Latest Coronavirus Update

Guests

We are also allowing adult guests to play with members as long as they are family members or house guests or potential club members AND the member informs the committee with their guest’s contact details beforehand.    The member should pay £2 per visit unless the guest is a potential club member.  Potential club members are allowed up to 3 visits as a guest before joining the club.  We already permit juniors to play guests in LTA sanctioned box leagues as long as they inform the committee with the contact details of their opponents beforehand.

We, however, don’t encourage guests from the general public other than as stated above in order to maintain a bubble of relative safety around our club members.  For this reason, please do not come to the club if you are exhibiting any of the possible symptoms of COVID-19.

25 August 2020

We are now running a Friday Club Night every week and Ladies’ Tennis Afternoons once a month, usually on Sundays.  However, you must book a place via the Members’ Area if you wish to attend any of these events.

21 July 2020

Further guidelines were introduced from the LTA (version 5 – see bottom of page) which make events and club nights easier to organise and run.  The committee, having discussed these guidelines and their implications, have decided to go ahead with a club night on Friday 14th August.

13 July 2020

Following the latest (version 4) guidelines from the LTA – see below at the bottom of the page – the committee is considering how it can introduce a club night without compromising the health and safety of the members.   However, until this is announced, play will continue as at present with courts booked for doubles or singles plus coaching, and some junior tennis group events.

These guidelines have been produced in line with Government announcements on the easing of lockdown restrictions, and the subsequent Government guidance on gatherings, public spaces, and outdoor activities and the phased return of outdoor sport and recreation published on the Gov.uk website.  Please read very carefully, including the further clarification in the subsequent paragraphs.  The main change is that there is no requirement for players to use their own set of marked tennis balls, however, players may use this approach if they wish.

Scroll up for the LTA Coronavirus Guidelines

Player guidelines

• Social distancing
  • Players should observe the 2-metre social distancing rule at all times taking particular care when entering and leaving the courts.
  • The following rule has been quietly dropped as it was never realistic in practice..
    • (For doubles, consider agreeing in advance which player will take the shot if a ball travels to the centre of the court)
• Hygiene
  • Wash your hands with soap and water before leaving home to go to the courts and after leaving the courts – use alcohol gel if soap and water are not available.
    • A cold water tap and a bar of soap are available beside court 1 – if you use these, please ensure the tap is turned off after use.  Inform a committee member if the soap is running low.
    • A drum of sanitizer wipes is inside the courts next to the gate to/from courts 3 & 4.  Please inform a committee member if these are running low
  • Avoid touching your face and cough or sneeze into a tissue or the crook of your elbow.
• Play
  • Singles and doubles are now permitted.
  • There will be no organised club sessions, all play must be privately arranged on courts booked in advance through the court booking system.
  • No guests are permitted at the current time – except for LTA sanctioned competitions – see below.
  • Court 1 is reserved for coaching until after 6:00pm on weekdays and 5:00pm on Saturdays.
• Players
  • Arrive no earlier than 5 minutes before your court booking and leave when you finish play – however, if no-one has arrived to use your court at the end of your session, you may continue until players do arrive at which time you must vacate the court immediately.
  • Allow others to leave before you enter the court -if you need to wait then do so away from the courts and clear of the gates
  • Avoid congregating on or around the court after playing to allow access for others
  • Arrive dressed for tennis and bring with you…
    • Ample supplies of water or other drinks.
    • Your own tennis balls (you should mark them for identification).
    • Hand sanitizer to clean hands after touching shared surfaces.
• Balls
  • Players do not now need to use their own clearly marked tennis balls – however, players can choose to use this approach if they wish
    • If you choose to use shared balls then extra care must be taken to ensure you do not touch your face during play, and you should clean your hands before play and immediately after finishing (use alcohol gel if required)
    • Players should still avoid using their hands to pick up tennis balls from other courts where possible – use your racquet/foot to return them as those players may have decided to continue to use their own marked tennis balls
  • Return balls coming from a neighbouring court without touching them with your hands.
• Juniors and Minis
  • Members under 16 must be supervised by 1 adult at all times.
• Entry to courts
  • Please enter by the gate to courts 3 & 4 and leave the gate with the slide latch across preventing the keypad lock from engaging.
    • This will allow subsequent members to push the gate open with their foot or elbow.
  • If no other members are present when you leave the courts, slide the latch back and ensure the keypad lock engages.
• Floodlights
  • If the floodlights are on when you finish play, unless players are arriving to play, turn the floodlights off.
• Finally
  • Please take your rubbish home with you.

