Interclub competitions are where junior club members compete in teams against teams from other tennis clubs in Wellington city (or greater Wellington region for Regional Grade).

Is your child ready for interclub tennis?

Our coaches monitor progress of children attending the coaching sessions and will let the Junior Convenor know when children are ready to start playing interclub. The Junior Convenor will make contact with the parents of these children. Parents are encouraged to talk to our coaches if they would like to know more about their child's skills levels and how to advance those skills.

Generally, we encourage children to play interclub when they can:

• judge where the ball is going (even though court coverage is limited)
• can sustain a short rally of slow pace with other players of the same ability
• know how to serve (even if successful less than 20% of the time). Note that the Hot Shots grade allows underarm serves.

Teams

Juniors are grouped into girls and boys teams (or sometimes mixed teams for novice grade) with others of similar skill levels, though we also try to keep friends and established teams together. 

We aim to have five juniors in each team, even though usually only four play at each contest. The five players provide cover for injuries and unavailability of team members. Team managers will cycle the team around for each contest so that each team member plays a similar number of contests per competition.

Each team is assigned a team manager. This is usually a parent/guardian or other relative of one of the team members.

Competitions

There are two competitions each tennis season - pre-Xmas and post-Xmas. Pre-Xmas competitions are held in School Term 4 (usually starting mid-October) and post-Xmas in School Term 1  (usually starting early February).  Actual start dates may vary depending on timing of school holiday, Easter, and other events. Games are not usually scheduled over Labour weekend but are commonly scheduled over Waitangi weekend.  It is possible to start playing interclub in the post-Xmas competition, if there are sufficient numbers for a new club team or gaps in teams.

Match times. Contests are held weekly on Sunday mornings. C/D/Hot Shots grade competitions usually start at 8:30am and A/B grades at 10:30am.

Draws and results.  The draws are prepared by Tennis Central and published around two weeks before the start of each competition. Competition draws and results are published on TennisNZ's MatchHub. The draw will include the dates and venues of all contests and their start times.

Venues. Contests are played at Kilbirnie Tennis Club, the host club of the opposing team, the Renouf Tennis Centre, or at Hataitai Park. The matches will be played over 2, 3, or 4 courts depending on the availability of courts at the venue.

Costs

There are additional fees to play in interclub competitions. These are around $40 for both pre- and post-Xmas or around $25 for post-Xmas only. The fees partly cover registration and ball costs. The Club Treasurer will send payment requests to parents/guardians of junior interclub players before the start of competitions. The fees are payable once teams have been registered. We are not able to issue refunds after registration. 

How to sign up

Around six weeks prior to the start of interclub competitions, our Junior Convenor will e-mail all parents asking if they would like to sign up their children to play interclub.  Sign-up instructions will be included in the e-mail. You can also submit this Junior Registration Form (if your child is not currently a club member or you do not receive a sign-up e-mail). E-mail the Junior Convenor if you have any questions.

Closing dates for entry into Kilbirnie interclub teams are usually around these dates. Actual dates vary from year to year - see emails each year from the Junior Convenor requesting registration for interclub for actual closing dates.

• Pre-Xmas competitions: 1 September
• Post-Xmas competitions: 1 January

The Junior Convenor will let you know by e-mail of your team and team manager about two weeks before the start of each competition. Your team manager will be in touch with you to arrange a schedule of play during the competition.

Parents can also sign up a group of children, possibly forming a complete team, if they wish. Contact the Junior Convenor to discuss.

Competition Details

Full information on the junior competitions can be found in the junior competition rules and conditions document here.

Grades. Each team is entered into a girls or boys grade (or sometimes for novice teams a mixed grade) for the pre-Xmas competitions. All the teams in each grade will have players of similar skill levels. The grades range from Hot Shots (novice) grade, through D, C, B, and A grade. There may also be sub-grades such as D1, D2, D3.

The two teams with the highest number of points in each grade at the end of the Pre-Xmas competitions will move up a grade for the Post-Xmas competitions. Similarly, the two teams with the lowest number of points will move down a grade. There may be some adjustment to this if there are new teams for the Post-Xmas competitions.

Competition structure. The teams in each grade (or sub-grade) compete against each other in a series of contests during each competition. There are usually eight teams in a grade (or sub-grade) which means each team will usually have seven contests (or rounds), one against each of the other teams in the grade (or sub-grade).

Match formats. At each contest, four members from one team will compete against four members of the other team in a series of singles and doubles matches. Each team member will play one singles match and one doubles match. Thus, there will be six matches (four singles and two doubles) at each contest. Team managers can play more than four team members at a contest if they wish.

For Hot Shots, D, and C grades, matches are first to 7 games with a conventional tiebreaker at 6-6. For B and A grades, matches are best of two short sets (first to 4 games with a tie-break at 4-4).  If one set each after the first two sets, a super tie-break is played (first to 10 points). Short deuces are played for singles and double matches in all grades.

Umpiring. All matches are self-umpired, unless either player requests an adjudicator. Self-umpired means the players call the lines on their side of the court only. Balls should be called in if any doubt. If a player feels he/she is being unfairly treated, they may ask one of the team managers for an adjudicator.

Player rankings. The results of each contest are recorded in the Tennis NZ Match Hub system. The wins and losses of every player are used to derive his/her grade and ranking (with respect to all other NZ interclub and torunament players). The club will use these rankings to help place juniors into teams. You can see player rankings here.

Additional information for Parents/Guardians of Junior Team Members

Arrival time. Your team manager will advise of start times for each contest and required arrival time for warm-up. Please support your team manager by arriving on or before the requested time. If you are unavoidably delayed, be sure to let your team manager know in advance to avoid stressing them out. If not able to attend, please give your team manager at least 24 hours notice so that an alternative player can be found.

Commitment for season.  Support your team manager and Junior Convenor by making your child available to play as much as possible during the season, barring injuries and illness. Finding fill-ins is never easy.

Interclub Handbook. The Tennis Central Junior Interclub Rules and Conditions document is available online here. This contains useful information, including guidelines for parents, coaches, and spectators.

Club membership. If you haven’t already registered you child as member of Kilbirnie Tennis Club, please register them online as soon as possible here.

Supporting the players. At Hot Shots level, the children may need some assistance with scoring, particularly early in the season and for tie-breakers.  However, the children will generally be capable of self-umpiring. We encourage parents to wait for a request from assistance from the children before providing guidance on scoring or line calls.

FREE Novice Interclub Training. For all children new to interclub or in the Hot Shots grades, there will be free coaching during the interclub season. This coaching is delivered by our professional One Community Tennis coaches and will cover serving, rallying, scoring, and strategies. All novice players are welcome and encouraged to attend.

More information for Team Managers is available here.