Tennis chairman pays tribute to staff at Chesterfield Lawn Tennis Club

Members and non-members have been taking to the courts in good numbers since the Hawksley Avenue club was allowed to reopen their doors.

And Tori Head, club chairman, believes her team deserve full credit for making their re-opening a success story.

“We had a good plan in place during lockdown to anticipate what the government was likely to say,” she said.

“We worked hard with our coaching team of Charlie Pick and Jonny Brook, our centre manager Louise Shipstone and the committee to make sure we had plans in place for a variety of scenarios.

“Since coming back we have maintained social distancing and have had a massive increase in paying non-members, which has been good for the club with the coaching income being hit.

“We are treading water compared to what we would normally do and essentially we are keeping the show on the road.

“We have had really good feedback and it is nice to see people playing again.”

The club, which has three indoor tarmac courts, three outdoor artificial turf grass courts and four outdoor tarmac courts, have also been able to resume their indoor coaching programme.

It is a highly popular programme with club coach Charlie Pick recently being named Development Coach of the Year for the Midlands region by the LTA.

And for Tori it is a massive step in the right direction with around 350 kids usually taking part in the programme.

“The coaching programme has won a lot of plaudits and it is a huge part of the club,” added Tori.

“It is bringing through the next generation of players and that iis very much what we are all about.

“The success we have is thanks to Charlie, who drives it forward and the other two coaches, Jonny and Andy (Bell).

“Jonny is also very good on IT and social media. They have set up their own app which helps members to play tournaments and engage with other members.

“It is a very different beast these days and a lot of the success is thanks to our crack team.

“The whole club would be nothing without the coaches and members. We have got a really good engaged set-up at the moment.”

The club are also planning on holding weekly summer camps for kids across Chesterfield in the weeks ahead.

The outdoor tarmac courts have also been repainted and a grant application has been made to improve floodlighting at the club

But it is very much a case of a cautious return to a new normality with Tori and her team eager to get any changes right.

“We have accepted each change and moved on to it,” she added. “We have been slow to move some things on on purpose because we think if we rush we will most likely end up with a problem.

“We have got good contract tracing set up thanks to the booking system and social distancing guidelines are being well observed.

“Everyone is just really pleased to be back and I think things will continue like that over the next 12 months. I can’t see it changing until there is a vaccine.

“It will be more like normal, but a new normal.”

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