Hello!

Seems as if my gloom and doom over the weather and the end of summer was a little premature. What a fabulous start to September. I am sorry for the children and juniors who have returned to school and college but at least this weekend is looking good! A perfect opportunity to work on your Frin-tan! We all know our Club becomes even more vibrant when the sun shines… so do make the best use of it. Please book your courts and pop down to visit!

We have had a busy time over the past few weeks and some super events are on the way too. Here’s this week’s news.

Club Championship Finals 2023

A great day, with great atmosphere, the sun was shining and our Club was buzzing. We saw some amazing tennis finals played with some exceptionally talented players on court. A real feast for our spectators too. A fabulous culmination to our summer season and thanks to all who entered the competition way back at the beginning of summer, congratulations to all our finalists and especially to all our winners too. What a day!

All the finals were amazing and I cannot write up everything here. However a few highlights including our coaches Pete and Louis won a hard fought men’s doubles final over Elliot Ball and Mark Grover. Shiho Main put up a great fight against our very own marketing manager, Katerina Novotna, who became our eventual ladies singles winner. Bravo Kat! Marcus Eatherton retained his Men’s open singles against Louis Parker. And we all lost count of how many trophies the Youngs took home! Of course there were many winners and successful court battles …… Congratulations to all our finalists and ALL our winners.

Sunday Lunch | 10th Sep

We are nearly at full capacity for this Sunday’s Roast Lunch. Lunches are served to your table and have become very popular and return again for the Autumn. There are a few tables available but please BOOK NOW. You have until midnight on Friday to reserve your spaces.

Our Chef will be serving:

28 Day Dry Aged Roast Rump of Beef, Roast Filet of Pork Belly, Baked Cod Gratin and Somerset Brie and Leek Wellington. Please click HERE for our menu or to book. 

Don’t fret if you are away this weekend, our next Sunday Roast lunch will be on Sunday 24th September and you can see the menu and book your table HERE.

Saturday Swimming for Children… hurrayyyyyy! 

We said the swimming pool had closed for the summer season for juniors. But when the weather is THIS good, you’d expect us to make special arrangements, right? Of course we would and as it looks like the hot spell will continue with a forecast 26C on Saturday, our Club will be the place to be! Our swimming pool and Poolside Kitchen will be open. Our swimming slots are getting booked up really fast, so please book your slot now to avoid disappointment. This will be our last swimming day for children, so please come along and enjoy the sunshine! We have some special arrangements in place for this weekend and waivers to sign. All the details are on the website.

Colchester and District League Finals | Saturday 9th September 

More amazing tennis to watch? Yes please! The Club will be buzzing this weekend. Please come down and support players from our Club who have made the finals for this year’s competition:  Soozi Moffat, Fenella Pearey, Julie Hamlet, Natalie Grover, David Binns, Colin Minter and Anne Cosby are all playing this weekend. Somehow Kat is representing David Lloyd – and she’ll be playing too! The Poolside Kitchen will be open, the sun will be out – what more does one need? Updated order of play HERE.

Team League 2023

Well done to all our teams and players, thank you for your time and dedication this year… we saw some great matches and we are very proud of what has been achieved this season. Great results from Ladies’ A who won the premier division. The Men’s A team finished third in the Premier Division. Congratulations to the Men’s C, Ladies’ B and Mixed C teams who are all going up next year. Once again, well done to everyone! A fantastic season with some excellent results for our Club’s teams. All the results can be viewed HERE. 

In other results, some were good and some less good. But here we go. The Men’s B were relegated to div 1, the Men’s C promoted to div 3, Men’s D finished 3rd in div 4 and Men’s E finished 6th out of 7th in div 5. Got all of that? 

The Ladies B were promoted to div 1, Ladies C finished 3rd in div 4 and sadly the Ladies D team struggled to get a team out regularly, so remain in the bottom division. 

Mixed Team A were 2nd in premier div, The Mixed B’s relegated from premier to div 1, Mixed C promoted to div 2, whilst the Mixed D finished 2nd in div 5. However the Mixed E struggled with teams and finished bottom.

 Frinton Squash Club Championships

Calling all the squash players! Sign-up sheets are now up, so please join in the fun and try to beat Jack! Please enter your name by 22nd October and our finals will be played on Sunday 12th November.

We have some great Club players, so we are sure we have some superb competition to look forward to.

Squash Coaching

New to squash, brushing up on your skills and just wanting to improve your game? We have plenty of Squash coaching sessions available – from Kids’ drop-in sessions, racket ball to one-to-one coaching with Chris. Please click HERE to see all the info. 

