Almost 80 FTC members, their friends and family rocked the Fishbourne Centre to its foundations on Saturday 3 December at the club’s Christmas party.

Once again the format of the evening proved a great success, with a live band, dancing, the fish ’n chip van and bar with club prices all getting a giant Fishbourne thumbs up.

Despite the modest £17 a head ticket price, early indications are that, once again, the Christmas party will make a small but valuable overall contribution to club funds, even without the funds raised by the raffle.

Thanks to the amazing support of members and the generous participation of sponsors, the raffle raised an incredible £347, with the Heads ’n Tails game adding a further £62. All this additional income means the club’s new Floodlight Fighting Fund is off to a storming start.

Sponsors of the raffle this year included YONEX which donated a signed San Wawrinka tennis shirt (won by Sue Lord), a superb racquet bag and six tubes of balls, all of which were gratefully received by the lucky winners.

GOODWOOD GOLF donated golf lessons with one of their golfing pros (won by Derek Nordern) while our brilliant coaching partners  GENERATION TENNIS  generously provided  a one-to-one lesson with Alex – won by Roy Hay – and with JJ, which was won by Val Doling. A sports massage with LINDY GRIFFITHS was among the other prizes.

The two one-day passes to the GOODWOOD HEALTH CLUB  – worth £50 or so – have been won but since the person who bought the winning tickets just left a note saying “four strips of tickets, £20” in the safe with no name (doh!) we don’t know who they are. If they could please come forward.

Lots of other people won “lucky dip” prizes which had been donated by members.

The one person left standing after the new fund-raising fun game of Heads ’N Tails was Sarah Stewart who won a fruit cake and bottle of sloe gin.

Fishbourne Tennis Cub would like to thank all the organisations and members who kindly donated prizes and made this year’s raffle the best yet – and hopefully will help ensure the speedy installation of the extra floodlights so badly needed.

More thanks must go to Jean and her crew who managed (against the odds you’d have to say) to bring an intimate tennis club atmosphere into the Fishbourne Centre hall. Lights, streamers and superb table decorations with impeccable attention to detail really put everyone in the Christmas party mood.

The Coast to Coast fish and chip van again parked right outside the hall and ensured everyone was fed with steaming grub – fish and chips could not be any fresher than this.

Confirming the evening’s astonishing value for money was a table groaning under the weight of assorted gateaux arranged by Jean, queen of desserts.

It was a welcome return for the club’s favourite band, the Nuffin’Yet Band, who were more popular than ever and whose set had everyone dancing from the beginning of the evening to the very end.

Thanks to all the people who helped ensure the success of this year’s party, and all those who stayed at the end to help with the clear up. Thanks too to Philippa and her colleague behind the bar, and Jim at the centre.

Roll on next year for more of the same!

Bob Murray