The CURTC AGM was standing room only (and not because we’d removed all the chairs…). Fortified with some delicious white courtesy of Ken Moody, President George get a rapid review of what has been a notable season for the Club. Also, the finances are in good shape (but we could always do with a few more members). The Varsity teams repeated last year’s sweep and Ed and Jamie are unbeaten in the National League Division 1 (and the website is looking good).

But on to the main business of the meeting which was to guess the number of winning shots in the Varsity Captains’ Challenge. Played-off handicap, Sophie was 2-0 up before Alex had worked out which bits of the Court he could safely aim at. While he ruined my guess with repeated Dedans misses, he clawed back to lead 5-2. Sophie (briefly) stopped smiling and suddenly it was 7-All. And 40-All. Alex missed the Tambour by a whisker yet managed to hit the Grille (banned Tambour was part of his handicap) to clinch it. Some photos above, just click on them for larger versions.

And the winner with the correct guess of 11 and the closest to the number of WGs/Dedans/Grilles was….Isabella Harvey, last photo above.

Back to the AGM…
President’s Report, George Pearson
It has been a particularly busy year for club, and particularly successful. Thanks are due to many.

CURTC were the principal hosts for the World Masters (a T&RA event) in May 2015. That meant two weeks of intense activity. It went very well: congratulations to the Pros. Cambridge University is formalising its relationship with sports clubs bearing its name. CURTC is one of three university clubs in a pilot of what will then apply to all university sports clubs. The new regime will mean a series of policies as to how we run ourselves. So far the process has been slow.

We are considering replacing our existing lighting (not the fittings) with LEDs because we spend a lot on electricity lighting the courts and could make a substantial saving. The technology is advancing rapidly, the choices seem to grow rapidly. We are also looking to replace in due course the venerable booking system, Book Now Plus, which has served us well since 2003. Enormous thanks to John Burnett for Book Now Plus and for supporting it all this time. We accept though that he cannot support it indefinitely. We are in dialogue with the T&RA on some adaptations of their system which would make it a very acceptable successor to Book Now Plus. We may need to use the two systems in parallel for a while.

The Irish Real Tennis Association has been trying for some time to resurrect a court. CURTC, through Jeremy Fairbrother, have submitted to the Dublin planning authorities an objection to a proposed conversion from the original purpose of the building.

The events of the 150th anniversary celebrations (14-16 April) brought much enjoyment to many and did a lot of good for the club and for real tennis. Thanks to those who put in great efforts to make it a success. Extraordinary attention to detail helped to make it a triumph. Christie Marrian deserves special thanks. Also Gillian Moore, Kate Kirk, Vix Harvey, and many others.

We need to maintain and preferably grow the Club’s membership. All members are asked to introduce friends and family to this great game. Anyone who has ideas, please talk to Kees. One thing we are short of as a club is a committee member with special responsibility for membership, both growing it and supporting it. Today we are creating of new post of Membership Secretary. Bernie Carpenter (already a committee member) would be willing to stand.
George Pearson proposed Bernie Carpenter as Membership Secretary. Christie Marrian seconded him. Nobody opposed.