"What’s on" in January 2018
Dear Members,
Welcome to 2018. I hope that you have had enjoyable Christmas and New Year celebrations and can look forward positively to 2018. There are lots of entertaining events happening at BRTC over the next couple of months for us to anticipate.
Visit by HRH Earl of Wessex on Wednesday 21 February 2018
Most importantly, we have a visit by HRH Earl of Wessex, who officially opened the club nearly 20 years ago. He is visiting us in the afternoon of Wednesday 21 February 2018 as the second stop on his 2018 Real Tennis World Tour, when he expects to play on every court in the world, both to raise awareness of real tennis and to raise funds for the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme.
We will host an afternoon of three sets of tennis with the Earl, the first involving young D of E people who have been participating in Chris Harland’s schools’ initiative over the last few months. The second and third sets will feature BRTC members playing with the Earl.
We intend to select the playing members by both raffle and generous donation. Details will be circulated shortly. In the two weeks running up to the visit, we will also be holding a “silent auction” as a fund raiser to assist the Earl’s initiative, details of which will be sent out this Wednesday. The raffle will also feature the chance to win seats in the dedans and galleries to watch the games, with a tea and cake reception, and viewing seats will also be available to purchase as part of the fund raising.
In house play
For members in general, we have the continuation of the league boxes, which got off to a good start in
November. If you would like to play in these boxes, then tell Kevin or Ben please. We also have a medal day and the Ton Up doubles. So get involved if you want some fun tennis.
You will also see from the schedule below that we have only the one inter-club match this month, in contrast to the six in November and one in early December. But we have several junior sessions, as part of Chris Harland’s junior promotion.
December’s social catch ups and other bits of news
We had an enjoyable Christmas drinks evening on Wednesday 6 December. It featured a wonderful
Exhibition doubles match with Reggie Williams, Hamish Dron, Tom Lewis and Ben Coleman, which kept the dedans enthralled. The Chawner Challenge was then played, was good fun, and was won by Bob Stacey.
The Christmas lunch, which was held at The Shakespeare in Redland on Thursday 14 December, was a nice way to round off the real tennis year. Some 24 members enjoyed the occasion.
We replaced the heating boiler in December so that we can be assured of warmth for the club this winter.
Please like and follow our facebook page!
So enjoy your tennis and have a very happy 2018,
Denis