Blog Posts

AUGUST NEWSLETTER

17/8/2017

I hope everyone enjoyed their summer holidays and managed to find some time to play a bit of tennis. We’ve certainly had some very good competitive play over the summer, especially on Thursday evenings with the older junior players, making the most of the long hours of daylight.

Quite a few members have been extremely busy over the summer and merit a mention in dispatches. Firstly, Jodie Horsburgh who not only passed her Level 1 Coaching Assistant qualification, but also represented Fife in playing tennis at the Fife Olympiad in Germany, coming away with a Bronze medal in the U18 Girls Singles competition; she also reached the final of the Mixed Doubles competition at the Aberdour Open, narrowly being beaten by Nicol Brennan and his partner in the final.

Secondly, well done to Kerry Horsburgh, Anne Wallace, Gillian Brennan and Louise Penman for representing Kinghorn in the Ladies Vets competition at the Aberdour Open, especially Kerry and Anne who reached the semi-final stage. And lastly, another congratulations to Kerry for winning the recent Thirty30 tournament for the ladies, and our President for winning the mens Thirty30 title. Well done to all of them!

There are a couple of reminders worth noting.

Firstly, the Vets League starts on Sunday 20th August, so there will be no Sunday morning social tennis for the next 4 or 5 weeks. The League play commences at 10am so the courts will be available before that if anyone fancies an early start. I would point out that the League matches can be subject to change/cancellation, so please keep an eye on the noticeboard in the Clubhouse and/or the calendar on the website for any late changes. Secondly, the junior/senior coaching recommences on Sunday 20th August, from 1 – 6pm; if you still have coaching monies to pay please make payment to Gillian, before Sunday if at all possible.

Our competitions calendar continues to progress, with the Open Singles now down to the semi-finals stage (John vs Ewen and Henry vs Robert). The remaining competition dates for the diary are as follows:

Ladies Singles – Saturday 2nd September (see Katie for further info)
Senior + Junior Doubles – Saturday 9th September (invitation only – see Gillian for further info)
Mixed Doubles – Sunday 8th October (further details to follow)

And finally, we still have a number of club dampeners, mugs, caps, visors and children’s t-shirts available to buy. Please see a Committee member if you are interested in purchasing any of these.
John Brennan - Club President

JUNE ROUND-UP

29/6/2017

25th June 2017
I’m always quite relieved when June draws to a close, as it’s such a busy month in our tennis calendar. Not only that, it also marks the start of the summer holidays so time for a bit of a break and putting the feet up to watch Wimbledon. So what have we been up to in June?

On Friday 16th June we hosted an evening friendly match against Dalgety Bay. The weather was cool and cloudy, good conditions for playing tennis, and Kinghorn got off to a flying start and being well ahead after the initial 10 games. But a bit like the Scotland football team we couldn’t hang on to the lead and a strong finish by Dalgety Bay resulted in a win for them by 55 games to our 54. It was the closest match we’ve had with them, but how we grasped defeat from the jaws of victory I’m not quite sure. But thankfully winning wasn’t our priority – having fun, creating new and maintaining old friendships, and playing in a spirit of fairness and sportsmanship were much more important – all of which I think we excelled at. We finished the evening off with supper and refreshments in the clubhouse, which was a great way to end a great evening.

On Saturday 17th June it was the juniors turn to compete, when we held our Junior Singles tournament. Seven juniors played in scorching hot conditions, watched by many more parents and members. As the thermometer went over 25 degrees we got the BBQ going and handed out iced lollies to keep everyone cool. There were lots of hard-hitting rallies in the round robin stage, with Louis Crickmar playing Ian McWhinnie, and Oliver Paton playing Connor Thow in the semi-finals. Louis and Connor won through and played a close final, with Louis running out 3-2 winner and taking the Junior Singles Champion’s title for 2017.

On Saturday 24th June we participated in the Great British Tennis Weekend, an LTA initiative to introduce more people to playing tennis, and followed that up with our 90th birthday / family fun day celebrations. I’d be guessing at how many people we had attending over the course of the afternoon, but it was certainly the biggest crowd I think we’ve ever had at Kinghorn Tennis Club. There are too many people to thank in terms of supporting the event, but congratulations to Elliot Bennett for guessing the number of sweets in the jar (312 by the way!) and well done Julia Bennett for sharing the jar’s contents with everyone there. Congratulations also to Cameron Ives for winning the Tennis Wordsearch and to Alan and Calum Donaldson for winning the afternoon’s mini-red tournament.

