOne regularly water the lawn each Monday which is very helpful.

TEAMS

This year Old College Croquet Section took part in the South East Croquet Federation league . It was a steep learning curve as it was our first experience of handicapped playing but our team rose to the challenge and even won one of the four away matches.

TOURNAMENTS

The Summer Tournament was played in May and was won this year by Sheila Meadows and Ina Pulleine. The Singles Competition played over

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the season as a box league was won by Clive Brook . The Main Tournament which takes place each August and played over two days was won by Philip Batty & Margaret McHugh .

The Club's Honorary President for 2014 David Cianfarani attended the Main Tournament high tea in August and presented the trophies, it was a glorious day and the patio a perfect setting to celebrate. Congratulations to all our winners and many thanks to everyone who took part in all the events.

TENNIS-CROQUET

Multi-Sport Tournament The second Multisport Tournament was held on 27 July. It was an even bigger success than last year. A big thank you to Nigel Thorpe for taking the lead on the organizing of the event and for Margaret McHugh who encouraged and arranged quite a few croquet players to help the tennis players many of which were playing croquet for the first time.

It was very pleasing to see quite a lot of tennis players keen to try croquet and really enjoying it. Thirty members took part, organised in six teams. They played a frenetic six rounds of croquet, tennis and table tennis, all doubles and with two games of croquet happening at the same time. It was interesting to see how teams needed to be good at everything. Having a great tennis serve was no key to overall success and those teams that did best scored strongly across all three sports. Everyone who participated was a winner but the official winner in the end after a very close contest was Team F (Philip Batty , Jonathan Pearson , Hilary , Paul and Joe Woof ). They were presented with a bottle of chilled champagne which was consumed on the spot!

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OC COMMUNITY

2014 has had its sadder times as well. In July one of our former croquet members Willis Walker died. He was such a gentle person and will be greatly missed. Our condolences go to his widow Gay who is still a croquet member. Also in July the husband of Ditte Wells died quite suddenly, although Richard was not a croquet member he did support many of our social events. Our deepest sympathy goes to Ditte too. Finally Katy Nicholson-Lord’s father David also sadly passed away in September. David was a former tennis member at Old College and he is remembered very fondly. He was a lovely and very intelligent man who will be sadly missed. Our heartfelt condolences go to Katy and her family.

MEMBER SURVEY

A survey of members was conducted by Rosie Allen (who holds the position of Member Representative on the Club Committee). The results were sent out mid-September and a summary of the key findings can be seen here6. There was a great response rate with 96 Members filling it in. Overall Members have “ broadly positive feelings about the Club” to quote Rosie. There were also quite a few suggestions made which is much appreciated.

DEVELOPMENT The Club Committee has been considering the long-term development of our Club, with a view to enhancing its facilities. A series of projects have been identified. The projects and their interrelationships are set out in a short document that you can download here7.

Programme Plan

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 TOTAL

40 90 55 250 20 250 705

E. 6,7

Floodlights

A. Practice

AreaF. Larger Clubhouse

1,2 Refurb

+ anti-frost

3 Refurb

+ anti-frost

4,5 Refurb

+ extend

6,7 Refurb

+ extend

LED

Floodlights??

Notional Cost before grants (£k)

We now need to consider how this programme can

get funded

Clubhouse and Grounds

Existing Tennis Courts

New Tennis Courts

B. Additional Outdoor Local

Courts

C. Additional Indoor Courts

Smoothing the demand for

funds ≅ £705k over 10

years = £70k per annum

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Scheduled refurb

of courts 1,2 and

6,7 may not be

required as soon

as expected

Scheduled refurb

of courts 3,4,5 may

not be required as

soon as expected

Development work

Scheduled work

D.

