Read the ANNUAL REPORT 2018/19 below and you may find more information about accounts on the Charities Register

 

TE KURA HAGLEY PARK TENNIS CLUB

ANNUAL REPORT 2018/19

Contents

1. Summary
2. Health and Safety
3. Committee - Tim
4. Court development
5. TNZ Club of the year
6. Exit from CBHS
7. Treasurer
8. Membership
9. Grounds
10. Coaching
11. Grants and donations
12. Club Captain
13. Junior Administrator
14. Mid-week Interclub
15. Hagley Seniors Tournament
16. Annual awards
17. Special events
18. Future challenges and opportunities

Summary

After the initial celebration following the TNZ award announcements, undoubtedly the major focus for the season has been fundraising and construction of four new plexipave courts.

In terms of tennis events it was an extremely busy year hosting a wide variety of events both traditional and new, and with pretty good success.

 

The club result returned a reasonable trading surplus of $6,841 for the year and benefited tremendously from grants and generous donations enabling the court development to go ahead.

The committee remains strong in numbers and motivation and with three new faces this season. As with most voluntary committees we still have too few people doing too much and there are several areas in which we could do better. If you think you might be able to help, please come and have a chat with me - we are flexible and the opportunities are quite varied.

Tim Preston

Health and Safety

There have been no noteworthy incidents of a health and safety nature during the year. A builder visiting our Pavilion during the year expressed concern over the strength of the handrail on the balcony and what degree of impact collision it could withstand. The committee are expecting to carry out building work on the Pavilion cladding in the area this season and will look more closely at the balcony as a part of that work.

Tim Preston

Committee roles and achievements

The committee have had a pretty solid and consistent year. We notably said goodbye to our club captain James at the end of the summer and wish him the best of luck in Australia.

On the plus side though we have gained the additions of Beth Williams, Pang Suwanaposee and Sam Hetherington which puts us in good strength for the coming season.

We have an increasing proportion of club duties being performed by people who are not on the committee such as Bruce Dunstan on the Saturday play roster, Alex Sutherland managing the grounds and Lindsay North continuing to assist in various areas. This type of help is hugely important to the club but this separation from the committee meetings does result in communication challenges which we do not always do well.

Tim Preston

Court Development

Last year we had big ambitions but still needed money to build four new plexipave courts. During the year Sarah led our fundraising efforts, with significant input from Charlotte, Gareth and Lindsay North.

Toward the end of summer we we found ourselves in the exciting position of having funds to build four new plexipave courts of Row1. After a bit of work to confirm quite what we wanted, construction got underway in June. The weather was kind initially allowing the dirtiest work to be done fast and clean, but July has been sodden and August so far no better. So, while the base is 90% complete, finishing it to be sealed needs solid dry weather and may be several weeks away yet. Then there will be further weeks of aging and painting in order that the courts are ready for play - we are hoping sometime in October.

We are proud of the court design, inspired somewhat by the new Ashburton courts, with more than the standard amount of playing space and internal fencing making two pairs of courts to reduce the inconvenience of ball spill. We have also laid ducts in anticipation of lighting them when funds allow. They will become arguably the best club courts in Christchurch and we are all impatient to get playing on them.

There are however a bevvy of medium sized finishing off tasks (such as reinstalling the irrigation main) which are planned for some spring working bees - so please watch for news of those.

Tim Preston

TNZ Club of the year

In last years annual report I was proud to record our award of TCRI club of the year but hadn’t anticipated that a couple of months later we would be awarded with TNZ club of the year to top it off. Among the hundreds of tennis clubs throughout New Zealand this is truly a rare honour and one we should all be proud of.

Hugo also deserves hearty congratulations for coming runner up TNZ coach of the year awards. It was a big night in Auckland for the TKHP team.

Tim Preston

Exit from CHBS

This season has marked a major milestone with our exit from the Boys High venue. We have retained some limited access to their four courts for next summer, but we will have no access to the Pavilion.

Te Kura Tennis Club has a proud history which will now continue at Hagley Park, but in many practical ways this exit marks the end of an era for club tennis on the Boys High venue. Many practical items and memorabilia were secured before we moved out.

This exit resulted because our tenure was insecure and nearing the end of the lease, and at the same time the MoEd made us an offer that we couldn’t realistically refuse. Full marks to Charlotte. This help was also crucial in funding our new court build.

Tim Preston

Treasurer

The Financial Performance Report in the legal name of Old Boys Te Kura Tennis Club Inc trading as TKHP Tennis Club represents the activities of the two clubs for the year ended 31 May 2019 and is to be approved at the Annual General Meeting.

