Elthorne Tennis

As many of you will know, we have been successful with our planning application to redevelop the tennis court area in Elthorne Park.

This will include;

• Resurfacing the 3 existing tennis courts. Courts will be painted macadam as before.
• Supply of Electricity to Elthorne Park
• Floodlights to all courts
• Pathway Lighting for access after dark.
• Internet connected coded gate access. This will be interactive with your Clubspark account for bookings
• New Pavillion/Cafe sited on the grass area between the tennis courts and children's playground
• The Cafe will include a public toilet, accessible during cafe hours
• outdoor table and chair area

Update 29th February 2024

My update this time around will report on both our facility development and the programme development.

As we move towards the warmer months, I’m very pleased to announce we are upgrading many parts of the tennis programme.

This will include;

• Continuing to grow the adult programme. New sessions like LiveBall and Cardio Tennis have been well attended. Our plan is to further respond to providing adult sessions that people want through the week
• starting a junior tennis academy – which means we will be actively pursuing junior tournament players and providing regular squad training.
• Re-starting the Tennis For Free sessions – the free community tennis sessions will take place again from 12pm Saturday 20th April.
• Open Days to give everyone the chance to try the courts for free and to experience some adult and junior coaching. Pass these dates on to somebody who you think might want to try tennis;
  • 2-4pm Saturday 30th March 2024
  • 2-4pm Sunday 31st March 2024
  • 2-4pm Saturday 13th April 2024
  • 2-4pm Sunday 14th April 2024
  • Go onto the website to sign-up. Click here
• Holiday camp programme revamp – day and half-day camps will be introduced during the summer period

Along with our improving programme, our coaches are developing themselves too. Francis Carrero is about to be awarded her LTA Level 2 Coach qualification and will move straight to her level 3 in the spring. I’m very pleased to announce the new addition to our coaching team, Emre Koyunoglu. Emre, who is originally from Turkey, joins us from the engineering world. He is keen to deliver tennis coaching to people of all ages and levels who seek to improve their tennis. If you would like to contact either Francis or Emre, please click here

We are still in the process of finalising a date for the café construction but there has been plenty going on besides.

Those people who have been to the courts will have seen the 2 containers are now fully operational, with the fences that we have erected to protect the area.

We now have 2 new paths that have been laid that will take you from the large container to the courts without needing to walk on muddy ground. In addition we have constructed a new set of steps to allow easy access to the large container.

The access lighting we have planned for the park so that people are able to walk safely to and from courts, is taking slightly longer than expected but is still continuing. We envisage this project taking until 31st March. In the meantime a set of lights directly outside the entry gate has been put up so that there is light directly outside the courts. These lights are on a timer each day 5.30-9.30pm.

Resurfacing

I am pleased to announce the resurfacing of the courts is now complete !! All works to the court resurfacing has been completed, painting of the lines and surface has dried and the nets/posts have been installed. The court plays slower than the previous surface as the new paint creates a slow bounce.

Court bookings are now open on this website - all users will continue to be able to book a court each day for 1 hour 7 days in advance.  The cost of booking a court is - Elthorne Members £4.60, Public Users £8.20.

There are off-peak court hours available. They are 6am-9am every day & 1pm-4pm Monday through Friday. Members £2.00, everyone else £4.00

Becoming a member is easy, just click on the membership tab and choose your membership. Memberships are £10 per year and give discounts on court bookings and coaching. Membership of Elthorne Tennis allows you to join the LTA Membership Scheme for free - amongst other benefits, you can opt-into the LTA's Wimbledon Club Member's Ticket Ballot, where previously our members have had a 1 in 6 chance of winning tickets. A number of our members won tickets to the Championships this year.

Our Tennis Programme has been running since the courts were opened with court bookings and organised coaching sessions seeing an immediate increase by comparison to before. I'm very pleased to say we have taken on a new coach in Francis Carrero, who is keen to coach  as many Adults and Juniors as she can. Previously from Venezuela, Francis comes with a good playing standard and huge motivation to spread the good benefits of playing tennis regularly. Please see her coach profile for more info and contact details.

Gate Access

Our access gate to the courts in now fully operational. To book a court in Elthorne Park, you simply need to go on the website and make the booking, receive the confirmation email with the keypad code, use the code on the keypad at the gate and enter courts. Each booker will be sent their own unique access code which will work for 5 minutes before the booking until the end of the booking. Each person's unique code will remain the same so it becomes familiar for each playing session, but will only work when a booking is made. Once the floodlights are installed, they will interact with the entry gate system and the booking system so that the lights are triggered by entry to the courts. Lights will turn off after the booking but will include an egress light to allow exit from the courts safely.

Supply of Electricity

The installation of an electrical supply  to our cabinet inside the boundary to the park by the Boston Manor Road has been successful.  We have also trenched the numerous cables to the various cabinets around the park, which include; The band-stand (Hanwell Carnival), top of the park by entrance (Christmas Tree Vendor), the new pavillion/cafe, tennis court floodlights and access gate, and the pathway lights for access after dark. 

Outdoor Seating Area

Once a date for the Pavillion works is set, we will begin to build the seating area adjacent to the Pavillion.

I hope this update is good news for you all. This redevelopment signals a big improvement to tennis provision for our community, not to mention a brand new cafe facility for all park users. I have big plans to improve the tennis programme over the coming years which I will update as the redevelopment gathers pace

Kind regards

Matthew Cattaway

07876221259

matthew@cattaway.com