​Courts 1 and 2 now have new posts and nets in time for the summer season.

Thanks go to Nic Baker, David Alcock, Mike White, Julian Blazeby and Fran Gifford for all their hard work in installing the new equipment.

​The Gloves are off but the Hats are on…
The annual Silly Christmas Hats Tennis Tournament at Salcombe Tennis Club took place last Thursday. The weather was remarkably kind after storm Darrah had waged his way over Devon last weekend and ten players rolled up to play in the draw. As always, a
competitive but fun time was had by all. Each lady played with and against the other entrants in her group. The winner of the tennis
competition was Nicola Baker winning 19 points with Fran Gifford in second place with 16. Each year it is compulsory for all entrants to wear a Silly Christmas Hat – needless to say these creative players turned out in some very interesting ones from handmade festive
chocolate box creations to off the internet turkey toppers. Whilst a buffet lunch was happily being demolished by the players Lynn Gledhill came along to judge and declared Jo Grant the winner of the ‘Best Silly Hat’. Jo was awarded a bottle of wine kindly donated by Luscombe Maye.
Hopefully the weather will remain calm over the Christmas period so more tennis will continue to be played in one of the loveliest tennis locations in the South Hams.
Happy Christmas all you players – in Salcombe we are leaving our gloves off for the next game!

​​​This year we rang out the changes for our Christmas meal by hiring Salcombe Rugby Club and bringing in local caterer, The Galley Girls. The recently refurbished venue was warm, welcoming and a comfortable space for us to get together and have a party. Christmas decorations and table settings established the festive mood and there was lots of excited chatter as our members and non playing partners caught up on the chat that there is no time for on court. How great everyone looked in their finery – some unrecognisable out of their tennis kit! During the meal Chris Coles, the Chairman, said a few words and Bridget Lafferty, Treasurer, thanked Chris and presented her with a seasonal floral arrangement on behalf of the Committee and Club members. A jolly time was had by all and we look forward to the next get together. In the meantime we wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

We recently received a statement from SHDC saying that the S106 money received by the club was used appropriately and that the correct application procedures were carried out. The email from the Director of Strategy and Governance reads:

"Further to our recent meeting, I can confirm that the Council are satisfied that the S106 funds allocated for improvements to sections of the pathway at Salcombe Tennis Club were properly awarded and have been used appropriately in accordance with the applications dated 3 December 2021 and 7 April 2022."

We really hope that this eases any concerns about the way we have gone about this process - if you have any questions, please contact one of us here on the committee so that we can explain things fully. 

​We know that rumours about misuse of funds are still circulating, but those rumours are totally unfounded and we would like to reiterate that the club has not acted improperly in any way.

On 25th January, we had an onsite meeting with the SHDC representative for S106 funding. They stated that they were confident that the S106 funds had been used appropriately on the project to improve the part of the path between Onslow Road and the side entrance to the tennis courts, which was the subject of our application in December 2021.

We reported this to the town council at their meeting on the evening of 25th January, and the district council subsequently confirmed their view in writing to us yesterday.

... at our committee meeting yesterday, we unanimously confirmed our intention to reopen the path as soon as possible subject to  incorporation being complete and to getting sign off from the technical surveyors and our public liability insurers that we will be properly insured.

We continue to work on these two fronts, but it all takes time and we are all volunteers. Please allow us time to complete these critical tasks properly.

And we do appreciate that the path being closed is a source of frustration – it certainly is for many of us on the committee!

We are aware that there is a petition circulating regarding the reopening of the private path through the club grounds from Onslow Road to Bonaventure Road.

This path was closed in 2018 due to safety concerns. A recent survey has expressed caution about reopening it, and therefore it currently remains closed.

We hope to be able to reopen the path in the future once it is safe to do so.

On Thursday 8th December, we'll be returning to the King's Arms for our Christmas dinner, ​and Christine Milton has once again put together a special menu for us and at a very reasonable price too.

The menu is on the Social Events page.

Please email John Sprague asap with menu choices for yourself and your guests.