Saturday, May 29, 2004

Annual East Glos Round Robin

The annual East Glos Round Robin is on Sunday 11 July, 10am start. It’s open to non members as well. Entry will be £19 per pair (non members) £15 per pair (members) this includes buffet lunch, balls provided.

For more information and an entry form go to www.eastglos.co.uk/members, scroll down to Tennis then click on “Entry forms”.

Posted at 3:00 PM [link]

Monday, May 24, 2004

New Gloucestershire Tennis League web address

Just a reminder that the Gloucestershire Tennis League has a new address for their web site. You'll find the League site at: www.glostennisleague.info - so don't forget to update your bookmarks. We've finally updated ours!

Posted at 7:49 AM [link]

Monday, May 17, 2004

The Opening of Chipping Campden Tennis Club’s new facilities

On May 8th, after three and a half years of hard work raising funds, Chipping Campden Tennis Club opened it’s new facilities. The opening was performed by Ann Jones, the Ladies Singles Wimbledon Winner of 1969 and the Club Chairman, Mr James Jepson. The funding for the new facilities was supported by club members, Cotswold District Council, Sports England and The LTA. The Club was founded in 1952 and was the GLTA’s Club Of The Year in 2001. It’s open to all, irrespective of sex, age, ability or background.
For more information about the club, including full contact information, have a look at the Club’s information page here at t-g.

Posted at 9:12 PM [link]

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Three top Tennis sites

Here are three of the best tennis news sites that we’ve found for keeping up to date with what’s happening on the world’s courts. Firstly the BBC’s Tennis pages, always a wealth of up to date information, secondly the Guardian’s tennis web pages with good European coverage, and lastly the Fox Sports web site, giving a useful guide to world tennis events.

Posted at 10:08 PM [link]

Tom Elgood interviews new East Glos performance coach Peter Creffield

With East Glos appointing a new coaching ace, an even brighter future is on the cards for Gloucestershire’s tennis juniors. The arrival of Peter Creffield comes as a real boost to the junior performance programme, after our county’s junior successes last month in the Cheltenham Junior Tennis Open. Whereas the development coaches work to improve beginners and intermediates, Peter will be dealing with advanced players. He explained: “My idea of a performance coach is having the ability to improve players’ games at performance level, whether it be technical, tactical, physical or mental.” Until now, it has been Lorraine Ristic, the director of coaching, who has filled this role. But a newborn in Lorraine’s life has required a reshuffle in the coaching pack. East Glos hopes a new team will be forged by the end of Peter’s three-month trial period.
Lorraine and Peter have been friends for a long time, having both played tennis to a high standard. For Peter, this is the key to being a performance coach.
“A pre-requisite of being a performance coach is having been good player. I was county champion four times, won every junior event apart from the 12’s and was West Midlands champion,” he said. Peter, 32, comes from Shropshire and has known Lorraine and the East Glos Club for many years. In 1992, Peter played a memorable match against the Gloucestershire champion at East Glos Club. He said. “Thirteen years ago I played Glen Taylor and lost 9-7 in the tie break of the third set. It was a match I will never forget”.
When reflecting on his playing career, he said: “If I knew when I was 18 what I know now I would have been great.” Peter now hopes to share his knowledge of the game to the juniors of East Glos. He said: “I want the junior performance programme to continue being successful and build on that.” Peter fancied a change and a new set of challenges after his three and a half years as Assistant Head Coach at Westside LTC, Wimbledon. Interestingly, Peter said he has only ever had 10 tennis lessons in his life. Nevertheless, he is poised to collect his Performance Coach Award (PCA), having already collected the Development Club Award (DCA) and the Club Coach Award (CCA).
When asked what it takes to be a performance coach, he said: “You can learn up to 70% but asking questions help you get the final 30%. I have the ability to get down to the nitty gritty quickly, find out what’s wrong and put it right.” Peter’s favourite player is Andre Agassi, but he still feels he could improve his game. “All I would do is help him practise his volleys for five minutes a day”, he said with a wry smile.
Like all top coaches, though, Peter remains open minded to learning new aspects of the game. He explained the last time he learned something major in the game: “Six or seven months ago I noticed the timing of the shot on the forehand. If you hit the ball on the top of the bounce you can be more pro-active, making it easier to get into the net rather than grinding the rally out. It means less time for your opponent, more power and less effort. This is why Tim Henman’s so good.”
Peter’s ultimate aim is to coach world-class players. If everything goes to plan, these players may have started their careers at the East Glos Club.

Posted at 9:56 PM [link]

Wednesday, May 05, 2004

The National Wheelchair Tennis Championships 2004

The National Wheelchair Tennis Championships took place at Oxstalls Tennis Centre over the weekend. The top seed Jayant Mistry, who has a world ranking of 9, won his 11th National Singles title. Gloucestershire had local sucess with Trevor Mayo who won the Novice Division Singles, after having only been playing the sport for 11 months.
If you'd like to know more about this event and Wheelchair Tennis in general, try the following links:
www.britishtennisfoundation.org.uk
www.sportfocus.com
www.bwsf.org.uk

Posted at 10:24 PM [link]