Summer Newsletter 2024

Greetings from our President Elaine Paige OBE

Hello everyone,

Well, what a busy Summer it’s been! I hope you’ve all been enjoying some of the warmer weather and managed to get out to enjoy some tennis, whether watching or playing.

I was, as always, thrilled to attend Wimbledon on several occasions this year and something I always enjoy is having a chat to Marcus Buckland on Radio Wimbledon, where I can spread the word about our wonderful charity. I also had a great time entertaining a few of our regular supporters over a lovely lunch held at the grounds, but the real highlight was seeing our very own 10-year-old Alex Batt perform the coin toss at the Men’s Singles Wheelchair Final. It was so heart-warming to watch, and I loved his video, which you can watch below, with his words of advice for other young wheelchair players. 

If you’re feeling inspired by Alex’s story and would like to make a donation to the Trust, so we can help more young players, please follow this link to our website. 

Ahead of Wimbledon I attended our fundraising Golf Day, which was held in the memory of our dear John Tucker, which raised over £23,000! (The Golf Day is described in full further in this newsletter.) Each year I’m touched to meet so many people who share our passion for disability tennis and who come together to help us raise money for our grant funding programme. I’m already looking forward to next year which will be the 25th anniversary of the Golf Day!

This summer I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching the Paris Olympics and am always inspired by the hardworking and talented athletes. I can’t wait for the Paralympics to begin tonight. I’ll especially be watching our Team GB wheelchair tennis players, so many of whom we’ve supported at the start of their careers, and I was delighted to learn that our Ambassador Abbie Breakwell has been selected to attend her first ever Paralympics. What an amazing achievement and the best of luck to her and all her teammates. I do hope you are able to show your support for the wheelchair tennis and in our next newsletter we can hopefully report back on great success from the team. 

Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer!

With love,

Elaine's website

Wimbledon Coin Toss

Our most exciting moment this summer was helping to organise the coin toss for the Wimbledon Wheelchair Singles Men’s Final. We were approached by the Wimbledon Foundation to nominate one of our grantees and we selected Alex Batt who is a 10 year old based in Essex who received a Roma Chair from us last year.

Alex was wonderful, and not only had an amazing day, especially as his hero Alfie Hewett starred in and won the Singles final, but also offered real words of wisdom in the official video released by the Wimbledon Foundation. At time of writing the main video on their Instagram channel had over 450,000 views (the highest on their channel) and 12,814 likes. You can watch the video here. Thanks to the Wimbledon Foundation for this amazing opportunity and for their generous hospitality.

Elaine on Radio Wimbledon

As Elaine mentioned in her welcome, she once again attended Wimbledon on a number of days, and we are always lucky that she manages to mention the Dan Maskell Trust as often as possible! You can listen to a clip of her talking about the Trust on Radio Wimbledon here.

Wimbledon Open Court day

Rounding off our ‘Wimbledon’ stories, we have been asked to extend an invitation to grantees in the local area, particularly the Merton and Wandsworth areas, to attend the AELTC’s Open Court Afternoon at the Club’s Community Centre in Raynes Park on Saturday 12 October.  This will be an inclusive and integrated afternoon of coaching, activities, and information on accessing tennis opportunities for all.  There will be wheelchair tennis sessions, para-standing tennis coaching, deaf and VI tennis sessions. We are waiting for further information, however,  please email Liz to express your interest in taking part.

Recreational Doubles 2025 Date and Venue

We enjoyed the lovely venue at the Shrewsbury Club this year, but due to various feedback from players we have decided to go back to Oxstalls Sports Park in Gloucester again next year. The date has been booked in for Saturday May 10^th and Sunday May 11^th 2025. More details will follow in the new year but mark your diaries!

Disability Tennis Camps 

We are once again partnering with the LTA to run a set of disability specific coaching camps. Putting the puzzle together of venues, coach availability and LTA tournaments is a little tricky but we have finally confirmed the following dates and venues:

Para-standing Tennis - Ipswich Sports Club on SATURDAY 5 October 2024 10am - 4pm. Coaches Sue Morrison and Emily Stebbings. Click here for entry form and more details.

Wheelchair Tennis - Pershore Tennis Club on SUNDAY 20 October 2024 10am - 4pm. Lead coach Geraint Richards. Click here for entry form and more details.

Learning Disability Tennis - Grantham Tennis Club on SUNDAY 17 November 2024 10.30am - 4pm. Lead Coach Sue Morrison. Click here for entry form and more details.

Paris Paralympics 

Everyone at the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust would like to wish the best of luck to the Team GB wheelchair tennis players who have been selected to travel to Paris for the 2024 Paralympics. It is such an amazing achievement to be chosen to represent your Country at the pinnacle of sport and we personally know all players have put countless hours into achieving this selection. We can’t wait to report on our success!

We are also so pleased to add in the breaking news that Lucy Shuker will be the flag bearer for Team GB at tonight's opening ceremony!

The Team GB squad will consist of Alfie Hewett, Gordon Reid, Lucy Shuker, Abbie Breakwell, Andy Lapthorne, Greg Slade, Ben Bartram and Dahnon Ward.

We are so proud to see that so many players we have supported in their early days are in this squad, and that our own Ambassador Abie Breakwell will make her Paralympics debut. 

2024 Golf Day wrap up

This year’s annual fundraising Golf Day was staged in memory of John Tucker, former Vice-Chairman and Trustee who was instrumental in the setting up of a Golf Day as our principal fundraising event. John was also responsible for suggesting Elaine Paige as our President when John Barrett stepped down. Elaine paid a moving tribute to John who passed away in February.

A total of just over £23,000 was raised – thank you to everyone who made this possible by participating, giving donations and supplier for offering goods and prizes.

A record number of 24 teams entered this year, including two teams organised by John’s granddaughter together with regulars who were old friends of John’s that have continued to support the Day year on year. Very appropriately “The Tucker Team” won the Day with an impressive 105 points. 

The RAC Club in Surrey provided a fantastic venue for the 2nd year running with weather to match. We shall be returning in 2025 for what will be the 25th Anniversary of the Golf Day so look out for the date to be announced later in the year.

2024 last round of grant funding

2024 has been another busy year for our grant funding programme. The last round of applications will close on October 27, so make sure you don’t miss the deadline if you would like to apply for funding. Remember this can be for an individual or for a group of disabled players and can be for a variety of purposes, the most popular being coaching, court hire and tennis wheelchairs.