2023 CLUB UPDATES

IMPORTANT: CLUB RULES

May 20. 2023

There are a few very important booking rules at the club that everyone should be familiar with because violating these rules could cause you to have your booking privileges temporarily suspended or even entirely revoked.

1. Guests: Guests are only allowed to play at our club in the afternoon during public court hours, on a walk-on basis. Members are not allowed to use other members names to book the courts and then brings guests instead. If you are caught doing this, your membership will be revoked without refund. Our courts are for members only and anyone that wants to play on our courts (other than guests visiting for league play, players in lessons, or guests playing in the afternoon during public court hours) must purchase a membership.

2. Names booked on the court: All of the members who are playing on a court should be booked on that court. If you are playing doubles, there should be 4 members booked on the court. If you are playing singles, there should be 2 members booked on the court. If someone drops out and is replaced by another member, the court should be cancelled and immediately re-booked with all of the correct names. Currently, there is no way to edit the names on the court without cancelling and re-booking. We have never seen a problem with this, but if you do have a last-minute change of players and you are unable to cancel and re-book, or if this is not possible for some other reason, please email our Club Manager, Brett, to notify him. His email address is: manager@rhltc.ca.

3. Booking Juniors: Adult members are not allowed to play in place of a junior member. Our junior memberships are deeply discounted to encourage young people to take up the game. It is a serious violation of our rules to book a court with a junior member and replace that person with an adult member or a guest. If there is a last-minute change, the court needs to be cancelled and re-booked with the correct names. If a junior member is booked on a court, he or she must be playing. Anyone caught doing this will have their membership revoked without refund.

4. Single players: Our courts cannot be booked by single players. We require at least two people to be playing to book a court. If you want to use your own ball machine, you must book the court with 2 members, and both must be present. We also ask that you only book on court 4 so that the balls do not interfere with the other courts. If you'd like to just use a court to practice your serve, you can try to come during public court hours in the afternoon and you can use the court as a single person if no one else is waiting. If there are others waiting, you will need to give them the court or let them join you. All members are also welcome to walk-on to any unbooked courts at any time. This would be another way to practice your serve as a single (or use a ball machine on court 4) provided there are no other members waiting to use the court as well. If other members are waiting to walk-on, you would have to share the court with them or let them take it over as having 2 or more players on our courts is the rule when players are waiting.

5. Cancelling courts: With the convenience of online court booking, there is an added responsibility for members to use the courts they have reserved. Cancellations can be made online up until 1 hour before a reserved court time. Failure to cancel a court in time or no shows will result in an automatic 7-day loss of booking and playing privileges. During this penalty period, the member will not be able to book any courts on our booking system. Please remember that we are a tennis community, and we need to be respectful to each other. We hope that all members will use the time that they book or cancel if their plans change. We need to ensure that our courts are not wasted. If the courts are wet and cannot be used, you do not have to cancel your court.

6. Reporting Violations: We will do our best to ensure that there are no violations of our rules, but we do not always have monitors or coaches on the courts to check. If you see a violation, we would appreciate you letting us know about it by contacting Brett at: manager@rhltc.ca. Your identity will be kept confidential. Hopefully, all of our members will commit to following the rules, so that our courts are used fairly and so we don't have to take any steps to enforce our rules.

A couple of additional notes:

Rollers: We would appreciate if all members can do us a favour and make sure that the rollers that are used to dry the courts after it rains are always hung up on the fence or at least placed upside down. They should not be resting on the roller itself as this causes the rollers to become flat and then they do not work as well to remove the water. If you see a roller sitting on the ground, please hang it up or turn it over for us.

Cameras: When you are not sure whether the courts are wet or dry, you can log in to our main website at rhltc.ca and use the link on the main page to view our court cameras. You can only see the cameras after you have logged into the website. At present, our camera on courts 5/6 is not working. We have requested a service, but we do not know exactly when it will be repaired. Our camera on court 1-4 is working, but it was moved when the fence was repaired, and it is pointing straight down and needs to repositioned with a special part. You can still use this camera to see if the courts are wet or dry, but we are doing our best to get it repositioned and to get both of the cameras working.

Returning balls after league play: Please remember to bring your balls back to the club house (or give them to your captain who will return them) after your matches. We use these balls again for socials and clinics. We count on getting them back, so we don’t have to open new balls.

Reviewing booking rules: We recommend that all members review our court booking guidelines posted on our website to ensure that you understand how to book courts and what the rules and restrictions are.

Thank you for your attention and adherence to these very important rules.

Yours truly,

Carol Yack

VP, Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club

WELCOME TO THE 2023 SEASON AT RHLTC

April 7. 2023

It has been a long winter, but outdoor tennis is here. Yesterday we brought up the nets, which means that those who have renewed their membership can start booking courts right away. Thank you to Raj and Rob for volunteering and the extra hands from those who were around. We will need a few more to set up the windscreens in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned for that.

Court Booking

A couple of items to note regarding court booking and play in the next few weeks:

a) Only courts 1 to 4 are available for booking as 5 and 6 are still pending resurfacing work. We are following up with the City contractor to ask them to take advantage of the upcoming weather window to finish resurfacing before the season goes in full gear.

b) The clubhouse will remain closed until we start organized activities in May. If you need access to washrooms, the closest at this point are in the Centennial Pool building within the Crosby Park. The washrooms at the back of the clubhouse will be open when the City completes their de-winterization procedures.

c) Those of you who had access to the booking system from last year will be reactivated upon renewal. Those of you who are new will receive access after registration is complete. In both cases, please allow 24 to 48 hours from the time of payment for us to finalize the set up.

d) In the meantime, please review the court booking rules on our website to ensure we continue to use the system properly and optimize the experience for all.