Also on the 24th, four of our younger junior members represented the Club at an inter-club mini-red tournament being held at Kirkcaldy Tennis Club – so congratulations and very well done to Harry Mason, Jack Small, Sarah Purcell and Ava Mooney for taking up the challenge and proudly representing Kinghorn Tennis Club. Club Coach Nicol managed to get to Kirkcaldy in time to see the prize-giving and saw how much the kids enjoyed the experience, so hopefully it will give them and others the confidence to go on and participate in more competitions in the future

And on Sunday 25th June we held the last of the coaching sessions before the summer break. The standard of play, from the youngest to the oldest, continues to improve week on week, as evidenced by the hard-hitting rallies in the Junior Singles competition and the steady improvement we have seen from the new adult members who only joined the club last year.

Perhaps after reading this you will realise why I’m quite glad to have got through June – a very busy month indeed. But as the saying goes, there’s no rest for the wicked, as now our thoughts turn to the ESLTA Vets Leagues, which start at the beginning of August – “c’mon the ‘horn!” as the saying goes!
John Brennan - Club President

JUNE 2017 NEWSLETTER

3/6/2017

It’s June already and that has prompted me to remind everyone of our 90th birthday celebrations (that’s the Club’s 90th birthday, not any of the members!) on Saturday 24th June, from 2.00 – 5.00pm. We’ll be having a BBQ, stalls, fun-on-the-courts, as well as a big birthday cake to mark the event. So keep your fingers crossed for the weather and bring the family down to the courts for what will hopefully be a sunny and memorable afternoon.
But that’s not all we’re doing on the 24th. From 12.00 to 2.00pm we’ll be holding a ‘Try Tennis For Free’ session as part of the LTA’s Great British Tennis Weekend. This is open to all non-members of all ages and abilities; all they have to do is register online at www.clubspark.lta.org.uk. So if you know anyone that would like to give it a try please let them know about the opportunity.

Our competitions calendar is extremely busy and on Saturday 20th May we played our hotly contested Open Doubles tournament. It hadn’t rained for 6 weeks before that and it certainly made up for it that day, when we played in some of the worst conditions I can remember on the tennis courts. Within half an hour all 12 players were truly soaked and it was only a good spread of cakes and lots of hot coffee that kept us going all afternoon. Ally and John, unbeaten in the round robin stage, were narrowly beaten by Ewen and Katie in the first semi-final, with Robert and Jodie overcoming Henry and Louise in the second semi-final. Despite some valiant play from Katie in the final, which at one stage looked as though it could go either way, Robert Adamson and Jodie Horsburgh ran out winners and took the Open Doubles Championship title for 2017 – a big well done to both of them!

Our Open Singles competition is a bit like the French Open at the moment – most of the first round matches played but still a long way to go. So please get in touch with your opposite number and get those matches played as soon as possible.

I said that I would write to you again once we had agreed dates for the remaining tournaments and I can confirm these as follows:
·         Junior + Senior Doubles – Saturday 9th September
·         Mixed Doubles – Sunday 8th October
·         Ladies Singles – still tbc
Please keep an eye on the noticeboard in the clubhouse for further details of all of these competitions, as well as the East of Scotland League fixtures for the Mens and Ladies Vets (we have not entered a team this year in the Summer Social League).

We have received very positive feedback from the Thursday evening trialling of the older juniors joining in with the senior social tennis and I’m pleased to say that the Committee have agreed to extend the current arrangement for the rest of the season. We also agreed to lay on a further adult coaching block after the summer holidays given the keen interest and positive response to the current block; places will be limited so again please keep an eye on the noticeboard in the clubhouse for further details.

