Hello members

Well it tried to snow, and it's been mighty cold the last couple of days, however we are pleased to report that the snow did not make it to the Hagley Courts.    However the lawn is too damp for painting the lines on Row 5.  Please keep an eye out though, as it will be completed when possible.

Milo Kral (President) and Mark Stringer were welcomed to the committee on Tuesday night.  The committee also wish to thank outgoing President Sam Hetherington and committee member Giuseppe Loporcaro for their dedicated work over the past few years.  

We also have a huge thank you to those who attended our Club Culture Event.  It is not too late to be involved as you will see further down the newsletter.  

And yet another thank you to Merv Cronin and Trevor Lau for their repair work on our Pavilion balcony.   Two members who worked quietly behind the scenes to help the club out.  

We warmly welcome new members:

New Senior members
Terry Bennett, Deborah Tyler, Barney Kelly, Tom Coughlan, Mary Stanley

New Junior Members
Louis Law, Sebastian & Julian Lee, Emerson Dewar, Timothy Mao, Jacob Wilson, Muen Liu, Ljun Kim, Joji Wada, Alden Lee, Marcel de Wit, Gil, Sharon and Yonatan Sinik, Lucas Xu, Lucas & Ethan Wang

On the Calendar
October   - Lawn Courts Open Day .... 
October 24 - Labour Day Red+Orange hard court event 10-1pm
October 28- Hot Shots term 4 starts + Junior Interclub 

TKHP Club Culture

Thank you to everyone who attended our Club Culture Engagement Session on Sunday 25th September. It was great to welcome Ali Telford from Tennis NZ to run the workshop, and it certainly generated a lot of discussion.

It was heartening to have the support and input from 21 members, representing juniors, seniors, casual, interclub, men and women attend the event. We look forward to continuing the discussion with you all over the coming months

Our discussions focused on feelings we want to promote, and those we want to avoid when people think about our club.  We tried to put those feelings in context, both as existing members, but also trying to see things from the perspectives of new members, prospective members, and the general public.

In the end we whittled the feelings down to three that were desirable and three that were undesirable:

As members of Te Kura Hagley Park 
we want to feel:  Welcome, Supported and Involved.

We do not want to feel: Unwelcome, disheartened, or disconnected.

Now comes the fun part – we need to start collecting ideas to help us achieve those aims, and for everyone to help (in whatever capacity they can offer, big or small) to make those ideas become a reality.

As a starting point, we’ve created an online notepad, where you can jot down your thoughts (feel free to add your name to suggestions, or post anonymously) at this link: https://padlet.com/markystringer/dnxo56gzqqr79vkq

Just click on the “+” symbol and type in your ideas!

In the meantime, we will immediately start working on a couple of ideas which came straight out of the discussion session.  Our first course of action is to create a visual schedule of the fantastic tennis opportunities that TKHP offers. It was clear that many members (and therefore non-members too) were unsure of other opportunities and the level of play, whether for coaching, interclub or for casual play. This will be posted on the noticeboard downstairs at the club, circulated to all members and to potential new members when they enquire.

We will also implement a ‘welcome email’ to go to new members when they sign up. Again, this will show all the tennis play and social opportunities our club offers, who the coaches are and how they can get involved further, adding a sense of familiarity when they first show up at the club

Burnside Social Tennis

On Sunday 21 August a team of four women and four men from TKHP converged on Burnside Tennis club for an afternoon of social tennis. The weather started well but with rain threatening later.

Three rounds were played over a couple of hours of doubles and mixed doubles. There were lots of good matches and while tennis was undoubtedly the winner on the day, Burnside did win a few more of the matches, with completion just in time as the rain arrived!

More importantly the afternoon tea and hospitality in their pavilion afterwards was exceptional and well enjoyed by all with plenty of banter among a few more serious discussions about the future of tennis and common interests between the clubs.

The TKHP team was:
Linda Buss, Tim Preston (C)
Ellen Logan, Lindsay North
Rosie Lau, Trevor Lau
Olivia Marshall, Willy Marshall

Tim made the only notable faux pas with respect to no event or team photos taken. That will be remedied when Burnside return to visit us in November. If anyone is keen for November please register your interest with Tim (tim@prestons.org.nz 027 6414301).

Find out more here 

Do you have old tennis balls lying around the garage/house/car?  
We are collecting all old balls for redistribution.  Please leave them in the  large box in the men's changing room.  Thank you!

Valid for all TKHP Tennis members