Wanaka Tennis Inc Annual Report 2020-2021
It is my pleasure to present the Annual Report for the period 1st July 2020-30th June 2021.
The year has gone very well, with most of our regular fixtures taking place and the tennis club operating very strongly in terms of participation, membership and projects.
Social Tennis
Social tennis continues to be our strength in the club and sessions on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday continue to attract many players, both local and visitors. The numbers turning up to social tennis has increased and all sessions are very popular. Our Wednesday night teams’ event played during the summer months is always popular.
Club Coaching
Coaching at the club is very strong and many players both junior and senior take advantage of our wonderful coaches. Amanda Trail’s coaching sessions have increased and she is seen on the courts coaching seniors and juniors in all sorts of weather and even on dark cold nights. Perry Crockett has reduced his coaching hours but is still passionate about coaching our juniors.
Juniors
Junior Tennis is well supported as is seen by the number of players in the after school sessions during the week. Wanaka Tennis Club was well represented in Southern Lakes team playing in the Regional Quad tournaments.
There were 9 Wanaka junior players representing Southern Lakes in the Junior Quad tournament in Dunedin at the beginning of November across the three age groups – 10s, 12s and 14 year olds. The teams beat South Canterbury and Otago convincingly and narrowly came second to Southland.
In the February Junior Quads Southern Lakes won the overall Quad for U10s beating rivals Southland and came 2nd for the U12s and U14s.
Our 11 Wanaka representative players were Georgia Beale, Poppy Jackson, Laia Mactaggart and Firn Mactaggart in the Under 10s, Kaitlyn Tooley, Alice Porter and Alexei Sheehan in the Under 12s and Sam Beale, Max Porter, George Holland and Georgia Lindsay in the Under 14s.
Super Seniors Tournament
This tournament was unfortunately cancelled for 2020 as the country went into Covid Level 2 just prior to the tournament and it was not possible to hold this event at this level. This was very disappointing as we had selected a strong team who had been practicing and were looking forward to defending our title. Unfortunately the 2021 tournament has again been cancelled due to Covid restrictions. The team had again been practicing and were looking forward to this event. Hopefully we will be able to go in 2022.
Love Tennis
We offered this Tennis NZ programme for the first time in 2020 which involved promoting tennis and the tennis club. Unfortunately the weather meant we had to cancel one of the days. We got a few new members but overall it was not a success for us and really only worked for clubs who were in competition for members from other clubs, which is not the case for Wanaka. It was decided not to do this promotion again.
Opening Day
This was quieter than it has been in the last few years but the usual opening day tournament playing for the George Morris Memorial Trophy was very successful with Will Lamb again being the winning man and Carolyn Oakley-Brown the winning woman.
New Year Tournaments January 2021
The Open and Junior tournaments were very well supported this year, with a big increase from the previous year. We had quite a few players coming from Auckland and a lot of the players were playing here for the first time. The Quartz Reef Senior 35+ attracted very good entries as always.
This year we had planned to have the junior tournaments at the end of January but many local families had decided to stay in Wanaka to play in these tournaments so we didn’t change the dates. We employed a tournament controller, Nic Jenkins to run the Open and Junior tournaments and this worked very well. We did not run the kitchen for the Open, but the junior parents ran the kitchen for the Junior Tournament which was very successful.
Matavao Fanguna won the Men’s Singles and Ines Stephani again won the Women’s Singles. Peter and Thomas Hartano won the Men’s Doubles and Ines Stephani and Amanda Trail won the Women’s Doubles.
Southern Lakes Fundraising Tournament
This was held in conjunction with Queenstown Tennis Club to raise some funds for the newly formed Southern Lakes Tennis Association. It was well supported and the theme was Wimbledon Whites. Players mostly dressed for the part and there was fierce competition for the men’s and women’s doubles honours. The buffet lunch put on by Karen Mitchell and Suma Ito from Queenstown was outstanding. This will become a fixture on our calendar.
Club Championships
After having to cancel this last year we ran this competition this year with good entries. The men’s draw was very strong and almost impossible to seed.
