Greetings from our President Elaine Paige OBE

Looking back on my Christmas message for last year’s Newsletter, who would have thought that the pandemic would still very much be with us. At least some normality was restored in our day to day lives and looking at the year from the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust point of view, we have been busier than ever with demand from people with disabilities who are playing tennis. 

This is great news for us and as you will see from the stories, good news also came for two of GB’s players, Alfie Hewett, and Dermot Bailey, who heard that the re-classification for wheelchair tennis means that they carry on competing. 

For me personally, I am delighted that there was a unanimous decision by the trustees for me to continue as the Trust’s President for another 3-year term.  The charity is really dear to my heart, and I believe passionately in the work we do to support disabled tennis players.  A highlight for me was the podcast I hosted with John Barrett, the first President of the Trust, Virginia Wade and Sam Smith.  If you haven’t had a listen – here is the link. Of course, it has been another difficult year in terms of fundraising for all charities and hope all of you reading this will consider supporting us in whatever way you can.  Please see the website for ways you can donate or run a fundraising activity.

I would like to make special mention of those who supported the Virtual Golf Tournament. Southerness Golf Club in Scotland, where Dan Maskell used to play when visiting Scotland, ran a superb day raising over £6,000. Fantastic! 

I would also like to thank those regular supporters who have generously made donations and the Wimbledon Foundation who were able to give us an additional donation thanks to matched funding from HSBC. Due to this we were able to consider a record number of applications at our last meeting of the year.

All that remains is for me to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and the very best for the New Year. 

Elaine's website

New Videos!

We have recently produced two new videos to help raise awareness of the Trust and encourage people to raise funds for us. The first video is a promotional video which tells more about our great Charity and hears from a number of our Ambassadors. You can watch and share our video through this link.

Next, Abbie Breakwell our fantastic Ambassador has helped us to make a quick video showing people how to sign up for easyfundraising and amazon smile. These two initiatives allow you all to raise funds for the Trust without really doing anything! Once you sign up, nearly every online retailer will make a small donation to us each time you shop with them, it’s really that simple. So, for our Christmas present please can you sign up and encourage others to as well? We currently only have 14 people signed up and we can do much better. You can watch and share our video through this link.

Virtual Golf Tournament and Golf Day 2022 

In the absence of the annual Celebrity Golf Challenge for two years, a Virtual Golf Tournament was launched to take place over a two-week period in October. This was extremely successful mainly thanks to Southerness Golf Club in Dumfries and William Watt who organised Golf Days as part of the national campaign, plus others who either participated or gave donations in support. Southerness Golf Club was where Dan Maskell used to play when visiting Scotland and the day event was suggested by retiring staff member Gill Robinson. Dan’s daughter Robin Charlton attended with Keith Thom, one of our wheelchair tennis Ambassadors.  Long standing supporter Will Watt organised a day at the RAC Club in Epsom which was attended by a team from Ashridge and DMTT Vice Presidents Marcus Buckland and Andrew Castle who, with their respective partners came 1st and 2nd!  Marcus also won the national tournament and three pairs from Epsom Golf Club, organised by Dave Burrell, took 2nd, 3rd, and 4th places.

SAVE THE DATE! In 2022 the Celebrity Golf Challenge returns to Ashridge on 27th April and will be held in honour of David Mercer who was instrumental in organising the day there and encouraging members to play.  Further information is available from Gilly@danmaskelltennistrust.org.uk. 

Paralympians Update

Team GB were once again very successful at the Paralympics this year, returning with four medals! (Silver in Men’s and Women’s Doubles and Bronze in Men’s and Women’s Singles)

As Elaine mentioned above, more great news followed for the team after both Alfie Hewett and Dermot Bailey were successful in their re-classification into wheelchair tennis. Both had been told in 2019 that under the new rules set by the ITF they would no longer be able to compete after the Tokyo Paralympics. However, after a review it was announced in November this year that both were eligible to continue playing – we are so glad!

There were also two retirement announcements for our Team GB players this year – our Ambassador Louise Hunt and grand slam superstar Jordanne Whiley both announced they will be retiring from competitive tennis. We wish them both the best of luck in their future endeavours and will certainly miss seeing them on court.

LTA Disability National Championships 

We were so glad to see that the LTA was able to host National Championships in all four disability categories this year. Even more heart warming for us was to see how many of the players taking part have been awarded a grant by the Trust in the past. In fact at the Wheelchair Nationals, every Singles Champion (Men’s Andrew Penney, Women’s Martha Harris, Quad Gary Cox, Novice Josh Pritchard and Junior Oliver Cox) had received a grant from us. Winners at the Deaf, Learning Disability and Visually Impaired Nationals also had a strong representation of grant recipients. There are too many categories to list everyone here but you can check the posts on our Facebook page for more information and please join us in congratulating all the players who came away National Champions.

