Hello!

What a night! Well, if you were at our Thatched Roof Fundraiser, you’ll know it was a fabulous evening! Hats off to Chef and his team for a fabulous dinner. To Mark and our bar staff for looking after us so brilliantly. To Rebecca and Karen for organising the event and for a fabulous evening of service and to Kat for making sure it was sold out! Casper Clarke was an amazing act and certainly kept the crowd entertained and dancing into the night! And the biggest vote of thanks must go to our Treasurer, Clive Allenby who worked tirelessly to get the evening set up, arranged and organised. Thank you Clive. Three more votes of thanks – to those who donated items for our auction and of course to all our bidders and donors who generously put their hands in their pockets to bid up items and donate and to our Tennis Captain, Bill Greeno who encouraged so many of you to join in. I really hope I have remembered to thank everyone involved. Our whole team at the Club did us proud! This is your Club working together to provide a thoroughly entertaining evening AND to raise money.

So. How are we doing? We went into the evening with £60k committed in donations (before counting the pre-bidding on auction items). We have completed the event and our fundraising total is now at an amazing £77.5k. Just £12,500 off our target. We WILL make the target. The works WILL go ahead and your Club’s thatched roof WILL be refurbished. This is an incredible result and through the generosity of many, we are making real progress.

So, for the final time. ONE LAST PUSH! Please, if you can, donate HERE – All donations made personally will attract Gift Aid. Let’s make this happen! And thank YOU!

On to the rest of the week’s news.

Karaoke
Friday 14th October – sees the return of Karaoke to the Club. Yes, it’s a big night out and certainly has become a ‘must attend’ event! Why not pop down, have a drink or three and then be let loose on the microphones! Once again, our amazing charismatic hosts will be James Blackman and the irrepressible Bill Greeno!

Sunday Lunch
The next Roast Sunday Lunch will be on Sunday 16th October. Served between 12pm and 2.30pm in the Ballroom – just book and pick your time and from the fabulous menu put together by Chef. It’s just £23 per person. Please book now! HERE

Jazz
The Frinton Jazz Club returns to the Club on Sunday 6th November – the quality of artistes they attract is phenomenal. World class! And if you can make it – just book now on their website. This is a fabulous event for our Club to host and we hope you will get involved too. This time, Derek Nash and his band will be joined by Claire Martin OBE who is not only a celebrated recording artist and former BBC Radio 3 presenter, she is also 2022’s Parliamentary Jazz Award winner in the best vocalist category. Accompanying Claire will be Britain’s most decorated jazz pianist, David Newton, on an actual grand piano. It all starts at 1.30pm. Details are HERE.

AGM
This will be taking place on Friday 11th November at the Club from 6pm. It’s your chance to hear about what we have achieved, what we have planned and to put your questions to the Board. And have a drink or two! We’ll have more details in due course.

Wine Tasting
Saturday 19th November – let’s go to France! Via a lovely wine tasting and dinner! Chef is conjuring up a delicious feast. Martin Tinsley and our very own wine expert extraordinaire Steve Pryer have been sampling and tasting to take us on a journey of discovery through the wine region of France. The event will be just £65 per person. Book your tickets now HERE.

Christmas Trees
Once again, we have secured sponsorship for our external and internal Christmas trees at the Club. Our HUGE thanks must go to King of Soho who have generously covered our costs. They produce two fantastic gins (both available at the Bar) – their London Dry is magnificent and the pink Variorum, made with real strawberry essence, is sublime! Mixed with a cheeky tonic, they’re delicious (please drink responsibly!).

Christmas
Our Christmas dinner party nights are filling up FAST! Please don’t miss out and book now. A three-course dinner and disco afterwards are included in the price of just £49 a head. You can book HERE.

Carols with Caryll
Christmas Eve sees the return of this glorious way to ease into the festive season. Make sure you put the date in your diary and we will be in touch with more details soon.

New Year’s Eve
Stuck with what to do? Don’t want to have to organise a party? Why not bring your family and friends to our Club for a delicious dinner, starting off with a glass of fizz continuing with an epic dinner and ending with our amazing DJ on the Wheels of Steel to say cheerio to 2022 and herald the brand new era of the Carolian Age! You can book HERE.

Booking
As you probably know by now we have changed our tennis court booking system. We have adopted the ClubSpark platform as provided by the LTA. Your LTA Membership is the log in with all the details on what to do and how it operates HERE. And there’s a handy app too! You can download it and book through your ‘phone. I know, right? Such modern technology!

More News
Once again, our valiant volunteers have been painting the tennis court posts a lovely shade of green. It’s an ongoing project but all these small details make your Club brighter and in better shape – thank you all for donning your painting garb and getting dirty on the Club’s behalf!

Membership
If you have made it this far? Well done and thank you for reading. As ever, we are grateful to all of you who are Members of our Club. We have had a good year with many new and returning faces. We recognise, however, that times are tough. We hope you see the value of your Membership throughout the year. The bar with its discount, our events and of course the sporting facilities and events, classes and everything else that goes on at the Club. Without you, it simply doesn’t work. We hope you’ll stick with us. Just as important, is spreading the word. Please do tell your families, friends, neighbours and work colleagues about us – the more Members we have the better shape we will be in and the more fun we’ll all have too!

That’s it for now. All our usual sporting and gym activities are available to book – classes, coaching, courses for juniors … you name it! All the details are set out below and on our website. We’ve had a busy time and there’s lots going on at your Club as we gear up for our Autumn and Winter Season!

Have a great week.

James Max
Club Chairman