Crosshills Tennis Club

Courts 1 and 3 should now be booked online from here (or follow the link on our home page).  This link will lead to the “Timify” booking site for Crosshills Tennis Club.

From there:

– Click “Book appointment now”.

– Click “Tennis match” (the only option available).

– On the next screen:   – Choose your date from the selection box at the top.

   – The middle section on choosing a court is OPTIONAL. Ignore this section to see ALL available time slots on both courts.

  – The bottom section will list all available court times

– select one to continue. 

On the next screen:  – Click an account (eg Facebook) or continue with “Guest Booking”.

On the next screen:  – Fill in the required fields (name, email, phone) and ensure the “Agree to terms and conditions” is checked (sigh!) 

– Click “Save and continue”

On the summary screen that follows, click “Confirm booking”.

That’s it. You will be given the option to save this directly to your online calendar – but this can be ignored. Finally, you will shortly receive an email confirming your booking details (including court no).

Thanks Brian Shears for a superb job done. Please get in touch if you have any difficulties with this.

Enjoy your tennis.

The government rules for exercise have been adapted and it means some tennis is now allowed. It has been announced that “the use of outdoor sports courts such as tennis – with members of your household or one other person while staying 2 metres apart” is permitted from Wednesday 13th May.

The officers of the club have agreed that tennis at Cross Hills can recommence within the following strict guidelines.

Play is permitted with club members of your own household or with one other paid up club member on courts 1 and 3. (The net of court 2 will be lowered to enable physical distancing to be maintained).

Courts can be booked to play for a period of 50 minutes from a time on the hour until 10 to the following hour. This enables a safe transfer period between court users. If you do meet other members as you arrive or leave, please keep a two metre distance. Initially, please use the social tennis WhatsApp to state when you will be using the courts so as to avoid duplication of times. If you are not a member of the group, please contact me (Jonathan) and I will add you to the group. If you do not have my number you can send a message through the website or e mail the secretary. Please now only use this group for saying you are booking a court. Remember you can leave the group or mute notifications so you can edit the time you receive messages – ask if you are unsure on this. We are looking into the possibility of setting up a booking system which would be accessed through the website.

The clubhouse will remain out of bounds for the present. As a result a new numbered padlock will be used to keep the courts secure. Members who have paid their subscription will be e mailed this number as soon as it is in place.

In addition, the ball machine will remain out of use.

Hygiene is of the upmost importance. We are very grateful to Diane and Glenn Frost who have volunteered to organise and maintain a box for each usable court to be supplied with sanitiser/cleaning materials/marker pens etc. These will be in place by the weekend. Before and after play, please ensure you properly wipe down the net winder and the net measurer (which should be returned to the middle court where it can be safely accessed). In addition please take responsibility for cleaning the padlock and the latch on the entrance gate as you leave – take a cleaning cloth away with you.

It is requested that members if at all possible can provide their own balls and mark them with the pen so they don’t get mixed up with those of others. If you are unable to provide your own balls, there will be a limited number available in each box. If you take a set of balls, please keep them for future use and let me know so numbers can be monitored.

Please also take any rubbish away with you rather than use the club bins.

I’m sure you agree that as a club we wish to enable people to play tennis but in as safe a setting as possible. Please respect these non-negotiable procedures and be vigilant that others do the same. Do contact the secretary of the club if you think any issues with regard the safety of members arises. Please remember not to attend the club if you or anyone in your household are displaying any potential coronavirus symptoms.

Let’s see how this goes and be assured we will continuously review and reflect upon any changes to legislation. Enjoy your tennis and I hope to soon once I sort this bloomin’ knee out. I’ll be taking on an 82 year old until it heals.

No doubt we are all wondering if tennis in some form is permitted from Wednesday as hinted by Boris Johnson last night. The officers of the club will be communicating this evening (Monday) to discuss possibilities based on any clarification presented by the government and the LTA through the day. When a clear plan is formed, information will be posted here on the news page.

Excellent. Great to see you here. So you’re either reading this because you already follow the news page or you’ve followed the link from the e mail forwarded by Pam Emsley our secretary. Who knows, you may even be a potential new member as you search the web for local clubs. You’d be most welcome.

So yes, thanks to Brian Shears, this website is becoming more user friendly and it would be great to use it more to promote the club’s activities amongst members, the community and beyond. As a result, if you wish to keep up to date with posts and add your comments please hit the follow button and follow the relevant instructions. I say that with such confidence; if you have any snags, hiccups or confusions with that, please get in touch and we’ll try and work out why. It’s all new learning.

Eventually, it would be good to post current league positions for all our teams as well as photos and yes…maybe the odd song. Odd being the word. Go on, have another listen to No Tennis Ball Blues and massage my ego. Is it too obvious a pun to say all current league teams are unbeaten? (I’d insert an emoji here but can’t find where they might be).

On league news, nothing new with regard Bradford District or Friendly Leagues (see April newsletter) but the Wharfedale league has reduced to half a season, scheduled to start on 13th July. We will be updated as a club on 30th June if this is to change.

Times are frustrating but many are believing there is some hope for some sort of play in the coming weeks. As a club, we continue to follow http://lta.org.uk guidelines and are keeping a close eye on developments. At the time of writing, there is no change but thoughts and ideas are being processed. I am in communication with Gavin Sutcliffe who is the Lead Team Activator for the LTA in the Leeds area, the officers of the club and with Jamie our coach.

