Spring 2022 - Newsletter

Greetings from our President Elaine Paige OBE

Looking back on my last few ‘welcomes’ to our Newsletter I see how in each one we were all hoping that the Coronavirus pandemic was finally leaving us. But here we are in Spring 2022, and we have moved into the phase the Government refers to as ‘living with Covid’. Whilst it is great that we are starting to live our lives more like we did pre-2020, I still dearly hope that you are all taking care of yourselves and not affected by Covid.

On that note, I am delighted to report that this year we will see the long-awaited return of our Celebrity Golf Challenge, to be held at the prestigious Ashridge Golf Club on April 27. I’m happy to hear from Gilly that the day is being met with great enthusiasm and that we are nearly at capacity! Thank you to all those who have already signed up and those who have helped us with prizes and donations. I look forward to seeing you there for a wonderful day after more than 2 years.

I was able to join our first Trustees meeting of the year in February (via Zoom!) and it was wonderful to award 26 individuals and 7 groups funding through our grant aid programme. Hearing how this funding makes such a big impact on our beneficiaries is very heart warming, and so, as always, I urge you all to support our fundraising this year (more details to follow).

This year we are embarking on a new partnership project with our friends at the LTA, to pilot some disability tennis camps. Once again, more details are to follow, but I’m so glad to see us further developing our relationship with the governing body of tennis here in Britain and hope we can continue to grow this close relationship.

You will also hear more soon about a very special project, an online book to remember the late, great Dan Maskell.  This is an exciting initiative that we hope you will all support.

In signing off I want to wish you all a great start to the year, with Spring just beginning it does always feel like a great time for fresh starts and new opportunities.

With love

Elaine's website

Fundraising appeal

We know that the past year has been very busy in the world of worthy fundraisers but we still would like to remind you of all the ways you can help us to raise more funds to support disabled people through our grant aid funding. Why not get your tennis club/centre on board by holding a morning tea, fun competition or trivia night? We have lots of ideas to run in this kind of setting and can also provide you with a fundraising pack – just get in touch.

You may also choose to do an individual fundraiser like a marathon or some other kind of physical challenge. You can link this to our Justgiving page to make it really easy to collect donations. We are also signed up to ‘Work for Good’ which means that businesses, big or small, can easily donate to us, either by one off donations or percentage of sales donations. Once again, this platform makes it really easy to set up.

Golf Day 2022 

At the time of writing, it looks as though there will be a full complement of 18 teams for our annual major fundraising event to be held on 27^th April at Ashridge Golf Club in Hertfordshire. Like so many things, we have not staged this event since 2019 so we are looking forward to seeing old friends.  This year the event is being held in memory of David Mercer, a great friend and supporter of the Trust, who was instrumental in bringing the day to Ashridge which was his club.  Sue, David’s widow, is our special guest for the day.

Online Donation book

Since the inception of the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, there has never been a celebration of Dan’s life and the reason the Trust was formed and named after him.  2022 marks the 30^th year of his passing and, with blessing of his daughter Robin, we wanted to produce something in his memory for those who remember him and for those who support the ethos of the charity named after him.

2022 coincides with the 100^th anniversary of the Centre Court and there will be an article about 100 years of commentating at Wimbledon in the Championships programme and this will mention the book.

As well as a celebration of Dan’s best known role as the BBC’s “Voice of Wimbledon”, we will also use the opportunity to raise funds.  Everyone will have the chance to either recall a memory of Dan or say how the Trust named after him has helped them and add this to the book.  A voluntary donation is requested for each message with £10 the suggested amount.

The online donation book will be launched just prior to Wimbledon and will be available for your message on our website.  Please look out for the link.

Follow us.... or give us a like! 

Please could you show your support for the Trust by liking our Facebook page and following us on Twitter, Instagram and YouTube. Building our supporter base helps us to raise our profile and to ultimately raise more funds to put to good use. Also sharing our posts on Facebook helps us to reach up to 8 times more people on average, so please share away. 

Disability Tennis Camps

As Elaine mentioned in her welcome, we are excited to be undertaking a new project this year, working in close partnership with the LTA to organise Disability Tennis Camps. Many years ago these camps were quite regular and popular, but over the last 5 years or so have dropped off the scene. The LTA were keen for a revival and we were more than happy to step in and help. This year we will be piloting our format, which will see disability specific camps held over a weekend and will encourage participants to join a social evening meal on the Saturday to get to know other players and learn more about the opportunities in their tennis category. We already have a number of high quality coaches on board to deliver expert coaching to help players develop their skills and make a plan for their tennis development. You can check our website and social media for more details.

Photos needed!

As mentioned we are trying to increase our presence on social media, and the best way to post on social media is to add a photo…. So we need your help. We need a nice stock of photos of all our wonderful players, so if you are happy for us to use a photo of you playing tennis, please send it, along with permission to use on our Website, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram to liz@danmaskelltennistrust.org.uk Also, if you attend a great tennis session, event or competition, feel free to send a quick photo and a short description to Liz so she can promote it on our social channels.

Trustees meetings and grants awarded

Two meetings of the Trustees have been held so far in 2022 and a total of 58 grants totaling £55 834 have been awarded in principle, so it looks as though the demand for the Trust’s support will be as high as ever which is really positive and demonstrates our need to keep funds coming in for our grant programme.

Good luck to our wheelchair players

It's nearly that time of year when we have two Grand Slams nearly back to back!! The Trust would like to wish all the British players competing at Roland Garros and Wimbledon the best of luck.  We will be hoping that the success of our mega doubles pairing of Alfie Hewitt and Gordon Reid ('Team Heid') continues at Wimbledon. The pair have won four out of the last five Doubles category at Wimbledon (not held in 2020). Lucy Shuker and Andy Lapthorne will also be competing in the women's and quad category respectively and we eagerly await the announcement of the wild card players for Wimbledon.

Roland Garros takes place 16 May - 5 June with the wheelchair event held 31 May - 4 June. Wimbledon takes place 27 June - 10 July with the wheelchair event held 7 - 10 July.