Welcome to the latest regular email update of the exciting things happening at your tennis club.

It’s at the Fishbourne Centre hall on Saturday 5 December and is filling up fast, so to avoid disappointment put all names down as soon as possible. At just £15 per person you are guaranteed a sparkling evening of entertainment with the acclaimed NuthinYet Band performing live. The price includes a fish and chip supper (fresh from the van!) with gateaux to follow, plus there will be a raffle with great prizes and plenty of fun and dancing. You can pay online (sort code 09-01-53; account: 33095480) or pop a cheque in the safe in the clubhouse.

Raffle tickets went on sale at the club on Saturday 21 November and will be available right up to the date of the party – unless sold out first! Which they may well do, for this year there’s a great selection of prizes on offer, including beauty and physio treatments, health club memberships, coaching sessions, meal vouchers, acclaimed and signed publications, wine tasting and more!

The club’s new OpenPlay online court booking service, accessed via the website, is working well with members reporting it to be easy and quick to use. All members should use it when needing to book a court, as should team captains when arranging matches and Generation Tennis for coaching sessions. If you haven’t used it yet do go and have a quick look –  it doesn’t bite. A click here will take you straight to it. Take a bow Tim F for setting it up so brilliantly. If you do have any queries about it there’s a link on the site where you can post questions for Tim.

Changes to the format of the club championships this year caused some differences of opinion among members. But what exactly were the changes, did they succeed in their stated aims and, most important, how can we take the championships forward in 2016?  All members are being asked to contribute their views and ideas before a decision is taken. You can read a short summary of the 2015 Championships and options for 2016 on the website, where there is also a direct link for you to tell the committee what you think. A click here will take you straight to the relevant page.

While on the website don’t forget to look at two new features: the first is a gallery of photographs of members past and present in their Christmas festive dress best – all to get you in a fancy dress frame of mind for this year’s  Festive Dress tennis day on Saturday 19 December. And then if still in the mood for reminiscing (and laughing at some dubious taste in clothes and haircuts!), click on  ‘How it all started’ in the main menu bar. Here you can enjoy a whirlwind pictorial tour through Fishbourne Tennis Club’s history since 1983.  Can you see yourself in any of the shots? All the pictures are from Roy’s FTC photo archive (which is also accessible from the website). To go straight to the page click here.

No we are not changing the clocks again, this is the extra hour we now have on Monday and Thursday evening club sessions. Already several members are taking advantage of this and starting at 5pm, so if you turn up then you’re bound to get a game. The extra hour was put on to extend winter playing times on the floodlit courts.