One of the suggestions made by Members in Rosie’s survey was a hitting wall. Consistent with this the Club Committee has decided to go ahead with

6 https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0f73ec579ccb55260cdc75415/files/OC_2014_Survey_Members_Summary_with_charts_embedded.pdf 7 https://gallery.mailchimp.com/0f73ec579ccb55260cdc75415/files/2014_10_03_Development_Plan_Member_Communication.pdf

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the first project in the report which is the development of a practice area that incorporates a hitting wall and two mini courts. This development is planned to be built on the current waste area between the Clubhouse and Gallery Road (i.e. behind the Clubhouse). This, like all the projects under consideration, will be a step by step project, starting with the careful development of a project plan and costing, before we move onto things like planning permission. We do need people to help with this initial project and in particular a project manager to lead it. Accordingly, we are seeking volunteers with appropriate skills to join a project team. If you are interested and/or would like some further information about the project, please contact Jeremy Labram, the Club Vice Chair. The other projects identified in the development document should be regarded as a road map. We believe they would all benefit the Club but we are very conscious of the difficulties of many of them, whether it be funding or managing them or both. But they indicate our ambition to maintain Old College as an outstanding place to play tennis and croquet.

COMMITTEE UPDATES We did get two or three responses out of the 96 that raised questions about Committees, their transparency and reporting of decisions. To improve transparency we have now listed the membership of all the subcommittees (i.e. in addition to the Club, Tennis and Croquet Committees) on our website see here8. As you will see there are some subcommittees where there are vacancies. The Club is run by volunteers and any Member who would like to help in any way should please contact the Club Chair or any member of the Club Committee. Another item to update concerns the introduction of the OC File System. This is on Dropbox and we have created it so that all the members of the various Committees that run the club can access all necessary papers and reports, both current as well as historical. This greatly improves the efficiency of running the Club and ensures that when new people join a Committee they have easy access to all the work done by those who previously did their role. We have rolled it out to all subcommittees and it is now used by over 30 Members. Club Committee The Club Committee has been meeting regularly and working hard to both successfully run and improve the Club. One question raised in the recent member survey concerned the communication of decisions. What has been happening for some time now is that after each meeting all decisions of the Club Committee are posted both on the notice board in the Clubhouse as well as on our website, see here9.

8 http://www.oldcollege.co.uk/about-us/committee/ 9 http://www.oldcollege.co.uk/members-info/decisions-of-the-last-committee-meeting/

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As you will see one of the recent decisions was to agree to put to the membership at the next AGM the proposal to incorpor ate the Club . This is something that has been discussed many times in the past and it was flagged at last year’s AGM. The benefits of incorporating the Club include:

• allowing the Club to enter into contracts in its own name (at the moment contracts are either in the name of the Committee or individuals on the Committee);

• it provides greater protection to Members and in particular Members who volunteer to go on Committees; and

• it would mean that we no longer have to ask three Members to act as Trustees for our lease (note when we renegotiated the lease last year we included a provision for the lease to transfer to the Club as a company if we were to incorporate).

The costs of incorporating include:

• the ongoing requirement and responsibility of lodging documentation with Companies House (this will be largely managed by our Book Keeper);

• a small legal cost to set it up; and • the considerable time and effort by a few Members involved in

managing the transition from where we are now to an incorporated entity.

A number of sporting associations are encouraging Clubs to consider incorporation, including the LTA who now run courses for Clubs on incorporation. We recognize that this is an issue that some Members may have questions about. So in early December we are planning to hold a meeting in the Clubhouse open to any Member who would like to come along to discuss incorporation and ask any question s. We will notify you of details closer to the date. Tennis Committee There are a couple of changes to the Tennis Committee to update. The first is that Katy Nicholson-Lord is stepping down as Director Tournaments . Katy has done a great job in this role over the last couple of years and so a big thanks to Katy. We are now looking for someone to take over from Katy and so if this is of interest please contact Jonathan Pearson, Chair of Tennis. The second is that we have created a new position on the Tennis Committee to help manage courses run by the Club. Club managed courses currently include Tuesday night Improver coaching, Ladies', Men's and Mixed team practices, the Tennis Circus event, and the outreach program at Belair. It does not include Club Play sessions as the management of Club Play sessions has become the collective responsibility of the whole Tennis Committee. It also does not include sessions that are fully managed by our Head Coach's company, Jon Modica Associates, such as the Drop-in and Cardio sessions and the junior coaching courses. This is an appointed

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position on the Committee and I am very pleased that Maria Szekely has agreed to take on the role of Director Club Managed Courses. Croquet Committee

After many years of dedicated service Sheila Meadows has stood down from the croquet committee. Gill Romney has now joined the committee. She has been a longstanding member of the Club and did serve on the committee some years back. So welcome to Gill and a big thank you to Sheila for all her work.

