Welcome to our June newsletter! s those of you who follow local news in print or social media will have spotted, a number of our members were celebrated at the inaugural Sporting Excellence Awards hosted by Berkhamsted Sports Grounds (BSG) on 5th June.

Huge congratulations to the following:

• Tracey Mackey, winner of the Club Volunteer award for her massive and indefatigable contribution to our tennis section and overall running of the club;
• Ryan Friend, winner of the Boys U18 Sports Person award for his successes at both cricket and tennis;
• Christian Law, runner-up for Rising Star as the England U9 squash champion;
• albeit not for tennis or squash exploits, another of our members, Monika Gibilaro, on behalf of Phoenix Berkhamsted Netball Club for Club of the Year; and
• our Squash & Racketball section who were shortlisted for the [Squash] Club of the Year award, for their contribution to squash and racketball locally and nationally.

The chair of BSG, our tennis member Paul Forster MBE, ran a brilliant evening at Berkhamsted Golf Club, with the prizes (including valuable sports vouchers provided by sponsors) presented by Mayor Sue Jordon, and with local politicians Sally Symington and Victoria Collins MP also present.

Winning the awards is entirely dependent on the submission of nominations, so make a ‘To Do’ mental note now for next year’s awards if there’s anyone you think is deserving and you’d like to nominate. It’s a simple 15 minute task.

Tennis

Finals Day on Saturday was fabulous! Great weather, really well attended, expertly organised, and fantastic matches!

Congratulations to everyone who made it through the draws to take part on the day. Over 30 finals were played! Tyrell has issued the results but, just to mention the 2 main events: we have a new men’s champion, Matt Purnell beating Raul Mackie; and a new women’s champion, Lisa Greenfield beating Maddie Lightfoot in a reversal of last year’s result. Great job Matt and Lisa (also our ladies doubles champion with Anna Styles!)

Well done too to Luke Ashley for being awarded the David Lidderdale Trophy for all round junior tennis member of the year.

Our amazing men’s National League team has qualified for the playoff round, with a place in the National Finals at stake. Our opponents will be announced shortly by the LTA and we are hoping for a home tie for another brilliant day at the club.

Squash & Racketball

Although the S&R Finals Day was a few weeks ago, we have not yet reported it in these pages.

Congratulations to our squash champions Ali Coker and Katie Winterstein, beating Mati Nichol and Sharon Plested in the finals, and to our racketball champion Julian Vecchio, beating Darren Withey.

Following on from that we hosted the national Racketball Masters inter-Counties Championship, with an amazing 9 of our members featuring in the Herts teams from O40s to 060s!

On the subject of Masters events, a massive shout-out to Gavin Roger-Lund who recently retained his British Open O55s squash title, coming through an international field of players.

Lastly, a heads-up to everyone that next week we commence the conversion of courts 3 and 4 to glass-backs. It will be a 3-week project and in week 1 we also need to take courts 5 and 6 out of action while the brickwork is removed and steel joists are installed. Apologies for the impact on court availability - we’ll have 6 fabulous glass-back courts in action for you very soon.

Social & Clubhouse News

With Summer here, we have introduced lunchtime and afternoon bar hours at weekends.

On Saturdays we are now open from 12 noon until 8.30pm. On Sundays we are open from 12 noon until 4pm. Saturday hours are a trial, to test the uptake from members.

So why not use us as even more of a destination venue that you usually do. A place to come for a lunchtime coffee and one of Graham’s speciality sausage rolls; or a glass of prosecco in the best beer garden in town! Not just a place for a post-game thirst-quencher.

We’re going into a great Summer of sport. Of course there is Wimbledon but, rather weirdly for a tennis club, it has never proved popular viewing on our big screen. Football and rugby have always attracted more of you to the club.

The Lionesses defend their Women’s Euros title in July and we’ll be showing all their matches, starting with England vs France on Saturday 5th July at 8pm.

The British Lions have a 3-test series down under and we’ll be showing the Lions vs Australia 1st test on Saturday 19th July at 10am with the bar open and breakfast available.

Come on down!

Just one more thing - the Columbo section

Ever wondered about the club’s vision and strategy? Did you even know that we have a vision statement?

We do but it was written nearly 10 years ago and we’re currently refreshing it for the next 10 year horizon. In fact, at our most recent Club Council meeting we cleared the agenda of operational items and focused on our vision and strategy for the club. Why not have a read (click here - you will need to be logged in to the Members' Area to access the minutes) and see if you agree with our thoughts. Coming soon will be our 2nd Members’ Opinion Survey, following up on our 1st edition in August 2026, so you’ll be able to have your say too.

Until next month, that’s all for now!

Club Council

(John Shaw, Phil Trimmer, Adam Suggett, Pete Walker, Matt Markwort, Tracey Mackey, Mark Shattock)