Author Archives: Joel

Cranleigh is very excited to announce a brand-new initiative, unique to Rutlish School, in association with Limitless Tennis and Cranleigh Tennis Club. Limitless Tennis are looking for the brightest local talent to join our Tennis Academy. Limitless Tennis are the coaching company based at Cranleigh Tennis Club in Merton Park, run by Grant Fellows, an LTA, Level 5 Coach; (the highest attainable qualification). Grant’s vision is to find Rutlish boys who have a talent for tennis and train them to the highest standard of tennis with the ultimate aim of having them compete nationally and beyond. We will open the Academy to players that attend different schools but they must be able to make it to Cranleigh for 3.30pm each day. Aims of the Academy: To identify and intensively train children who show genuine talent for tennis to allow them to pursue tennis to the highest possible level with intensive…

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Cranleigh Lawn Tennis & Social Club are thrilled and proud to have received the Tennismark+ accreditation from the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), recognition of the great strides the club has made, and continues to make, in providing tennis for all ages and abilities . Tennismark+ is the elite tier of accreditation for tennis venues, recognising clubs as safe, welcoming and inclusive and providing a high quality tennis programme, alongside the right environment to ensure the welfare of members.

Work begins on Tuesday 29 August for approximately two weeks to upgrade the surface of all 5 courts to artificial clay.  We HOPE to re-open courts on Sunday 10 September, but will keep you posted. No play at all till then. But good news – the bar will still be open as usual.

Cranleigh had double success this year at the British Tennis Awards – Grant Fellows was named as Surrey Coach of the year and Christine Roe (Chair) was named as Surrey Volunteer of the year. This was a great achievement for a small club and very well deserved for all of the pair’s dedicated work for the club. Thank you to all the members who nominated them both. They are pictured receiving their awards from Roger Taylor – ex-UK Number 1 and previous Semi Finalist at Wimbledon and Davis Cup Player.

Cranleigh is very excited to be participating in Bright Ideas for Tennis’ 24-hour tennis marathon. Professional and former professional players will be taking it in turn to play against players from eight selected clubs – and eight of our members (David, Grant, Mel, Fiona, Nicola, Sharmani, Joel and Helene) have gallantly committed to get up for the ungodly hour of 4am to raise money for our new courts and grassroots tennis in general. We have a thriving community tennis programme at Cranleigh, coaching children from aged 3 to adults and approx 300 players playing tennis every week, with links to local schools, South Thames College and the Aurora Centre. We are extremely passionate about increasing tennis participation and promoting healthy lifestyles in the local community. We would like to raise funds to provide a better playing surface by repairing or replacing the courts with a different surface which would allow us…

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We are delighted to announce our much loved chairman Chris Roe and coach Grant Fellows have been awarded Surrey Tennis’ gongs for Volunteer of the Year and Coach of the Year respectively. The awards recognise the many, many hours they both put in for the club, going well above and beyond the call of duty, which has been shown in how the club has grown in membership and come up with lots of exciting new ideas and connections. Hopefully, it will stand us in good stead with the powers that be for financing for our new courts, which we are fundraising for now, including a skydive from Grant! This is great news for Grant and Chris and the club. Well done to them!

Thanks to everyone who attended the first Ali Rizvi Cup, a New Year’s Day tournament in honour of our much loved former member and third team captain who sadly passed away nearly two years ago. It was a really successful tournament attended by 33 players over 2 days (because of rain!), with great atmosphere and good food (thanks to those who cooked). Congratulations to the winners, Joel Durston and Janet Hunter. Pictured with them are Kasia Rizvi and son Ali-Mahdi. Ali would be so proud.

Cranleigh would love to see you, whether you’re a newcomer or existing member, at our open day this weekend! It runs from 10am on Saturday (9th) and Sunday and features many different opportunities to get on court and a chance to try pilates. Please take a look at this link to book your spot here. Food and drink will also be available on the day and we will be showing the men’s and women’s Wimbledon finals on our big screen (featuring Murray hopefully!).

This summer we will again be hosting our popular club tournament, with nine different categories. Players arrange their own games up until the final and the tournament culminates with the finals weekend on July 16 and 17, where there is a BBQ and people come to enjoy the sunshine and the tennis in the beer garden. The categories are: men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, veterans’ (45 and over) singles, veteran’s doubles, star juniors (u18) boys, and star juniors girls. When entering, please bear in mind the possibility of playing multiple games in one day on finals day. If you do not have a partner for a doubles entry, please enter anyway and we will try to find you a partner. Please email your entries, or any queries, to club captain Joel Durston at joeldurston@gmail.com . The deadline for entries is the end of May.

Cranleigh held a very successful leaving party for Coach Chris Chapman on 24 March – pictured with him are tennis members, Coaches and some of the juniors and adults who have benefiited from his coaching over the last 5 years. We all wish him well.

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