Club Sessions

 Club Sessions (Tuesday, Thursday mornings and evenings, Sunday morning.)

2004 Situation

This section does get one of the highest ratings on importance. Attendance on Tuesday and Thursday mornings are good. Yet the levels of attendance at evenings and Sunday. mornings has been varied. Last winter I would say attendance at evening sessions was on average poor. We would be lucky if we filled two courts. I could deduce that members value the opportunity to turn up and play, whether they use it or not?

The summer evening sessions to date have been varied. I can't explain why this is so, but my hunch is that the more teams we have, the less time people have for club evening sessions. I don’t think there is an answer to this - I think it is an issue that most clubs have. Some people have mentioned about having balanced games, and more mixing up between players, so we are at the moment experimenting with the peg board system when we have enough players that justify using it.

Response from Ian B (2004)

The Peg Board System

Resulting from the survey we have decided to persevere in using the peg board in order to provide balanced games and a fair selection system, so whoever arrives first, please hang the board on the wire and sort out the names. The procedure is as written on the board and basically is as follows:

1. Choose your named peg from the bottom wire and put it in the queue on the top wire left side.
2. These names slide to the right, the leader picking 3 other players from the next 5 pegs.
3. These four pegs are then placed on the appropriate court number.
4. ONLY PLAY ONE SET. Once a match is finished, the four pegs should be removed from the court wire and placed on the top wire joining the queue. Of this group of four, place winners to the right and losers to the left, giving a small bonus to the winning pair.
5. If nobody is waiting you can continue playing but FIRST move your pegs into the waiting section so when another court comes off eight players will be in the waiting queue. ONLY PLAY ONE SET then move your pegs.
6. Generally first choice to be mixed matches, but three men and one lady is another followed by mens depending on availability of players. Two players may want to warm up on another court but it is in the leader's interest to keep an eye open for a match finishing or other players arriving and it is the leader's responsibility to manage and update the peg board.

Current Situation

The general ground swell would indicate that there are mixed views on this topic.

The numbers at the club sessions is on the wane. This is possibly due in some measure to the increase in Match Play and coaching where members who are already playing several times a week do not want to also attend the club sessions.

Your comments and views on this topic are eagerly sought.