I’m also pleased to say that Jodie Horsburgh is starting her Level 1 Coaching Assistant course this month. This requires her to get some practical experience so if you see someone on-court helping Nicol with the Sunday afternoon coaching that’ll be Jodie.
Hope to see everyone on the 24th for the big birthday celebrations!
John Brennan - Club President

MAY 2017

1/5/2017

It may be early in the season, yet our competitions calendar is well underway. On Easter Sunday we held our inaugural ‘Little n Large’ Mini-Red Doubles competition for younger juniors and one of their parents. We had 5 pairings playing a round robin format, then a semi-final and final. Harry and Brian Mason were unbeaten in their matches leading up to the final, whilst Archie and Ewen Campbell were playing more confidently as the afternoon went on, so it was no surprise to see a keenly contested and close final. The final looked to be going Archie’s way, then Harry started to pull things back, with both boys playing extremely well, especially when rallying with the ‘Large’ element of the opposition. In the end Archie and Ewen ran out victors 15-13, winning the Little n Large trophies, presented in memory of Gillian’s mum, Mrs Aileen Cunningham. A big well done also to the other junior competitors, Sarah, Ava and Oliver who all contributed to a very enjoyable Easter Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday 22nd April the ‘older’ Seniors had their chance to show a competitive streak in the Veterans Singles competition. A couple of late call-offs necessitated Dr Murray giving me the all-clear to participate, so 5 of us set out on a gruelling full-set round robin format, which certainly tested our endurance. Thankfully we were sustained by Gillian’s home baking, and despite trying to handicap Ewen Campbell by feeding him lots of scones, he progressed quite easily into the final. Henry Murray and I shared the spoils on equal points and had to play a tie-break, with Henry marginally winning through with some well-placed lobs. The full-set final between Ewen and Henry was gladiatorial in its long rallies, with Henry taking an early lead and Ewen fighting back but never quite getting ahead. Ewen held on to force a tie-break and after nearly an hour he won through 7-6 (7-5) to retain the Vets Singles trophy for another year. I should also mention Linda Bonnar and Louise Penman who pushed the men very hard during their matches.

And on Saturday passed we held our first social event of the season, a Games Night at the Golf Club, which saw 26 members and friends enjoy a variety of games and quizzes, kindly organised by Katie Hearns. I have no idea how the scoring worked, but at the end of the night the winning team consisted of Gemma and Bradley Thompson, Brian Mason and Stuart Crickmar, so congratulations to them. The raffle raised £75 for club funds, which is an excellent result. Many thanks to Kinghorn Golf Club for allowing us to use their clubhouse for the event.

The draw for the Open Singles competition has been made and is posted on the noticeboard in the clubhouse. Please remember to arrange matches outwith club session times and try and get matches played in line with the published timelines. Any queries regarding this competition, please speak to Henry Murray.
The next big date for the diary is Saturday 24th June, when we will be holding our Great British Tennis Weekend open day (12 – 2pm), followed by our 90th Birthday celebrations from 2.00 – 5.30pm. More on that in due course and fingers crossed for some good weather on the day.
And finally, it’s good to see the adult coaching start up again on a Sunday afternoon. It’s proven to be very popular and if possible we’ll look to continue with another block after the summer holidays. If you are interested please look out for information on the noticeboard in the clubhouse, as places may be at a premium.
See you on court,
John Brennan - Club President

