Tennis

A school team will be thrown out of the league unless they pay overdue subscriptions before the end of this month.

The league has 47 teams in six divisions, including new sides from Northallerton and Thirsk.

But it could soon be one less after members decided at the annual meeting on tough action against the Harrogate Grammar School team, the only school side in the league. The meeting heard they had not paid a subscription for the past two years.

The meeting was told that despite reminders and telephone calls the team had not responded and owed £30 for the past two seasons.

The meeting was told the school had been phoned "continually" but there had been no response to the request.

After hearing chairman Trevor Nuttall said: "We have never had a club failing to pay affiliation fees for two years."

After members suggested "no pay, no play" it was agreed to give the side until the end of February to pay their dues.

But the meeting agreed they should be sent a strongly worded letter in a bid to secure affiliation fees.

Meanwhile, the league's get tough move over teams failing to fulfil fixtures will continue next season.

Last season the league decided to strictly impose its rule penalising clubs by two points if they failed to play a match. This slightly reduced the number of cancelled matches. But members agreed that this policy should continue.

League secretary Ian Hargreaves said the idea of implementing the rule was to encourage clubs to play matches rather than pick up a phone and simply say "we can't raise a team."

Hargreaves said last season had been marked by a tremendous performance from Academy player Kate Collins. Not only had she won all her 11 matches but had never dropped a set throughout the season. The league congratulated her on what was described as an outstanding and consistent performance.

The annual report showed the league has a bank balance of £1,368 which prompted a discussion about entry fees for the annual tournament, being held from June 10-16 at Harrogate Racquets Club in Firs Road.

Because of its healthy balance the meeting decided to provide free entry to the tournament this season in a bid to attract more entries.

The chairman announced he would be standing down after serving four years and said he thought this was necessary so new ideas could be brought into the league. But there were no nominations and so the appointment of a new chairman was left for league officials to determine.

A plea by an additional team from Wetherby to play its home matches on Sundays at 5pm sparked some alarm from rivals who pointed out it was not a traditional time of day for league tennis.

Some felt this would be very inconvenient, but after hearing about pressure on courts because of Wetherby's increasing membership and commitments to other leagues the meeting agreed to give the idea a 12 month trial.

Birstwith's First Division side are quitting the league following a shock exodus of key players. Former Birstwith skipper Julie Abbott, who is also club treasurer and has captained teams for nine years, is not playing this season.

But the biggest blow came when it was announced that Birstwith's top players Sophie Jacob and Simon Daly would be joining Harlow at the start of the new season.

There is also speculation about the future playing venue of Birstwith's Harry Worthington.

The league accepted Birstwith first team's withdrawal from Division One.

League secretary Ian Hargreaves gave members an update on the Harrogate District Community Tennis Partnership which was blazing a trail with play for pupils in primary schools.

He said the initiative was being led by head coach Simon Isles and was being made possible bcause of encouragement from the Lawn Tennis Association who were keen to take the sport to primary schools.

Hargreaves said the partnership involved Harrogate Borough Council, Rossett School and Harlow Tennis Club.

"The scheme has been operating for about a year now. The venture is trying to involve more clubs and has now established a coaches' forum," said Hargreaves.

He added the scheme opened the door for promising players to progress to the regional coaching centre at Beckett Park, Leeds.

The scheme is funded by the Lawn Tennis Association who are also keen to recruit new coaches.