FACILITIES

Matt Cowie (Facilities Manager), Ivan Savage (Director Clubhouse & Grounds) and the Clubhouse & Grounds Committee have been doing a great job both managing and improving our facilities. There are a few projects ongoing such as the Honours Boards (which we are now very close to finishing), the installation of the new bike racks, and improvements to the Clubhouse’s electrical wiring. Below are some projects that are now completed. FIRST AID & DEFIBRILLATOR

We take your health and safety seriously and have installed a defibrillation unit in the Clubhouse. We are grateful to the Surrey LTA who paid for half of the cost. About 60,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur per year in the UK. For every minute that passes without CPR or defibrillation following cardiac arrest, the chances of survival apparently fall by 10%.

As it is unlikely that any ambulance team will be present during the first five minutes after a cardiac arrest, bystander intervention is critical. The unit we installed is carefully designed such that the user cannot ‘make a mistake’ – the Automated External Defibrillator (AED) does all the decision making – it even talks to you. They are entirely safe and can be used by anyone, see here10. BAR The new system for the Bar is working well. To date over 40 people have been through a brief bar induction process so they can open the bar at any time. Note there is no bar rota - just open it when you and others would appreciate a drink and then close it when you are finished. All adult Members

10 http://www.ipad-aed.com/cpranddefibrillatortraining/

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are welcome to do this. Please ask a member of the Bar Committee which includes Jeremy Labram, Matt Cowie, Hannah Carley and Ivan Savage and they will take you through how to operate the OC bar. We also expect demand to increase as the Crown and Greyhound is closed for a year due to refurbishment work - so please feel free to make use of your bar for a rewarding drink after playing.

SECURITY

Security is a key issue and there have been a couple of times over the summer when the last person to leave the Club has not fully secured the Clubhouse before leaving. To help Members do this we have put up a sign just above the alarm’s key pad in the kitchen with contact phone numbers to call if you are not sure. There is also an external key safe that now contains a key to the Clubhouse (see picture for its location).

Please contact Matt Cowie or any member of the Committee if you are not sure how to lock up the Clubhouse.

FINANCE We have completed the process of updating the coaching contract with our Head Coach, Jon Modica, and putting in place contracts with our coaching team of Hamid Irshad, Chris Barker, and Simon Tricker. We are very grateful for the input from Jon, Hamid, Chris and Simon through that process and the key role that they play in the success of our Club. The 5% facilities levy on coaching fees for the use of our courts has now been implemented. This levy is expected over time to make a meaningful contribution to the Club’s Wear & Tear Fund and it reflects the important partnership between the Club and our coaching team led by our Head Coach, Jon Modica. Our Treasurer Dan Cameron and the Finance Committee have been active in reviewing fees charged on courses as well as comparing our membership fees with the fees charged by other local clubs. Our new Book Keeper, Emily Chandler , is settling in well and making quite a few improvements to how we manage things.

MEMBERSHIP

New joiner numbers to date are very similar to those of last year. We currently have a total of 640 Members consisting of 379 adult tennis members (211 Advanced, 116 Intermediates and 52 Improvers), 202 juniors (162 Juniors and 40 Minis), 40 croquet members, and 19 social members.

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We have also recently clarified the arrangements for prospective member tennis visits . The objective is to encourage prospective members to join the Club by allowing them plenty of opportunity to experience the Club but to put a limit on the maximum number of visits as a non-member. Visitors can play with a Member on up to five occasions , have up to five private coaching sessions, play in up to five drop-in coaching sessions and up to five cardio tennis sessions in any one subscription year. Children who are not members can take part in one tennis camp and one coaching course. We will continue to monitor the use of courts by non-Members and if appropriate review these arrangements.

Prospective members are charged daily visitor rates of £4 for adults and £2 for those under 19 years (as at 31 August in the subscription year which runs from 1 April to 31 March). If the visitor is playing with a Member it is the responsibility of the Member to record the visit in the Visitor’s Book and pay the appropriate fee in the Visitor’s fee box . If the visitor is being coached or participating in a course then the Coach will collect the appropriate visitor’s fee and record the visit as part the records that they pass onto the Committee.