Intercounty Tryouts

Evenings Mixed Intercounty Tryouts continue through the month of April as we are progressively filling in the rosters from A through C. Please refer to the communication sent on March 9th for more information in case you missed it.

Daytime Ladies Intercounty Tryouts are also being planned as per our communication on March 31st. Please refer to it if you are interested in playing.

More to come

Don’t forget to renew your membership if you have not done so yet. It is important that we know who will be playing this summer to properly size activities and teams. We have extended the early bird date to May 14th to give members time to learn about Intercounty rosters, but don't wait if you know you are playing at our club.

The House League will return this summer with its competitive format. We will organize tryouts at the end of April to assess all of you who are new to the club or want to get reranked. Don’t wait to sign up.

Remember that lessons will start on May 1st and there are a few spots still available.

That’s all for now. We will keep you posted on next steps.

Enjoy playing outdoors!

Regards,  
David Garcia
President Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club

LADIES DAYTIME INTERCOUNTY TENNIS

March 31. 2023

It's almost time for spring tennis again! We are planning to have 7 ladies teams this year. On Wednesday mornings, we will have our regular Majors, A and B levels play. On Monday mornings, we will have two North York league teams, Division 1 (A/B level) and Division 2 (B/C level). You can play on these teams in addition to the ICTA teams. On Tuesdays, we will have two ICTA Ladies C teams. The ICTA has informed us that the ladies C league will definitely proceed this year. So far there are two other teams in Newmarket and Bramalea. The other locations are about a 30-minute drive from our courts. Since we plan to have two teams in the ladies C league, we will have twice the number of home matches as the other teams and therefore there will be less travel. We will not be offering ladies C 'friendly matches' this year and those will be replaced by the intercounty matches.

If you are interested in playing on any of these teams, please add your name to this list. Tryouts will be scheduled around the beginning of May and details will be sent out to players who are on our list.

Hope to see you on the courts! 

Regards,  
Carol Yack
Vice President Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club

TRYOUTS FOR EVENING MIXED INTERCOUNTY

March 9. 2023

We are about to start our tryouts for competitive intercounty evening mixed teams for the upcoming outdoor season. Ladies and over 55 daytime tryouts will begin closer to the start of the season. Tryouts will take place in stages this year. At this time, we would like to ask you to fill out the attached form if you are a new player (who did not play on an intercounty team at our club last year) or if you are a player who would like to play at a higher or lower level than you played last year at our club. For players who intend to stay on the same team as last year, your captain will be contacting you directly and you should not fill out this form. Please note that the second A team (captained by Andy and Wilfred last year) will most likely play at the B level this year. If you played in Andy’s team and prefer to stay at the A level, please complete this form.

We would appreciate it if you could please also pass this email to any players you know who may be interested in playing intercounty tennis at our club.

Again, if you want to return to the same level team, you should NOT fill out the form at this time and rather let your captain know directly that you are available to return for the season. The attached form is only for new players and those wishing to change levels.

The tentative (indoor) tryout dates are:

• March 11, 18 - A tryouts

• March 25, April 1, 8 - B tryouts

• April 15, 22 - C tryouts.

Do not attend unless you are contacted by a captain and asked to attend. Dates and times are subject to change.

This season, we plan to enter one A team on Thursday evenings, three B teams on Tuesday evenings and two or three C teams on Thursday evenings.

Looking forward to a great summer of tennis!

Regards,  
Raj Bagrath
Leagues Director Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club

WELCOME TO THE 2023 SEASON AT RHLTC

February 25. 2023

Even though it is still cold out there it is time to start thinking about outdoor tennis. This summer we will be back with Social Nights, House League, Intercounty and Tournaments to complement lessons and casual tennis.

Last year we couldn’t complete the resurfacing project due to uncooperative weather in October. Courts 1 to 4 are good to go, but courts 5 and 6 need the last layers of coating and paint. We will need a few days of dry and warm weather, but rest assured that we will be doing our best to have all courts ready as soon as possible.

To start planning the season, we are opening registration with our fees remaining at the same level as in previous years, with an early bird discount if you complete your registration before Opening Day (April 29th).

Adult Membership - $105 ($95 early bird rate – before April 29th)

Family Membership - $250 ($230 early bird rate –before April 29th)

Junior Membership - $35

Take advantage of the early bird fees and register now!

For those interested in playing in the House League there is an additional charge of $20. Please ensure you select the option to join the House League if you want to play. For Intercounty players, fees will be collected once the rosters are confirmed. Stay tuned for updates on Intercounty tryouts coming up soon.

We continue to offer lessons for kids and adults under the supervision of our Pro Adam Johnston. Registration for spring and summer lessons is already open through our website. Sign up before it is too late.

Although the season starts officially on April 29th, we will endeavour to have the nets up as soon as the weather allows after April 1st and court booking will be available immediately. We will also try to bring the windscreens up as early as possible so that we can enjoy the better conditions they provide. Stay tuned for our call to assist with the installation.

Looking forward to seeing you on the courts very soon!

Regards,  
David Garcia
President Richmond Hill Lawn Tennis Club