Wanaka Tennis Inc Annual Report 2021-2022
It is my pleasure to present the Annual Report for the period 1st July 2021-30th June 2022.
The year has gone very well, although the lockdown in August last year made the tennis club management a little challenging but having been through it before we were more prepared. Most of our regular fixtures took place and the tennis club continues to operate 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 has become very popular with the competition looking to be oversubscribed this year. Thanks to Jan Grant for her very efficient organisation. With the change to a more casual dinner arrangement it has become more 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 and Kirstie Crockett continue to run Aspiring Tennis Academy and are involved in coaching our juniors, along with Amanda.
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 the Southern Lakes team playing in the Regional Quad tournaments.
Wanaka players representing Southern Lakes are Poppy Jackson, Firn Mactaggart, Holly Radford, Caio Crockett, Laia Mactaggart, Georgia Beale, Hugh Davis, Alexi Sheehan, Kaitlyn Tooley, Chloe Rawlence, Alice Porter, Sam Beale, Max Porter.
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.
The 2022 tournament as at 30 June will be going ahead. The team have again been practicing and were looking forward to this event.
Opening Day
The opening day tournament playing for the George Morris Memorial Trophy was very successful with Will Lamb and Megan Beale being the winners.
New Year Tournaments January 2022
The Open and Junior tournaments were very well supported this year, with a big increase in entries from the previous year. We had quite a few players coming from Auckland and a lot of the players were here for the first time. The Quartz Reef Senior 35+ attracted very good entries as always.
Our tournament controller from January 2021, Nic Jenkins, could not manage the 2022 tournaments on site due to Covid difficulties. Nic did the administration and club members Will Lamb and Sam Beale ran the tournaments on site. They did a great job. We had to screen people and check vaccine passes and most people welcomed this and were compliant. 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. Following on from the previous year and with Covid restrictions we did not run the kitchen for the Open, but the junior parents ran the kitchen for the Junior Tournament which was very successful.
It was helpful to have two of our recently qualified court supervisors/referees – Geoff Hatten and myself available over the tournament. We were mainly needed over the junior tournaments. (Other club members – Jacque Bates, Tony Marsh and Gerry Spencer also passed the course which was run in Timaru).
Matavao Fanguna won the Men’s Singles for the second year in a row. Celine Schneider won the Women’s Singles. Matavao Fanguna and Ryan Eggers won the Men’s Doubles and Halle Faherty and Natalie Hetherington won the Women’s Doubles.
Southern Lakes Fundraising Tournament
This was held in conjunction with Queenstown Tennis Club for the second year running to raise funds for the Southern Lakes Tennis Association. It was well supported and the theme again 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 event is now a special annual occasion.
Club Championships
We were able to run the Club Champs this year but with a lot of Covid around it was a little difficult and Geoff and I redid the draw several times due to Covid withdrawals. We nearly cancelled it but were glad we went ahead in the end. It was a pity we had so many withdrawals but hopefully next year we will have a full complement of players. Next year we will run the singles on a different weekend as it became obvious that with many players wanting to play in all 3 events it is too much tennis for one weekend. The men’s draw was very strong again but with withdrawals the women’s draw was not as strong.
The men’s singles was won by new club member Greg Howard and the women’s singles was again won by Caroline Reid. The men’s doubles was won by Perry Crockett and Graham Beale and the women’s doubles by Margo Beattie and Carolyn Oakley-Brown. The mixed doubles were won by Carolyn Oakley-Brown and David Lawn.
Annual Quadrangular Tournament
It was fantastic to be able to run this tournament again. The teams from Southland, North Otago and South Canterbury always enjoy coming to Wanaka to play in this tournament. Wanaka won the tournament again this year by a very slender margin from South Canterbury by 8 games. Team members were Nigel Buckingham, Graham Beale, Allan Martin, Jules Mumford, Tony Marsh, Steve May, Daphne Ledgerwood, Jan Grant, Jacque Bates, Liza Crotty, Rhian Nicholl, Joan Lloyd and Aya Iino. The barbecue lunch on the Sunday was of its usual high standard with Janey Kuzma running the kitchen.
Club Improvements
The committee is still working with Fulton Hogan and Tiger Turf to find a solution to the imperfections on courts 3 and 4. This is on-going and is still involving meetings to bring this situation to a satisfactory conclusion.
The bathrooms have had new lino put down and a new storage cupboard has been installed in the vestibule area.
Patron
It was with great sadness that we received the news that our long-time Patron, Jill Blennerhassett, died suddenly in August, just a few weeks after her husband John passed away. Jill loved tennis, and was a keen supporter of our club, particularly our junior members. She enjoyed coming down to the club to watch any tennis that was being played and loved coming along to present trophies. She was passionate in terms of encouraging all levels of players and in particular junior players. She will be sorely missed.
Sponsorships
We are again grateful to our major sponsors Stonewood Homes, Craig’s Investment Partners and Quartz Reef Wines for sponsoring our January Tournaments and
Breen Construction Company for sponsoring our Quadrangular Tournament. We also have a new minor sponsor, Tall Poppy Real Estate.
Other sponsors of our tournaments included Mediterranean Market, New World Wanaka, Wanaka Beerworks, Central Lakes Physiotherapy and the Wanaka Experience.
Membership Fees
The adoption of Clubspark as our new membership database has been very successful. The initial setting up phase was challenging, which gave Jacque Bates, Tony Marsh, Geoff and me plenty to do during the Covid lockdown. Book-a-Court access to the courts and casual booking for non-members is now working well after a few teething issues.
The availability of different membership types has well received and many people have taken up short term memberships e.g. ski workers to town who have signed up for winter memberships.
Assuming suggested subscriptions for the 2022/23 year are approved, you will shortly be sent an email inviting you to renew your membership.
Thanks to the 2021-22 Committee
Thank you to all of the committee for their efforts in the past year. The committee has worked hard and all members contributed in various ways from administration to maintenance and in the general running of the club.
This year we have focussed on updating our constitution and getting a new 30 year lease from the council. The constitution will be put forward to the AGM for adoption, but there is still some work to be done before the lease is finalised. Thanks to Jules Mumford and Geoff Hatten for all their work in these areas.
Jacque Bates and Tony Marsh are standing down this year from the committee as they are planning a lot of travel in the next year. We thank Jacque for all her work with the new website in particular and Tony for his maintenance help and general assistance. They will still be valued members of our club who have offered their help to the club when they are in Wanaka.
I would also like to thank Dave Buckingham for all his help in running Monday and Friday social tennis mornings. He is always available and does a great job of running these mornings throughout the whole year.
The committee wishes you all a great season of tennis.
Jeanette Hatten
President
September 18th, 2022