Latest :- (7th September 2008)

– Silverware back to Framlingham

After braving the atrocious weather at Felixstowe in the inter-club doubles tournament Neil and Chris managed to win the Plate for Framlingham (jointly with St. Johns).

Neil and Chris were 3-3 in the final and had already swept the courts once when another belt of rain came in, so they decided to call it an honourable draw and share it with St. Johns for 6 months each!! Framlingham now have the silver plate.

Rachel and Sarah also did well and reached the plate finals but lost out to a very good, young Felixstowe pair although the weather really did spoil the whole day.

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For a number of years, the tennis courts have been suffering from significant surface damage caused by pigeons perching on the floodlights and leaving their deposits ( Sally has a different word which we cannot publish!! ) After much thought and research, your chairman, the Hon David Whittle, concluded that the best solution to this problem would be to fix plastic spikes to the floodlights and also to the arms supporting the lights.

The next problem to solve was how we would access the lights as neither a ladder or scaffold was considered suitable or indeed safe. Contrary to popular belief, we do value the lives of our members,well,most of them anyway! This is when our resident project manager, Pete Dring came to the rescue and arranged the hire of a cherry picker.

The cherry picker arrived on site on the morning of Saturday 5 July at which time it was bucketing down (Sally also has a word for this!! ) and we wondered if we would be able to carry out the task in question. Within 5 minutes, the sun came out and we were off! David and Pete clearly have a good head for heights and, having mastered the complexities of operating the cherry picker soon developed a highly efficient partnership completing the job in well under a day.

I am very pleased to report that the spikes are proving to be 100% effective as no pigeon has been seen on the lights since the job was completed. They have now migrated to the perimeter fence and this is where plan b will come into operation. Do we have a plan b? Watch this space!

- Ralph Dale is awarded "Volunteer of the Year" Award

Extract from Feb 13th 2007 EADT Your Sport

Volunteer of the Year Award was Ralph Dale, an active member of Framlingham Lawn Tennis Club since 1972 and who still, into his 80s, plays at least twice a week. Ralph provides his services for countless hours of club maintenance. He also looks after the junior section, every week
throughout the year, regardless of the weather raising enthusiasm for tennis, communicating with the young people in his down-to-earth style.

Photo:- Ralf receives his award

Congratulations to Ralph from all club members!