Chairman’s Remarks at the beginning of our 58th Season
The 2017/18 WINTER LEAGUE had 12 entries with 2 divisions of 6 teams. This went smoothly before Christmas but has been interrupted since by two bouts of snow and has not yet finished. Division 1 will be won by either Chippenham A or Trowbridge A and Division 2 has been won by Frome with Malmesbury or Trowbridge B second.
The 2017 AWARDS included Archie Hughes fro Urchfont as Junior Player of the Year, Henry King as Rep of the Year and the Millenium Shield was awarded to Hans Monahan for setting up and running a revitalised John Ford Memorial Tournament, and were made at the Annual Presentation Evening Dinner on Friday 6th October at The Glasshouse Restaurant at Wadswick Green, hosted by the Biddestone Club – another enjoyable and successful event.The 2018 ANNUAL PRESENTATION EVENING DINNER will be hosted by Seend at the Seend Community Centre and we are looking at dates end Sept/into October, possibly on a Saturday..
Entry fees to Winter League and Knockout events remain free and £5 per team for the Summer League – our League finances are still in healthy condition and we are grateful for the continuing
sponsorship of KAVANAGHS, ESTATE AGENTS of TROWBRIDGE & MELKSHAM, now in its 7th year.
The JOHN FORD MEMORIAL TOURNAMENT did not materialise in 2016 on the courts of Warminster School, thereby bringing to an end the long run of charity tournaments supporting RNLI and organised by Colin Singer of Wylye Club. However the JFMT was revived on 13th August 2017 at Devizes in a different format with 8 mixed couples playing two round robins – the Final being a very close match in which winners Karen Perrett & Simeon Holmes (Devizes) came from behind to pip Ginny Dalyrimple & Keith Wright on the post in a tie-break. We made a £190 donation to Wiltshire Air Ambulance towards its new HQ due to be opened at Semington in 2018.
This year 2018, we are looking at continuing the JFMT in early September at Devizes, avoiding Chippenham's Charity Tournament on September 16th.
CHIPPENHAM & DISTRICT TENNIS LEAGUE