The men’s singles was won by new club member Ben Fahy and the women’s singles by Caroline Reid. The men’s doubles was won by Jules Mumford and Nigel Buckingham and the women’s doubles by Jacque Bates and Jeanette Hatten.
The mixed doubles were won by past winners Jacque Bates and Tony Marsh.
The number of new members making their mark was very noticeable.
Annual Quadrangular Tournament
It was fantastic to be able to run this tournament this year after having to cancel it last year. The teams from Southland, North Otago and South Canterbury always enjoy coming to Wanaka to play in this tournament. Wanaka won the tournament this year and was awarded the trophy (which was purchased last year). The barbecue lunch on the Sunday was of its usual high standard.
Club Improvements
The work on courts 3 and 4 began as the weather warmed up in October last year. This ended up being a much bigger job than was originally thought as the repair to the court surface was more major. The new courts were laid and looked fabulous. However over the next few months we discovered there were imperfections in the substrate and the committee is working with the contractors to find a solution.
The lighting project is finally finished after many major holdups from the council and then getting the lights in from overseas. The opening of the lights is taking place on Friday 17th September as this had to postponed due to Covid. Having just got the lights finished it was ironic that we then couldn’t use them as the country went into a Level 4 lockdown. We are now waiting on an upgrade to our wiring so we can use all three courts at once.
Following the flood that occurred over lockdown last year we replaced the kitchen and appliances. New lino is booked to go down in the changing rooms at the beginning of November and new carpet and painting is on the list to be done, but these are on hold at the moment with the cost overruns we have had with the courts and lights.
Sponsorships
We are again grateful to Stonewood Homes, Craig’s Investment Partners and Quartz Reef Wines for sponsoring our January Tournaments and to Wanaka Experience for continuing to support our club. The Breen Construction Company have come on board as a new sponsor and sponsored our Quadrangular Tournament.
Other sponsors of our tournaments included Mediterranean Market, New World Wanaka, Wanaka Beerworks, and Central Lakes Physiotherapy.
Membership Fees
There will be no increase in our membership fees for resident members as stated at our last AGM. At this stage use of the lights will be free for members and non-members will have to pay an extra fee on top of their court booking fee. This year we are offering a few different subscription options.
We will shortly ask you to renew your club membership. Shoe tags will not be issued as with our new BookaCourt access to the club, members will get a gate code to enter the club and non-members will only get a code when they pay for the use of the court. Social tennis fees will remain at $2 for members and increase to $10 for non-members.
To renew your membership you will be sent an email inviting you to register and pay online. This is the only option from this year. Please look at the membership options in case you would like a different sort of membership. You will need to update your details to ensure they are correct. Our new website will go live as soon as our membership subscriptions are ratified at this meeting. The new website is https://clubspark.kiwi/wanakatennisclub.
Thanks to the 2020-21 Committee
Thank you to all of the committee for their efforts in the past year, which has been a bit more challenging than most years with all of our big projects and then with Covid-19. The committee have worked hard and all contributed in various ways from administration to maintenance and in the general running of the club. There has been a lot of work involved in setting up the new database and BookaCourt system which hopefully will make the administration of the club easier and set us up going forward.
Angela Martin, our secretary is not standing again after 5 year’s service. She has been a very efficient secretary and we thank her for all her years in this role. For several years she also organised the kitchen for our summer tournaments which was a huge task.
Robbie Julius is also standing down this year as he is moving to Oamaru. We could not have completed the lighting project without his considerable expertise in this field. This ended up being a very big job .His attention to detail in keeping the fridges well stocked was also an asset.
We will miss both these committee members and their contribution to the club. We hope to see Angela often on the courts and Robbie when he visits Wanaka.
Thank you to all the other club members who are so willing to make themselves available for help when it is required and to do the tasks they have taken on with such enthusiasm and expertise. In particular I would like to thank Dave Buckingham who is always there to help with Monday and Friday social tennis mornings.
The committee wishes you all a great season of tennis.
Jeanette Hatten
President
September 12th, 2021