EXEAT and fundraising platform Work for Good 

The Trust announced earlier in the year a new charitable partner – EXEAT. EXEAT is a luxurious new tennis clothing brand inspired by the dazzling allure of the grass court season and uses sustainable fabric that powerfully supports play whilst preserving the planet with an ultra-low carbon footprint. EXEAT has already made two valuable donations to the Trust from sales of their products on their website. 

We are also excited by another fundraising opportunity in ‘Work for Good’ which allows business big or small to sign up to make donations to the Trust easily and securely. Work for Good removes the need for legal agreements and can allow a business to make one off donations, or set up a % or piece donation for their sales. A big thank you to lilactreemakes for introducing us to this opportunity and for being our first supporter. Please encourage any small business’s you know to also get involved.

Record number of grants - dates for next year and notice of changes 

Despite the pandemic, the demand for support increased steadily throughout the year and for the last meeting in November, 50 grant applications were considered by the Trustees who made the decision to help as many people as possible. This will mean that the amount committed will exceed the budget allocated for the year. 38 wheelchairs have been awarded, 21 equipment bags and 77 monetary grants for groups and individuals.

There are some price increases to chairs from 2022 which will impact on player contributions.  All information including dates for next year will be available from our website

Special Project – Disability Sports Coach 

One of the Special Projects supported by DMTT is an organisation  - Disability Sports Coach -and our funding centred around the delivery of tennis at two of their Community Clubs in Southwark and Hounslow.  During the pandemic when the clubs were closed, DSC sent out activity guides and equipment packs for its members to use at home. These have proved particularly popular and although the Hounslow Club remains closed, Southwark has gone from strength to strength. Some inspiring case studies have resulted – please see our website for further details.  DMTT funding continues into 2022 and includes LTA Coach Education and further coaching and support from the LTA for equipment.

Changes in administration 

Lorna Flower who joined DMTT in 2019 to help with the administration of the grant programme is leaving us at the end of this year.  Lorna has done a sterling job in the management of the ever-increasing grant process and on behalf of everyone we would like to thank her and wish her all the very best in her new career as a swimming coach.

Although never a good time to lose a valuable member of the team, Lorna’s departure  has come at the same time as Gilly wishing to reduce the amount of her workdays and Liz Terry’s  willingness to expand her role. Liz will become Communications and Special Projects Manager from 1st January and will take on the management of the grants programme. Liz has done a great job in producing the podcast series and promotional video and also developing case studies and social media presence. Gilly will continue as Executive Director.  

Extra donation from Wimbledon Foundation 

In September we received the amazing news that the Wimbledon Foundation wished to donate £20,000 to the Trust. Previous donations have come via the Ticket Resale Scheme at The Championships, which includes match funding from The Championships’ Official Supplier, HSBC. Despite the decision not to run the Ticket Resale Scheme this year, the Foundation and HSBC are committed to supporting the sector and therefore are delighted to offer this donation to The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust. This made a tremendous impact on the grants the Trustees were able to consider at the final meeting of the year. 

Re-election of Elaine as President and Retirement of Lilas Davison 

As Elaine mentioned in her welcome message, she is to continue as the Trust’s President for a further three-year term.  Elaine has been President since 2010 when the Trust became an official charity, taking over from the first President John Barrett (who of course worked with the late Dan Maskell).  Elaine is very committed to the Trust’s work and is a regular attendee at meetings and events and a great contributor too.  We are delighted she remains as President.

We are saying goodbye to another great supporter of the Trust – Lilas Davison – who is stepping down as a Trustee.  Lilas has not only played a major part in the world of tennis via the LTA, but she has also always been involved with disability tennis from her days as the official nurse during Wheelchair events and has been a founder member of the Tennis Foundation under whose auspices DMTT was formed and has acted as a Trustee since 2010.  She is also a major donor to the work of the Trust. We thank Lilas for her major contribution to DMTT – we have much enjoyed working with her over so many years

Tribute to Val Fisher

The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust was incredibly saddened to hear of the passing of Val Fisher in October.

Val was a passionate wheelchair tennis player who will be remembered by so many as a friend. Val always made sure she was the first to include new players and make them feel welcome and was instrumental in fundraising for the Trust, helping to organise fundraisers at the Shrewsbury Wheelchair Tennis Tournaments and more recently by competing in our physical challenge in early 2021.

Val will always be remembered by the wheelchair tennis community as a kind, caring, passionate lady with a big smile on her face. Everyone at the DMTT sends their sincere condolences to Val’s husband, her son’s, family and her many many friends.

Ideas for 2022 – always welcome – please get in touch 

A special project we are planning in 2022 is an online donation/memory book to commemorate 30 years since Dan Maskell passed away.  It is rather fitting that this anniversary coincides with Wimbledon’s celebration of 100 years of the Centre Court. We hope that people who remember Dan will share their memories of him and donate in memory of his passion for rehabilitation of people through sport.

We are always open to ideas to help us – either fundraising or raising our profile so please do get in touch if you have any suggestions.  Contact either Gilly  or Liz 

Thanks to all supporters and Happy Christmas 

Thank you to everyone who has supported the Trust or benefitted from a grant, and we wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a wonderful New Year.