Cheddar Tennis Club

Cheddar Tennis Club achieves national quality accreditation
Cheddar Tennis Club has become the first tennis club in the West Country to be awarded Clubmark accreditation. The scheme was introduced by Sport England in 2002 and adopted by the LTA in 2007. It is a national, quality accreditation for clubs across all sports and its aim is to demonstrate to anyone thinking of joining a club, or looking for a club for their children, that the club is well run and has best practices in place for recruiting volunteers, child protection, junior coaching programmes and health and safety. “I congratulate Cheddar on this award,” said Roger Draper, chief executive of the LTA. “Tennis Clubmark is the LTA's sign of a quality tennis club.”
New Year 'P' Party brings out the show-offs!
The club held its annual New Year Party for members and friends at Shipham village hall on Saturday 19th January. The theme required dressing in anything beginning with 'P' and party goers included a policeman and prisoner, Presley, a pacifist, primary school pupil, punk, plenty of posh persons, people in pink and purple, and pyjamas (!) and a panoply of princesses. After a delicious supper some of the more musical members provided excellent entertainment, followed by a disco for the rest of the evening. A good time was had by all.
Mark gets first coaching award
Junior member Mark Goddard has successfully completed his Level 1 Assistant Tennis Coach qualification, so that he can now run mini tennis classes on his own. He has been a member of the club for ten years and for the past two has been helping run the Friday night junior coaching sessions. Mark follows a number of former junior members who have risen through the ranks and gone on to take coaching qualifications, which is something the club encourages.
Schools coaching continues
The club has received the final part of its sponsorship award from Bristol Water plc with matched funding from Sportsmatch to continue its 4 year programme of tennis coaching in five local first schools. The funding enables the club to send coaches into the schools throughout the year to run free taster sessions during curriculum time for all children aged 4-9 years. At the end of each course the children and their parents are invited to the club to see if they would like to enroll on one of the junior coaching courses.