The surplus for the year of $122,931 is inflated by one off events relating to the new court development and write off of assets held by Te Kura at the CBHS site.  Eliminating these items, the trading surplus for the year was $6,841.

Charlotte Bryden

Membership Report

The Club membership at 31 May 2019 was 359.  Senior & Mid Week members remained  much the same throughout the year.  There were 7 less junior teams playing Interclub which accounted for the reduction in membership from 2018 of 391.

Charlotte Bryden

Grounds

Many comments as to the excellent condition of the courts were received from players in the January Seniors Tournament.

The annual topdressing exercise included heavy rolling and spiking of Rows 3/4/5 at little or no cost thanks to David’s negotiating skills.

Many of the sprinkler heads have been replaced resulting in a more even coverage of the courts by the irrigation system. Turf cut from Row 1 has been used to replace patches of undesirable grass which had established on Rows 3/4/5. Portions of the fence between Rows 2 and 3 blew down in a NW gale in April and was rebuilt by Dave and some voluntary efforts.

Thanks are given to members who have helped with grounds maintenance during the year. In particular to Bruce Dunstan for all the mowing he has done and to Trevor Lau for many tasks that required his expertise.

Alex Sutherland

Coaching

There have been a number of highlights for us in the past 12 months from a coaching perspective.

It was particularly pleasing to see the enjoyment and performance of children who played in our Hot Shots tournaments, including the HS Club Champs. We aim to run more HS tournaments next season and hope to work with other clubs and the regional association to grow this area. We also really enjoyed HS parents taking part in our new parent coaching sessions and we are planning to run these more regularly in the coming season.

Many of our juniors competed in regional tournaments and a big highlight was the club road trip to the Nelson Junior Open, where 17 of our Juniors competed. The level of enjoyment and the players development has encouraged us to plan more trips in 2019-2020.

There have been some standout individual performances as well. Canterbury titles at secondary school and age group level were won by Will Schneideman, Charlie Morrison and Jamie Garbett. It’s also been great to see the club’s “homegrown” talent perform at premier level. The two top ranked male players at the club are both under 18 and they helped the premier men's team reach the semifinal.

Finally the coaches have enjoyed seeing development across the junior and senior levels. We have had an increase in players attending Easi Tennis Coaching and gaining the skills and confidence to join organised social play at the club. In addition we are running squads for competitive adult players. With our player pathway for juniors and seniors, we hope to continually build the numbers and the level of our senior inter club teams.

Our coaching team is looking forward to working hard and continuing to improve our programme in the coming season.

Hugo

Grants and Donations

The Court development donations  were $67,000, Sponsorship $2,500 and Grants $62,500.  We are extremely grateful to these generous donors and organisations.

• Milo Kral
• Gavin Odering
• Preston Family
• Garth Carnaby
• Bruce Dunstan
• Elite Physiotherapy
• Tony Mounce Mortgages
• $30,000 Rata Foundation
• $30,000 The Southern Trust 
• $2,500 The Lion Foundation

Charlotte Bryden

Club Captain

Overall we had a successful season particularly in the top grades with runner up finishes for both the Premier Women and Division 1 Men.

Several players and Peter Garbett have rightly noted the isolation of our top teams for club members. It would really be a boost to the Club’s sense of community if we could draw together both seniors and juniors to watch the top competition and the whole dynamic of the club would benefit greatly. In relation to this encouraging junior players to come along to social tennis when they can would also be beneficial for everyone involved.

Team of the year in my opinion has to go to the Div7 Men’s side. The team was amazingly proactive in getting each other down to the courts several times a week, and created a facebook group which currently has 16 members in order to get new players to the club involved and hitting. All teams can take something from the Div7 side for next season. I am definitely grateful for the team reminding me that at the end of the day it really is about having fun, building friendships and supporting one another to improve, which is not always the focus in higher divisions.

• Premier Men 4th
• Premier Women 2nd
• Division 1 Women 3rd
• Division 2 Women 5th
• Division 1 Men x2 2nd and 7th
• Division 2 Men 7th
• Division 4 Men 8th
• Division 7 Men 1st
• Division 1 Mixed 6th
• Division 3 Mixed 8th

Club Champs were more successful this season especially on the Women’s side. There was still room to improve discipline in getting the Men’s matches played on time and advertising the finals.

Special mention goes to Beth who won a triple crown.

• Men’s Singles: Jamie Garbett
• Women’s Singles: Beth Williamson
• Men’s Doubles: James McGregor/Nick Schneideman
• Women’s Doubles: Michelle North/Beth Williamson
• Mixed Doubles: Beth Williamson/Jamie Garbett

James McGregor

Junior Administrator

We had 27 teams entered in the Junior Interclub Competition, nine playing on Friday evening and 18 teams on Saturday morning. The Friday Boys 11s Black team and Saturday Senior Boys White team won their grades, and we had 5 teams placed second.

