Firstly – a big thank you to Tim Welch and Frankie Bedi for their excellent organising of tournaments over the past few years, we have big shoes to fill!

This year will see a few changes to the tournaments; the most significant change (in response to the recent survey) is the change of the 3rd set to a full set. We are also going to reintroduce line judges. Another change is the administration of entries, we are asking people to now send or hand their entry form and fee to the team captain / vice captains and not to the membership secretary (Address details are at the foot of the entry form). Talking of Foot – we received a lot of feedback about foot faulting in recent finals, so this year we are giving you plenty of warning to work on this part of your game so their won’t be pressure on our line judges to need to call them out. Also in line with recent years we will be seeding the handicap tournaments so that strong players will be kept apart, this should mean a more even and FUN tournament with the potential of any pair winning (so all you competitive people – please bear this in mind)!

Open Tournament: Doubles finals Saturday 17th July, Singles finals Saturday 4th September
Veterans Tournament: all finals Sunday 18th July
Handicap Finals: Ladies singles, Men’s Doubles & Mixed Doubles Saturday 18th September, Men’s Singles & Ladies Doubles Sunday 19th September

Please do not enter a tournament if you are not available for the relevant finals days listed.

As only one third of our courts are shale, we are only going to have one of the three tournaments on shale this summer which will also hopefully help balance court utilisation.

The Final of the Vets and Handicap tournaments will be on the HARD courts, and the Open will be on the SHALE.  Where possible earlier rounds should be played on the corresponding surface, but obviously court availability may mean this is not always possible.

The new format for this years matches will be 3 full sets, with a standard tie-break in all 3 sets. This will be consistent for all rounds of the tournament including the final.

We will continue to send out regular email updates of any competitions members have entered, so please ensure you include your email address on your membership details, or advise Janet of any changes to your details. 

As this means you will have no excuse for not being aware of your opponents or when deadlines for playing matches are, we will again be strictly enforcing the play-by dates without exception.  Each round will have at least 3 weeks and frequently longer for you to get matches played.

We have kept the entry fee to £3 per person per event, which must be paid at the same time as the entry is submitted, or your entry will not be accepted.

Open and Veteran Tournament entries must be in by 1st April, and Handicap Tournament entries by 24th May.

In all cases, tournament entry fees must be paid – for doubles events this means both partners must have paid for the entry to be valid.  If entering a doubles event without a partner simply specify “partner wanted” and all such entries will be randomly drawn into pairs, or entry fees returned if none available. 
Note that all the Handicap tournament doubles events will have partners drawn.

Please send entry forms and fees (cheques payable to Ashford Tennis Club) to:
Martin Godbold, 3 Brookside, Chertsey, Surrey, Middlesex, KT16 9ES or hand to one of the tournament committee:  Jill Jackson, Martin Godbold, Esther Waghorn, Ian Mattholie.