April 2017

2/4/2017

The clocks have changed, we’ve held our AGM and it’s April, all of which herald the start of our tennis playing season – all we need now is some sunny Spring weather to blow away the winter cobwebs and get everyone back on the courts.
At our AGM a few weeks ago we agreed a number of changes to the social tennis arrangements, which are as follows:
·
           Tuesday evenings: 6pm to 9pm – Seniors only.
·         Wednesday evenings: 6pm to 9pm – League Senior players only.
·         Thursday evenings: 6pm to 9pm – Seniors + invited Juniors only.
·         Sunday mornings: 9am to 1.00pm – Seniors only.
There was a request at the AGM to schedule in some group Senior coaching and this has been arranged to align with the next block of Junior coaching, ie a 10-week block commencing 5pm on Sunday 23rd April. If you are interested in participating in the Senior coaching please add your name to the list on the notice board in the clubhouse.
At the AGM we welcomed Ewen Campbell and Katie Hearns onto the Committee, replacing Robert Adamson and Joanna Clark, who after many years of serving on the Committee had decided to stand down. The new Committee held their first meeting last week, with one of the first actions being to set the programme of competitions and events for the first half of the season, which are as follows:
Competitions:
·         ‘Little n Large’ Mini Red Invitation – Sunday 16th April – organiser Gillian Brennan
·         Veterans (40+) Singles – Saturday 22nd April – organiser Ewen Campbell
·         Open Singles – closing dates for entries 30th April – organiser Henry Murray
·         Open Doubles – Saturday 20th May – organiser Katie Hearns
·         Junior Singles – Saturday 17th June – organiser Gillian Brennan
·         The Ladies Singles, Senior + Junior Doubles, and Mixed Doubles competitions will be held after the Summer holidays and dates for these will be confirmed in due course.
Events:
·        Games Night Social – Kinghorn Golf Club – Saturday 29th April
·        90th Birthday Celebrations – at the Clubhouse – Saturday 24th June
Please check the notice board in the clubhouse for details of these competitions/events, especially closing dates for entries/tickets.

Leagues:
At our first Committee Meeting of the year we also discussed entering the East Of Scotland LTA Leagues for Summer Social Mixed Doubles, Vets Mens Doubles and Vets Ladies Doubles. If you are interested in playing in any of these Leagues please add your name to the list in the clubhouse by the end of April.
And I will end this Newsletter with congratulations to Gemma Thompson and Ewen Campbell who won our first competition of the year, the Short Tennis Softball competition held in the Community Centre – no trophy for this one I’m afraid, but no less a worthy victory!
John Brennan - Club President

Soup & Sandwich Lunch

11/2/2017

Fundraiser Soup & Sandwich Lunch - Saturday 11th February 2017

A big thank you to everyone who supported today's lunch, which raised £400 for Club funds. The event was really well attended and there was a great atmosphere both in the dining room and in the sports hall where Nicol and Jodie ran junior coaching/fun games for the kids, which was really well received.

There are lots of people to thank, from those who donated foodstuffs for the lunch and prizes for the raffle, to the Community Centre for giving us access to their facilities, to those who bought tickets and donated so generously, to Nicol and Jodie for delivering a very well organised and fun coaching session. But most of all I would like to thank those who helped in the kitchen and served lunch, namely Gillian, Kerry, Louise, Gemma and Katie from the Club, and our friends Lesley, Jessica and Claire. We couldn't run these events without volunteers so a very big personal 'thank you' for helping out and making the event such a success.

Several people asked what we planned to do with the monies raised. Well, we have a committee meeting at the end of this month where we will consider options for spending the money, so if you have any ideas that you would like us to consider, then please let a committee member know within the next couple of weeks.

John Brennan
Club President.

SOUP & SANDWICH LUNCH

26/1/2017

Saturday 11th February 2017 - 12noon - 2pm Kinghorn Community Centre
Tickets: £4.50 adults / £3.50 children / £15 family ticket (2+2)

Plus short tennis taster sessions for primary school age in the hall from 12.30
with club coach Nicol Brennan.

Tickets available from the Community Centre or committee members. All welcome.

Happy New Year

3/1/2017

A lot of fun had on a cold but sunny morning at the Kinghorn Tennis Club annual silly hat get together. Wishing you all a great 2017 .... may your tennis get even better than 2016!

31st October 2016

30/10/2016

Most will be familiar with the footballing expression ‘they think it’s all over – well it is now!’ and that’s a little bit how I’m feeling now that our competitions calendar has been put to bed, our weekday social tennis is done and dusted, our prize-giving dinner is past and the clocks have changed. As someone said to me recently, time for a bit of a rest!