Children Activities | Tennis & Squash

Racket sports are great for your juniors because they can improve their coordination, muscle strength, hand-eye coordination, concentration and agility. We can provide a weather-proof environment for fitness and fun. Our clubs will help your children to make new friends, or to compete at local, regional or even national level ( we have some brilliant coaches!) . Please click HERE for more info.

Walking Tennis 

Walking tennis is a fun variation on tennis that anyone can enjoy – including older players and players with limited mobility. It’s becoming very popular and NeetAcademy has made sure we can provide these fun sessions at our Club. Please click HERE for more info or to sign up. Our sessions are on Fridays at 11:30am.

Croquet – First ‘Women’s Weekend’ with Champions | 7th & 8th October

The weekend will kick off on the Saturday with the Women Frinton Croquet team enjoying a friendly tournament then the day progresses to the invited Ladies Champions giving a sporting display and showing their skills. The next day will be a Sunday lunch including a Q&A with our special Champion guests. And trophy presentation. Spectators are welcome and non-members are welcome to enjoy watching some exciting Croquet match and tasty Roast Sunday lunch.

Saturday 7th October
10 am • Warm up
11am to 1pm • The Champions arrive
Women Club Members Tournament
1pm to 2pm • Informal Lunch in Gazebo next to the Croquet Pavilion
2pm to 4pm • Champions’ Exhibition Match
4pm • Drinks and Social at the Gazebo weather permitting or Members Bar in the Club House. Other Women Tennis Club members to be invited to join e.g. the gym group.

Sunday 8th October

10am • Champions’ Tips and Exhibition Match

12.30 for 1 pm • Sunday Lunch with the Champions
followed by a Q&A and Trophy presentation

Gym | Classes

Our gym and fitness classes have become really busy – so you’ll definitely need to book. Katy and her team are always on hand to advise what’s right for you and if you’re keen but a class is full, do give your name to Katy and she’ll make sure that should a spot crop up, you’ll be informed. And there’s always our lovely gym and equipment to use too. It’s easy to join up and there are a range of Membership options, all details are on the website or via the office. 

Christmas | Parties and Sunday Lunch

Our Festive party evenings are already getting booked up. We have some cracking menus, our fabulous DJ and the Club will be the place to be to celebrate the festive season. If you’d like to take a table or join with friends, do book now to avoid disappointment. All the dates, details, menus and how to book can be found HERE.

Frinton Jazz Club | Sunday 15th October

Our amazing musicians return to our Club as hosted by Derek Nash. These events do regularly sell out – Do secure your tickets for “Shades of Miles” – with Paul Higgs presenting a fabulous programme of the music of the Trumpet genius, Miles Davis. Don’t miss out and book your tickets HERE.

Frinton Literary Festival | 25th – 29th October

It’s time to look forward to the Frinton Literary Festival in October and the opportunity to celebrate books, reading and great writing.  There is still availability for the following events

Thursday 26 October – Crime and Wine with Nick Herron, bestselling author of the Slough House Novels.

Friday 27 October – Arthur Parkinson – Author of Chicken Boy: My Life with Hens, The Flower Yard and his brand new book Planting a Paradise 

Sunday 29 October – Afternoon Tea with Adele Parkes who latest books are ‘One Last Secret’ and ‘Just Between Us’

The literary lunch with Miriam Margolyes to be hosted at the Club has already sold out. There plenty of opportunities for writers who are invited to submit short stories of up to 1,000 words for our writing competition.  The theme is ‘Secrets’ and the deadline is Saturday 30 September.  Also, local writers will be sharing their work in our Spoken Word Event on Wednesday 25 October.  The event is ticketed but free.  Finally, on Sunday 29 October, bestselling author Suzi Quinn will be leading a masterclass in ‘How to write a bestseller’.

For further details of venues and tickets, please visit our website https://www.frintonliteraryfestival.co.uk/ or call in at

Caxton Books, 55 Connaught Avenue, Frinton-on-Sea Tel: 01255 851505 

Club News

The Board has met recently and we’re making good progress on a range of issues as we continue to build our Club, improve the offer to you, our Members and resolve a range of issues and challenges too. We’re in a much better place these days – but that doesn’t mean we haven’t got a lot to do. We most certainly do! Of course we are working towards our AGM which will be held on Friday 20th October starting at 6pm. We”ll have more details in due course but do make sure you have the date and time in your diaries. We’ll be setting out the Club’s achievements over the year and looking ahead to 2024, taking your questions as well as conducting the Club’s formal business as usual.

I think that’s about it for now. Please do come and visit and take advantage of the last week of play on our grass tennis courts before we begin the hard work to restore and ready them for the 2024 season!

Have a great week!

James Max

Club Chairman