Last Saturday a surprise presentation was made to Ben Cunningham (15). He has been awarded the Albany Junior Silver Shield for services to the club, on and off court. All who attend Mini Tennis on Saturdays at 1pm , 2pm and 3pm sessions will know Ben as the assistant to Martin Feely. He turns up every week, takes the register, does the warm up drills and generally helps all the young players to enjoy their sessions. He is a coach in the making and when he is old enough I feel sure he will be encouraged to gain a Level I qualification. I had the pleasure of making the presentation to Ben. The shield was donated by me and Bryan in 1986 and has some very well known Island players names on it, ie Karen Faragher, Jane Miller, Gary Brooks, Alison Brown, Karl Moore, Jane Travers, Emma McDonald, John Barradell, Ryan Chinn, Laura Feely, Marc Chinn, Catherine Breed, Sean Drewry and others.
The club has been successful in tendering for the IOMLTA Senior and Veteran Closed Championships for 2014. It is hoped the entry will be even better than this year as playing in the championships on your own courts must be an advantage. The committee will endeavour to have a full refreshment service throughout each week – the vets is 2 – 10 May and the seniors 13 - 21 June.
The committee now has a list and 6 monthly charts of all club events up to December 2014 available to members. Hopefully members won’t be going on holiday when these events will be on. E-mail – albanytennispr@manx.net if you want a copy.
Support for the Night at the Races (29 November) is slowly coming in. If members are unable to attend perhaps they would like to make a small donation or give a raffle prize.
This year the Sponsors Lunch will be held on Wednesday 4 December – invites are being sent out to the club sponsors, Life members, V Presidents and the press. This is the club’s official way of saying thank you for all the support we receive. Without it and the voluntary work done by the committee and some members the fees would have to be higher to maintain and run the club. It’s a big commitment just to “tick over”. Most sports will agree that it would be difficult to function without sponsors.
