To make sure members are as safe as possible there are a number of new rules that must be adhered to for the courts to remain open:

• Play is limited to SINGLES ONLY when playing against someone from outside of your household

• Doubles may only be played if ALL participants are from the same household

• Remain at least 2 metres apart at all times

• No physical contact with other players

  • e.g. handshakes/high fives

• Members must wash hands thoroughly before they arrive and as soon as they get home

• Courts must now be booked online via the club’s website beforehand

  • I will explain how this is done shortly

• The changing rooms and toilet facilities will remain closed and out of bounds for members.

• The clubhouse is only to be used to retrieve/replace the court key, access first aid and wash hands if necessary

• Wear gloves when opening/closing the clubhouse door and court gate

• Do not raise/lower the nets

  • They have been set to the correct height and winders have been removed

• Do not lock the court gate unless you are the last one leaving for the time being

  • Close the gate behind you but do not pull the bolt across. This enables people to open and close the gate without using their hands

• Use your own racket only

• Use new balls each time you play whenever possible, and mark them to enable their identification

• Knock balls from the other court back with your racquet or foot, do not use your hands

• For the time being, guests are not permitted to play

• Make sure your club tag is worn and clearly visible on your shoe

• There are currently no organised sessions being run

  • i.e. Sunday social, coaching, Men’s, Ladies’ and teams’ nights

• Leave promptly after you have finished, do not hang around to talk

 

The club has implemented a new court booking system so members can now check availability and book a court in advance. This should stop multiple members turning up at once to play. Please note that all members MUST book in advance if they wish to play.

 

To book a court, simply visit our website (https://www.circletennisclub.net) and click on ‘Book a Court’. Enter the password (which is given in the club’s welcome letter) and you can choose a time to book. If It is your first time booking, you will have to create a Skedda account, which is the company that runs the booking software. Times that are greyed out have already been booked, or are unavailable. You will receive a confirmation email once you have successfully booked.

 

At the moment we have limited the booking to 1 hour slots, and request that members leave 5 minutes early to avoid too much traffic with players changing over. We have also staggered the start times so court one slots begin on the hour and court two slots start at half past, again aiming to reduce the number of members present at the gate at the same time.

Members are limited to a maximum of 1 hour a day of court time and are only permitted to have one booking at a time. So if you wish to play on Saturday and Sunday, you cannot book Sunday’s court until you have played on Saturday. This has been decided to give all members a fair chance to play, and avoid all booking slots being taken straight away. You may book a court up to 7 days in advance, as long as you have no other slot already booked. The committee will be keeping an eye on the bookings to ensure everything is running smoothly, but if you have a problem feel free to email me at hillmand@hotmail.co.uk.