On the subject of our prize-giving dinner, I want to say thank you to everyone for supporting what turned out to be a really fun evening. The Barn at the Loch was a great venue for the event and special thanks to Sarah and Bruce for setting things out so nicely and making it such a memorable evening. We turned a small profit from the raffle, which will go towards the cost of engraving the trophies. For those that weren’t there, the President’s Awards for 2016 went to the following:
·
           Social Tennis Player of the Year – Lesley Clark
·         LTA League Player of the Year – Kerry Horsburgh
·         Arthur Ashe Player of the Year – Andy Menzies
·         All Round Player of the Year – Louise Penman

This morning we played the last of our inter-club friendlies against Dalgety Bay. It was a beautiful sunny autumn morning and whilst we had good intentions of crushing some dreams, the slippy surface at Dalgety Bay got the better of us in the early matches and whilst we fought hard to recover and got some notable wins later on, Dalgety Bay ran out winners with 81 games to our 59. We had a lovely light lunch afterwards sitting outside in the warm sunshine and enjoying the good company of our friends at Dalgety Bay.

But things are not really all over, as our junior coaching sessions have started again on Sundays, moving indoors to the Community Centre, with our seniors indoor session between 5.00 and 6.00pm on Sundays. If you would like to try indoor tennis at the Community Centre then you need to book a slot in advance; it costs £3 per person based on 4 players and if you are interested please let me know.

We also have a Committee Meeting scheduled for 10th November, where we shall be reviewing how we delivered on our plans for 2016 and also discussing how we rise to the challenges ahead for 2017. As I mentioned in my address at the prize-giving dinner, this will include considering options for accommodating both social and competition tennis for all levels of players, so if you have any thoughts or views on that subject then feel free to drop me a line or else please discuss them with a committee member in advance of the meeting.

Our social tennis on a Sunday morning is open to all seniors from 10am over the winter months, subject to the courts being playable. Frost and ice do make the courts unplayable so please take care to inspect the courts for suitability before playing. Also note that the water will be turned off in the clubhouse from next week and so the toilets will be out of use until the spring.
John Brennan - Club President

Newsletter June 2016

26/6/2016

25th June 2016

It’s been a very busy period down at the courts and with the summer holidays looming I thought I’d better update everyone on what’s been happening.
Today’s Family Fun Day & BBQ was blessed with warm sunshine despite rain clouds all around us. It’s always a challenge organising an outside event in Scotland but we seem to have been very lucky over the last few weeks with our tennis planning. Parents and kids alike made the most of the fun on the courts and enjoyed the burgers, cake and candy that was on offer; not to mention the face painting kindly done by Joanne Wibberley. Thanks to your generosity, a kind donation and the support of Andrew Kirk Butchers we managed to cover our costs, which is good news as it allows us to reinvest in the Club and encourages those of us on the Committee to continue holding events like this. We also showcased our new Club caps, which seemed to be well received. These come in two shades of green and cost £8 or £9 depending on which one you choose. We have a number of both caps available to buy so please see Gillian if you would like one.
On Friday evening we hosted Dalgety Bay Tennis Club for the home leg of our annual friendly mixed doubles match. Again, the rain clouds were threatening but thankfully passed over Kinghorn and we enjoyed a lovely calm evening in which to play tennis. The competition was fierce with Dalgety Bay going into an early lead, but we finished strongly and in the end it was very close in terms of the score. Dalgety Bay won 59 – 57, which is one of the closest results we have had in the 6 years we have been playing this match. We then enjoyed a very pleasant supper and reflected over a glass of wine on how the match had gone and the special camaraderie the two Clubs have developed over the last 6 years.
Last weekend we played our Senior + Junior Doubles tournament in warm sunshine – again, perfect conditions for tennis. And the conditions certainly brought out the best in terms of the quality of play, especially from the 8 junior players who took part. We played in two groups, with the top 2 pairings in each group playing a semi-final and then a single set final. John Brennan and Andre Schaal topped Group A, but were narrowly beaten 5-4 by Jodie Horsburgh and Dylan Small in the first semi-final, whilst Joanna Clark and Dylan Roberts topped Group B and also ran out winners in the 2nd semi-final against Gillian Brennan and Louie Crickmar. There was quite a crowd watching a thrilling final and the spectators were treated to an exciting 6-4 victory for Jodie Horsburgh and Dylan Small – well done to them and thanks to everyone who took part.
Some weeks before we played our Open Doubles competition, which is always hugely competitive and this year was no exception. Congratulations to Kerry Horsburgh and Henry Murray who ran out worthy winners on the day.
Finally, I hope you all enjoy the Summer holidays and fingers crossed for the weather!

John Brennan - Club President