Hello!

Normal service will resume on Friday with our newsletter emailed as usual. However I wanted to update you on our amazing fundraising day on Saturday. The whole Club was buzzing, busy and alive as we kicked off our Thatched Roof Fundraising activities. We recognise we are facing economic headwinds and to be fundraising at this time is a bold shout. That said, our thatched roof is in urgent need of repairs and is seemingly unaware that we have just battled through a pandemic and face inflation and rising prices! This is the last of the big legacy items to address.

Your Board have taken the steps to engage the services of a master thatcher and have pre-ordered reeds which are being supplied from Ukraine. A nice touch, we hope you’ll agree.

Through the tremendous generosity of benefactors we have made significant progress already with over half of the £90k required already committed. But we still have a mountain to climb. Hence this first fundraising event in a series over the rest of the year. We have added another £4,123 (and rising!) to the funds required, from our opening event – thank you SO much!

Whether you were here on Saturday or simply you would like to donate – however large or small your donation – please do so HERE and all donations attract Gift Aid. WE REALLY NEED YOUR HELP. Every pound raised will go directly towards these works.

In addition, we have raised £1,601 from our EasyFundraising activities which will ALSO be diverted to the Thatched Roof Fund. To refresh your memory on this… it’s a way corporates that we ALL use donate to charities and local causes – pretty much EVERYTHING you buy online can raise money for our Club at NO COST TO YOU! It’s easy to sign up and if you buy any goods, services or insurance online? Our Club benefits. PLEASE check it out HERE.

In particular if you are buying car or travel insurance, a holiday, online gifts and even supermarket shops or wine! Using any of the 4000 plus retailers signed up from Apple to John Lewis or Argos, Wilko, AO, AMAZON and even Fortnum & Mason – there are names and brands that you definitely buy from. I cannot stress enough what a win, win this is for us if you sign up and just make the effort to channel your purchases in this way!

And if you are already signed up, please remember to activate your account before you make a purchase!

Meanwhile a particular thanks must go to Clive Allenby who has spearheaded the overall fundraising coordination and to Bill Greeno our Tennis Committee Chair who managed to persuade 60 members to come and play on Saturday. And WHAT a tournament – we had all ages and abilities represented. I even managed to haul myself on court. Lawrence Knight wanted a mention for his match heroics – but I don’t think he wanted me to mention the ace that I sent his way. We were all surprised to be honest – testament to the quality of our coach Peter Richmond who, along with his team at NEETAcademy provide fantastic one-on-one tennis coaching and group coaching too! It was their very own Louis Parker who won the Men’s category and Natalie Grover who took the Ladies’ prize with Marcus Eatherton sending a significant array of aces to win the pitcher of beer!

Our raffle, organised by Victoria Kunzer, offered a huge selection of prizes and we thank all of those who donated and those who bought tickets for your generosity. THANK YOU!

And we also must thank Gavin Downing who coordinated our squash players and John Kilby and our Walking Footballers – they too put on a wonderful fundraiser… adding to the amounts raised. We really are grateful to you getting on board and into the fundraising spirit.

And who could omit croquet from all of this?! Richard Everett and Ann Evander organised a wonderful tournament.
The Croquet Charity ‘one ball’ competition got off to a good start with a raucous crowd cheering on newcomers against the more established opposition. In fact that was pretty much the description of the afternoon. New (to croquet) player Mark Grover hit all the well handicapped players all over the park beating Richard Everett to get to the final. And Mark achieving this with an injured arm. What a performance! The final was a closely contended match with Stephen Mills (Frinton and St Albans hcp 4) against Mark Grover (hcp 24) Initially Mark made good progress around the first set of hoops but Stephen’s class was eventually too much for him. Plaudits have to go to Mark who having never played croquet, with his arm in a sling still managed to make an excellent account of himself. Congratulations also have to be given to Stephen Mills for winning the one ball tournament against such a brilliant newcomer. And don’t forget… we now have croquet at our Club and it’s clearly a game for all! Do get involved and spread the word! Richard and Ann are happy to help get you started.

We have a range of events coming up over the coming weeks at the Club – With all the details on our website HERE and a full newsletter due this Friday. We hope you’ll pop down and visit. The poolside kitchen is open for lunch and food service from 12 noon until 6pm every day. We have freshly made cakes at the bar and a range of lovely non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks and cocktails too. Don’t forget to bring your Membership Card. To receive your discount – please charge up and use your card over the bar.

We are, thankfully, on the way with this latest fundraising effort. Your support is hugely appreciated and we have every confidence that we will get across the line.

Please get involved and please donate!

And finally let’s not forget our amazing team who look after the bar, Club, grounds and coaching. Thanks to them we have a wonderful set of resources to visit. We are really fortunate and that’s what this is all about. Making our Club buzz for all our Members and guests whilst safeguarding it for future generations.

Please note our Fundraising Dinner, Dancing and Auction will take place on Saturday 1st October!

Have a great week and thanks again to all who made this first fundraising day such a success!

James Max
Club Chairman