Court Booking

The maximum length of a session has been reduced to 90min to provide the maximum number of slots for members while retaining a worthwhile playing time.   If no-one is waiting to use your court, you may continue playing but must stop as soon as other members arrive to use your court.

To provide contact tracing in the event that a member contracts the Covid-19 virus, you should also add the names of the other players on your court when you make the booking.   However, since the system doesn’t yet allow for you to change or add the names of participants after making the booking, you should send an email to bookings@crowthornetennisclub.co.uk with the names of the other participants if they need updating.

Please note that your opponents must be paid-up members of Crowthorne Tennis Club.  Guests are not permitted at the current time.  However, exceptions may be made for…

• Sanctioned LTA competitions such as Local LTA Youth Box Leagues
• Last year’s CTC members wishing to have a try out after injury or illness

In both cases names and contact details of all non-members in your box must be provided to bookings@crowthornetennisclub.co.uk.

Note also that Court 1 is reserved for one-to-one coaching on weekdays 08:00 – 18:00 and Saturdays 08:00 – 17:00.  Courts 1 & 2 are reserved for Tennis Camps from 0900 – 13:00 during the school summer holidays.

Access

Regarding access to the car park, you should find the barrier raised in the evening and at weekends.  However, if you find the barrier is down when you arrive, please park in St-Sebastians Close but avoid obstructing any house entrances.  If you will be playing regularly during the day on weekdays, barrier fobs are normally available from Karen for a £6 deposit.

Please note that the Pavilion will remain closed for the time being so there will be no toilet facilities.

Consider wearing gloves for opening gates.

Floodlights

The floodlight controls are in the wooden cabinet by the side of court 1.

Note that the floodlights take 15-20 minutes to come up to full brightness so if you need to use the floodlights, turn on the lights for your court and use the warm-up time for knocking up.

When you leave the courts, turn off the lights unless other members have arrived to play.

Sanitize/wash your hands after using the floodlight controls.

Safety

Benches have been removed from the courts to minimise cross contamination.

Nets are at the correct height so that adjustment will normally not be required and therefore the winders shave been removed.  Any adjustments that may be needed can be made via the centre strap.

Don’t forget to bring your own sanitizer to clean your hands after contact with gates, etc.

Should you need to let emergency vehicles into the field, please note that the field gate padlock has been changed following the superglue incident.  To gain access to the key, log-in to the Members’ Area and check out Miscellaneous Information.

If you have any concerns regarding safety at the club please email our Welfare Officer, Sarah, on welfare@crowthornetennisclub.co.uk.

Please do not leave rubbish on the courts – take everything you bring home with you.

Free Balls

This year each adult paid-up member is entitled to a free tube of new balls since the subscription was increased a few years ago to include make new balls available for club sessions.  Balls were available for collection on Saturday 16th May from 11:00am to 1:00pm but, if you were not able to get there then, Dominic, our head coach, is often at the courts and will be able to give you a tube.  He’ll also give you a shoe-tag which identifies you as a club member and, in the case of adult members, whether full or off-peak.

Buying Balls

Balls are available from the club at £4 a tube of 4.  Click here for how to buy them.

Coaching

One-to-one coaching will be available – book with Dominic – but there will be no group coaching.

Court 1 will not be available for members to book until after 6:00pm on weekdays and from 12:00 to 16:00 on Saturday afternoons when it will be reserved for coaching.

Note that Junior Summer Camps for 8-16 year olds will be held on 6 consecutive weeks from 20th July Monday to Friday 09:00 – 13:00 on Courts 1 & 2.

Finally

We on the committee hope you are enjoying the opportunity to play some tennis again.

We are still only allowed to play pre-arranged games on pre-booked courts in order to avoid too much congestion around the courts from members waiting to play.   Hopefully, the next stage will be to relax the restrictions further to allow club mix-in sessions but this will only happen if we all observe these guidelines from the Government and the LTA which are necessary to stop the spread of the virus and keep us all safe.

Although major changes will be communicated direct to you via email, it’s advisable to check this post daily for any updates.0