Court availability

Is there enough ‘free’ court time for you to play outside of club times, coaching and matches?

2004 Situation

I think that for the moment the level of court availability is OK.  There will always be contention between court availability or ’free time’, and planned activities like matches and tournaments. We have continued and increased demands from the number of teams in the different leagues, as well as for friendly matches against other clubs. We have increased demands from a successful junior section.

We want to run more coaching sessions; not forgetting the club sessions, tournaments, and championships.

Another factor is the number of club members, both junior and adults. All these things have to be kept in balance. Whilst we increase numbers on the one hand, it could be argued, we take away court availability on the other.

Current Situation

Figures, provided by Ash Taylor of the OLTA, indicate that a court can typically accommodate 40 members, or 60 if it is floodlit.

With our 5 courts, of which two are floodlit, we should be able to accommodate some 240 members.

With an actual membership of approximately 170, we are operating at around 70% capacity.

Ash’s figures also indicate that Juniors can be accommodated at 50% of the adult capacity. So we should be able to accommodate 120 Juniors.

Assuming a continuing membership of 170, then additional courts do not appear to be required.

Extra floodlit courts are not a necessity, but would provide useful extra capacity during winter evenings.