Important Club Announcement
The Committee is delighted to announce that Stratford will shortly undertake a major upgrade to our all-weather court playing surfaces. This is a vital investment in our Club facilities and will result in a more enjoyable playing experience for all our members.
Having sought professional advice on the current condition of the court surface we are advised that a full and thorough rejuvenation of the courts is necessary. In a nutshell, every 5-7 years our four all-weather (savannah) courts need to have c20 tonnes of sand removed and replaced with clean sand through a rejuvenation process. While the carpet itself also requires periodic replacement, we have been advised that our carpets have 5 to 10 more years of useful life. Over the past number of months we gathered a series of comparative quotes and checked the credentials of each contractor. The selected provider to undertake the work is Court Care.
As you know, we also closed the grass courts a few weeks early this year to enable the groundsman perform additional improvement works. Descarifying, reseeding and fertilising were carried out in September and early signs are that the new grass has sprouted well, which bodes extremely positively for our grass courts in 2020.
It would not have been possible to carry out this work for the past several years, first and foremost because of our depleted membership numbers and financial resources, but also because of the uncertainty with regard to our tenure on the premises (an area in which we have made substantial progress in recent months). After a huge collective effort in marketing the club for the past 2-3 years, our membership numbers have grown substantially (this year in particular) and provided that we can maintain our numbers at or above these higher levels, it affords greater financial flexibility.
The executive function for the running of the Club is the responsibility of the committee. We are satisfied that Stratford has sufficient financial resources to fund this rejuvenation without taking on any debt. We are also of the view that making this investment in our facilities will be of huge benefit to our Club: improving the quality of our courts will help us to retain our existing members and attract new members in the coming years. Of course, making this investment means that our normal Club fundraising activities become all the more important – we hope that all members will do all that they can to support these efforts over the coming years, starting with a Table Quiz to be held in Terenure Sports Club (CYM) on 14 November – details to follow soon so put it in your diaries!
Rejuvenation work is expected to take place in late November and will last approximately two weeks. There will be limited access to courts during the upgrade and we will notify all members of work dates as soon as we have them. In fact, we expect that two courts at a time will be out of action for a period of two weeks. We will do our best to ensure that the impact upon social, Friday night team tennis and any FloodLit playoffs are minimised.
The committee is in the process of drafting a development plan for the club, which we will bring to the membership for their feedback and opinions shortly.
Thank you for your continued support.
If you have any questions or suggestions on the above or any aspect of the club (fundraising, activities, volunteering, etc.) please do talk to any of committee:
John O’Brien, Chairman
Michael Woodnutt, President
Liza Kelly, Secretary
Marc Mc Glade, Treasurer
Pat O’Mahony, Social
Martina Brosnan, Juniors
Niall Lynch, Juniors
Nick Kelly, Social
Eamonn Doherty, ClubMark
Nicky Holmes, Health & Safety