ELLISWICK LTC – RE-OPENING – 13TH MAY 2020

Dear Members

Great news! The Club has been authorised to re-open subject to Government and LTA guidelines. This means that play may commence as of tomorrow (Wednesday) morning. We are very pleased to be able to re-open ELTC, though subject to specific conditions and without the social aspect of tennis, which has been so successful at our club.

Before entering club premises, all players and coaches must read and understand the guidance from the LTA in their three sets of guidelines (links below and PDFs attached) as well as the specific guidelines relating to ELTC set out below. The consequences of not understanding and abiding by these guidelines could be, literally, fatal. Any person not abiding by these guidelines may be asked to leave the premises immediately and may be subject to the Club’s disciplinary process.
ELTC Guidelines for Members:
  • Club access – Only players, coaches, and Committee members may attend the club. No spectators are allowed. Guests will not be allowed initially, unless the Committee decides that court usage is sufficiently low to allow guest usage as well.
  • Clubhouse access – The inner clubhouse will be closed, with access limited to Committee members in performance of their duties. Refreshments may not be served to or by any member, including members of the Committee.
  • Toilets – Toilet facilities will be accessible by members, but we ask that only one person at a time enter the mens or ladies. Toilet facilities should not be used for changing. Signs will be posted to allow members to communicate when a facility is occupied. It is strongly recommended that players bring their own hand sanitiser.
  • Play
    • Only singles play is allowed, with the only exception being doubles play amongst members of the same household.
    • No one should come to the Club unless they are playing on a booked court and then only shortly before their session is due to start. Maintain social distance at all times including on court and when going on to and leaving the court.
    • Courts may be booked for 1-hour slots only and players must vacate the courts and the club grounds at least 5 minutes before the end of their slot. Do not congregate before or after play.
    • As per LTA guidance, players must bring their own tennis balls and mark them, eg with initials. Tennis balls may only be handled by members of the same household. For example, if you and your opponent are from different households, you must each bring your own tennis balls and avoid handling the opponent’s tennis balls or balls from another court and you should only use your own tennis balls when serving.
    • Please avoid, where possible, touching court equipment. Should the net need adjusting, please do so using protective equipment, eg a paper or cloth towel or glove.
    • Please do not close the gates to court 1 and court 4. If the other gates must be used, please close them after use, using protective equipment.
    • We have not received Government or LTA advice regarding the use of gloves. Players may consider bringing their own gloves.
  • Social tennis – Sadly social tennis (eg men’s night, ladies’ morning, junior night) is currently not feasible. We would encourage those people wishing to continue to enjoy these times to communicate with each other and set up fixed singles games for the time being. Please note that there will be no courts reserved for any specific social tennis sessions nor for Saturday fixed fours.
  • Juniors – Juniors may play but only with at least one adult member on court as well (whether singles or doubles). The adult member will be fully responsible for the junior member’s adherence to these guidelines – both will be subject to disciplinary action should the junior player not adhere. We are at this stage not imposing age restrictions on juniors – parents must judge whether their children are capable of adhering to these strict guidelines.
  • Coaching – One-to-one coaching will be allowed. Two courts will normally be reserved, one for each of the coaches, who will release specific time slots on those courts (on the booking system) if not needed for coaching.
Booking system
As per our previous email, we have discontinued the Club’s use of Sportsbooker and ask that all members who wish to book a court do so via our new Clubspark website:
Before using the site for the first time, members must register with the system using the ‘Register’ button in the upper right hand corner.
We appreciate that the site may be slow at first during a rush to book courts and ask for your patience when booking courts. In all cases, players must not enter club grounds unless they have a court booked.
If any questions arise, please email [email protected] – do not call the contact telephone number on the website (it is currently incorrect). Please do not ask the club administrator to make individual court bookings for you.
Thank you all in advance for adhering to these guidelines such that play may begin again in a safe environment at our lovely and popular club. We wish that they weren’t so stringent, but understand why that is so under the circumstances, and hope that the LTA guidelines can be relaxed in due course. In any case, please use your common sense in order to ensure social distancing at all times.
If, having read this email and the three LTA documents, you have any further questions, please send them to [email protected] and we will do our best to reply to you in a timely fashion.
Best wishes and stay safe
ELTC Committee