Chairman’s Remarks for our 61st Season updated 12 April 2021
After over 10 years of generous sponsorship by Messrs Kavanaghs, Residential & Commercial Estate Agents of Melksham & Trowbridge, through Frome player and Partner, Henry King, this has come to a natural end and for the moment the League's finances are in order and this may not be the best time to seek a replacement sponsor, as the country recovers economic stability. Team entries remain at £5 per team and the £3 cap still applies to the League's contributions towards the match fees of Juniors. Eddy assures me that the League website is up to date. Devizes club has again offered to stage the John Ford Memorial Tournament sometime in August and Lansdown club plan to hold the Annual Presentation Dinner Evening at a date to be arranged at the end of the season.
Eddy has reminded us all that we should observe the ongoing Covid-19 restrictions of the LTA &
HM Government, available online. Our League Rule 20 now states that no post-match refreshments are to be provided during the 2021 season; Rule 22 allows Covid-19-related reasons for fixture postponements to be considered “exceptional”; Rule 37 limits players once tied to the number of matches of their tied team, i.e.14/12/10 for the league divisions of 8/7/6 teams (as above).
Sadly we lost Derek Rowell to a massive stroke over Christmas 2020 (he had played for various teams over the years) and Doug Law of Chippenham Park and formerly of Westinghouse has recently died aged 91. As tennis gets going again, several clubs in Wiltshire are advertising for professional coaches and we hope that both club and league tennis make good recoveries from the pandemic. I have just restarted, although creaking a little at 81+, and look forward to seeing some of you during the forthcoming summer season.
Mike Powell
Chairman
April 2021
CHIPPENHAM & DISTRICT TENNIS LEAGUE