Many thanks to the team Captains and Parent Managers organising a playing team of four each week and entering results.  You are an imperative part of keeping the Interclub competition running. Thank you!!

Hot Shots continued to draw interest during the season and we had 90 children registered in Term 1. This was a very disrupted season with more than usual wet weather cancellations and the terror attack in March.

Charlotte Bryden

Mid-week Interclub

During the playing season (September to April) we fielded two teams in the Midweek Wednesday tournament, comprising a total of 12 regular players. The schedule is in place to restart this September.

Vicky Jones

Hagley Seniors Tournament

The TKHP Seniors tournament was played on the 26th and 27th of January 2019 with 81 players involved.

The weather was great and matches ran smoothly on both days. David and Alex worked hard to ensure that the grass courts were in tip top condition.  Michelle organised and ran the catering and kitchen with volunteers. The bar was organized and run by Matt.  Rosie did a great job organising sponsors for the raffles and the selling of the tickets.

Philip Trusttum donated a painting which was auctioned.  We are most grateful to Philip for his continued generosity.  Frank Tay donated a racquet also for auction.

Christine Yap

Annual Awards

Awarded for the junior member with the most outstanding summer-season performance in their age group at Regional and National levels.

Junior Boys of the Year

18U Jamie Garbett by a tiny margin over Will Schneideman, based on end of year ranking, Canterbury Junior Boys Champion and our Senior Club Champion. Will was unfortunate to be slowed down by injury in the later part of the summer.

16U Charlie Morrison again v.close with Nick Schneideman, but Charlie went one round further at Nationals (R16) and had a higher ranking.

14U Jasper Johnson one the Teir3 singles at Nationals (2nd draw of 32)

Overall winner Jamie Garbett

Junior Girls of the Year

16U Annabelle Schneideman (Canty rank 12)

14Ug Natalie Hetherington (Canty rank 5 - achieved top 32 at Nationals)

Overall winner Natalie Hetherington

Shovel Awards - Young Volunteers

25U Paige Hubber for assisting with kitchen service for the Seniors Tournament

12U Finn Bascik for expellary enthusiasm, endurance and productivity during the first topdressing working bee

Special Events

The club ran several new events last season. We generally intend to repeat and improve on these this season.

First up was an inaugural parent child fun doubles tournament held in Spring. This was more focused on benefit for the children and featured much play on the various smaller courts. With credible entries, feedback was very positive overall.

The pre Christmas camping night repeated from last season remained popular and was blessed with great weather (except when the irrigation system threatened briefly!).

In January Hugo ran a junior open tournament which was well received.

In February we ran a CBHS/CGHS social tennis afternoon. Attendance was disappointing, but I learned an awful lot along the way and with a little luck and if had listened better I believe there remains much potential for this.

In March we held a hotshots tournament ‘Beach Party’ with very credible 24 entries, doubles and singles, red and orange format over 2.5 hours. The kids were excited throughout and left us with a brilliant feedback on the blackboard.

In April we were hosted by Shirley Club in the inaugural Shagley Trophy social event. Shirley proved to be excellent hosts and a great time was had by all with 8 men and 8 women from each club, each playing three rounds of doubles. Shirley got to hold the trophy by 14/10 on matches, and we look forward to having home court advantage this coming November for the return match.

The final special event for the year was a road trip up to Nelson tournament. This featured 20 kids, mainly 12-16, excellent tennis, good behaviour and a lot of fun by all. We must be grateful to Blackwells Holden who gave us the use of their van for the trip, helping keep the costs reasonable. Our second van was provided by CCC / St Barnabas also free of charge. We expect to repeat this trip again and are looking to make a similar spring trip to Timaru as well this season.

Future - challenges and opportunities

There is much to look forward to in the coming season. We will have several demands for new capital expenditure and fundraising for projects. Row2 court condition is well short of ideal, but demand for good new lighting on Row1 will also be pressing. We of course have nil funds available for either at present.

The Pavilion calls for significant reinvestment in respect of features like bar facility and improved deck as well as deferred maintenance upkeep. There remains much frustration about the limited availability of public parking as well which to-date remains an insoluable problem.

There are also a multitude of tasks and functions which the club should do better if we were less constrained by funding and/or volunteer inputs. If anyone has an interest in the club motivating curiosity as to whether you might be able to help in some fashion, the answer is probably yes and please reach out - I’d love to talk to you.

Tim Preston