Our membership levels are healthy and we are continuing to attract a good number of new Members. A big thanks to Catriona Lischka who does a great job managing membership as well as our excellent website.

SOCIAL EVENTS

There have been a number of very successful social events over the summer as well as some great ones coming up in the near future.

CLUB WIDE

Volunteers’ evening: on 19th July a wine tasting and cheese evening was held for all volunteers who help keep the club ticking over. The purpose of this event is for people who volunteer, whether it be on a Committee, part of a project team or as a captain of a team, to get to know each other a bit better. The better people know each other the better the Club runs. Wine connoisseur Rebecca Jones assembled an excellent array of 11 wines to identify. This was followed by a fantastic selection of cheeses picked by Hannah. Everyone had a really good time and many thanks to Rebecca and Hannah!

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TENNIS Ladies’ teams’ barbecue evening: on Friday 20th June the Ladies teams got together for an evening of tennis and barbecued meat served with lashings of wine and chat. A great and late evening was had by all. Wimbledon Finals Day: on 6th July, in keeping with tradition the bar was open and there was a good turnout to view a great match, with plenty of Pimms, strawberries & cream and a great atmosphere! Ladies’ teams’ end of season evening: on Friday 10th October Maria Szekely organised an informal mixed in tennis arrangement from 6.30pm where we all played four games, and then changed around and played four more - with a round the world game to finish it off for 9pm. Turn-out was great with about 30 ladies participating. Everyone brought food and the bar was open. Alison O’Mahony gave a thank-you speech for Mabel Wanogho who had stepped down as Captain of 4th’s and she responded. The evening was a great success, with many people making new friends from different teams.

Men’s teams’ end of season evening: on Friday 27th October the Men’s teams got together for an evening of tennis followed by a curry and beer. It was a really good night and Rich Wilson gave special thanks to Ben Randall for managing the curry order and thanks also to Matt Cowie for stocking the bar with a good supply of appropriate beer to accompany the curry.

CROQUET The Croquet section held two wine, cheese and croquet evenings over the summer. On both occasions the weather was perfect, they were very well attended and greatly enjoyed by all! FUTURE EVENTS CROQUET The Croquet Section has a great social agenda over winter including the following:

• Table Tennis – Croquet members meet most Tuesdays to play table tennis in the clubhouse

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• Monthly Croquet Book Club – 1 st Wednesday of the month

• Monthly Croquet Lunch – 3 rd Monday of the month

• Annual Croquet Dinner – Friday 5 th December , last but not least is the annual croquet dinner at the Sydenham & Dulwich Golf Club which is always very popular.

TENNIS

• Santa Tournament – Saturday 13 th December Enter the festive spirit of Noel with the Xmas-themed Fancy Dress Tennis Tournament - mulled wine and mince pies supplied. This year's colour is red - but a prize awaits the most original, inspired outfit. CLUB WIDE Please note the change of dates for both the fancy dress and diner dance events from what was previously advised in the Spring newsletter.

Thanks again to all Members for your support for the Club. I hope the tennis Members enjoy some great tennis over the months ahead and the croquet Members enjoy the great programme of events that are planned.

Peter Higgs Chairman OCLT&CC

• Fancy Dress Xmas Party – Saturday 13 th December As evening falls on the 13th and the tennis players have recovered from the Santa Tournament - the highly popular Xmas Party follows: wine, ale, exotic foods, music, dancing and merriment. Tickets for the party will be on offer for £10.

• Dinner Dance – Saturday 31 st January Old College reinstated the Dinner Dance in 2014 - and plan to make it a regular feature of the social calendar ... Starting with our next extravaganza on January 31st which we aim to make bigger, better and even more fun. Mark the date in your diary now and watch this space for news about tickets, times and line-up later this year. Also on the night we will be announcing the Honorary Club President for 2015 . Don't be one of the 'regrets' next year ... Just ask any of last year's 80 plus attendees to hear how good the OC Dinner Dance is....