Thank you to all club members who have renewed their membership and have paid this year’s subscriptions. This is very much appreciated to help keep the club in a healthy financial position. Thank you also for communicating with Chris Glenn, our membership secretary, that you agree to the club’s GDPR policy. If anyone is still to renew their membership, could you at minimum contact Chris to say that you agree to the club’s GDPR policy and we can maintain all current members in our records.

The officers of the club are currently looking into possible grants which have been made available at this time; more about this at a later date. As a full committee, we will review the impact of the pandemic before deciding on subscriptions for the 2021/22 season. Also, we are very lucky in having Joel Griffiths as our treasurer as he continues to keep a well organised and firm hold over financial matters.

Moving on, we expect the planned court repainting will go ahead at some time in the near future and hopefully with as little impact on playing as possible. Again, thanks to Glenn Frost who is co-ordinating this.

Keep up the creative and original ways of staying fit so you’re ready to get that racket back in hand. I find myself bouncing a ball a lot. Take care and stay safe.

See you on court

Jon(athan)

(Chairman)

Hi All
April come she will…and so she has.  But definitely not in a way any of us would have hoped for. When I became chairman and gave myself the challenge of a monthly newsletter I didn’t expect to be in quite this position.
For this month, I was hoping to share with you our captains’ pre season meeting.  No can do.  Bradford and district league postponed until the half way stage which is 27th June and to be reviewed in time for that.  Wharfedale league Molly Fawcett knock out cup cancelled, (yes cancelled so another season unbeaten in that then for the first team) and league definitely delayed until 11th May but reviewed on 31st April – as it says on their website.  I don’t intend to be having a 31st April and hope to get straight into May after the 30th if everyone else okay with that.  Bradford friendly league – season curtailed but hoping to run the second half of the season from 13th July.
Also hoping to share how fantastic the courts are looking after their power wash and repaint but again…nope!  A date to rearrange when things get back to an impression of normal. 
So tennis life as we know it on hold but the club certainly not which brings me to a couple of points.
First is subscriptions.  The four officers of the club (not horsemen of the apocalypse) have thought long and hard about this including some financial sums done by our treasurer Joel Griffiths to see what the club needs to stay afloat.  We feel it is best for the club if we can ask all members still to pay their subscription for 2020/21 by the end of April by bank transfer as already requested and to inform Chris Glen our membership secretary of any changes to last year’s details – do refer to her e mail.  When we are fully aware of how much playing time is lost, the committee will then take this into consideration for the membership subscription costs for 2021/22 for those members of 2020/21 who paid in full.  Having said this, if anybody has been financially affected by the coronavirus pandemic through serious lack of earnings and believes that this is not possible, please do not feel you cannot be a member of Cross Hills Tennis Club.  Get in touch with Pam Emsley, our secretary and we can come to some arrangement,  For the future of the club, we have a duty to keep it in a healthy financial state (or a financially healthy state) which includes maintaining our facilities to a high standard.
Second is the social tennis WhatsApp group, formally known as winter tennis.  Stating the obvious for the moment is that the tennis part is a bit redundant though the social aspect certainly isn’t.  I’m tempted to go into some of the revelations that have come through but I’ll hold back.  Anybody managed to get all 60 of those film emojis?  Each member now may have differing views for being a part of this – everybody’s situation is different.  If you feel you do not wish to be a part of the group for the time being, do not feel obliged to stay. You can leave the group by clicking on the green header then scroll to the bottom of the page and press ‘exit group’.  When the tennis does eventually resume, you can return by letting me know again.  If anyone else would like to join the group and keep in touch with other members just send me a text.
Whatever you’re doing to fill the time and keep fit, I hope those who live with others are not driving each other up the wall and those who are on their own are not starting to name their house plants etc.  {Good to see Robin, Rebecca and Roddy rhubarb shooting through in my back garden.}  For those with young families (in real terms or young at heart) the LTA website has a number of activities you can be doing to keep the tennis skills sharp.  Alternatively you can click on the song I’ve attached, learn it and sing and dance along.  
Take care everyone and don’t hesitate to contact another club member for any help, support or just a plain natter.  Just think how great our first time back on the court will be in that wind and rain.
Keep practising your ball toss.  See you eventually on court.
Best wishes
Jonathan, Jon, Jonners, JC, Heather (nobody has asked about that) and now possibly Stephen – if you open up the mp3 as that’s my first name and what I’m registered with apple as.

Here I go with my first efforts on the Cross Hills Tennis Club website. Big thanks to Brian Shears for setting this up and getting one or two of us going. More to come soon.

Jonathan – your new fresh faced, relatively young, startled and slightly apprehensive new Chairman. Huge thanks to Glenn Frost who is handing over a club in excellent shape thanks to his brilliant leadership for the last 14 years and to the committee and other members for their support and belief in me as we move on forward. The only way forward is forward and over the net.

From Glenn…

Please note we now have coaching avails from Kinetic Tennis.

After a prolonged campaign by Glenn and his team with the local planning authority, we finally got permission to erect court floodlights. These have now been successfully installed – Hooray!

Picture below is taken on the recent “Grand switch-on”  – wine flowed, tennis attempted.