Welcome

Welcome to the 2016 season!

This year we have 44 teams in the competition – five fewer than last year. This posed some problems for your committee. With 14 teams in the Ladies’ League we were left with a Division Three of only four teams and a rather thin schedule of matches. Perhaps some additional friendly matches (not counting for points) could be arranged.

We lost five teams in the Mixed Doubles which left us with 13 teams – an awkward number which we decided to divide into two divisions of 6 and 7. We have made a slight relaxation of the rules in the Mixed League to allow for problems arising from the holiday period, but Mixed DivisionTwo this year will have a very full schedule with little time for postponed matches so please be aware of this.

Please familiarise yourself with the new rule – Rule 6.3. In general the tightening up of rules worked well last season with almost all teams keeping to schedule and finishing on time.

Other good news is that LTA (Wales) has paid increasing recognition to the growth of tennis in mid-Wales. Over the last three years Berriew, Montgomery and Newtown have all featured in the short list for national awards and on February 20th this year Martin Ellacott of Newtown won the award in the “Disability Programme” category – congratulations to him.

Junior tennis is also thriving in some clubs and a North Powys Tennis Academy will open In Newtown in early March, with monthly high-level coaching for promising 6-14 year-olds.

This Fixtures Booklet is the eleventh that John Billington has produced and he would now like to hand on the baton to someone else. If you know of anyone willing to take on this role, please let me or John know. Meanwhile we are grateful to John for the work he puts in before the season starts, and also to Ian Kerry for his work in recording results.

And we are grateful to Hanrattys for continuing to sponsor the League and to CellPath for additional support.

Enjoy the season ahead!

Jon Brook