It seems Spring has finally sprung and its great to have the new tennis year up and running. We already have had a great few months of tennis, social, coaching, competition but we are also very excited for the year ahead. I encourage you to read up on work done and being looked at for this year.

Firstly, I would like to welcome our new members. It is great to have you on board and please do participate, get in contact if you don’t know how things work.

Things I will be looking at in the short term:

• Socialising our 3 year plan, which we would love feedback on. The purpose of this is us all having ownership of what the club is trying to do. The plan looks at what the club is doing for members, seniors and juniors alike, programs and initiatives to keep the club running successfully, safely and enjoyably.
   
• Putting out the club survey, building on the one we did last year. This provided the committee with good information on how we can improve things for us all.
   
• Meeting new members at our meet and greet (details will be coming out soon)
   

It has also been a year that started out as bittersweet as two past members sadly passed away; Michael Warner and Dessie Marron. Both contributed greatly to the club either helping it get off the ground or helping it grow and thrive.

Hoping to see you down at the club.

Dave

The monkey survey done in 2024 indicated that the Internal club competitions scored the highest percentage in ways that members played tennis in the club, followed by DLTC leagues and then the Social Tennis on Tuesday nights. This showed that members wanted more tennis and to play Internal and External competitions.

The first internal tournament of the club year kicked off on the 7th of December with our Captains Night and the annual Turkey Tournament.

The chosen charity by Captains Elizabeth and Gareth, was Clane Tidy Towns raising €200 on the night. Hugh O’Neill’s better half Evelyn and fellow committee member Mary accepted the donation and thanked the tennis club for thinking of them as they have many projects in mind.

Clane Tidy Towns received a gold Medal award in 2024 so congratulations to them and many thanks also for keeping Clane town tidy.

The Turkey Tournament saw 29 entries:

1st Prize Suzanne Banim

2nd Prize Colm D’Rosario

3rd Prize Hugh O’Neill / Philip Mc Cormack

Although some members went all out to dress in Christmas attire, the Best Dressed member went to Juliette Sweeney. It was observed, not only had Juliette dawned a Christmas jumper and a hat she hand-knitted her Christmas ankle cuffs with Christmas tassels. 

Well done, Juliette!

Coaching

For some time, members have been asking for coaching to improve their tactics and skills during matches. With that in mind, two experienced level 3 coaches were sought by Aisling Mc Cormack (club secretary).  This coaching was partly subsidized by one of our sponsors AYU Cosmetics with Ciaran Redmond looking after members on Friday mornings and Scott Hubbard looking after members on Sunday mornings and afternoons.

The emphasis was on “Net Play”.  Over the Christmas break saw a few members trying the skill of “Top Spin”. Bad weather played havoc with the schedule and the coaching sessions extended into the month of March. While Ciaran is taking a break until after Easter, Scott continued with a Skills and Drills on Sundays which has just finished up. Both Ciaran & Scott are back after the Easter holidays to commence a 5 week  “Doubles Tactics & Drop Shot” program.

DLTC (Dublin Lawn Tennis Council) External Leagues

Winter League

The club entered 8 teams (4 ladies, 4 mens) into the Winter League which commenced in January 2025.  Our hearts went out to all the players who endured horrendous weather conditions during their matches. Winter weather for sure!

Although all teams went out and played their best, it was the Men’s Clane 1 team who made it to the Play-Off stage only to be beaten by a strong Donnybrook team.

Summer League

CLTC has entered 6 teams (4 ladies, 2 mens)

Team challenge ladders are in place until 30th April.

Challenges are 3 full set formats.

Start dates: Men 9/10th May Ladies 12/13/14th May. Fixtures confirmed.

Mixed League: 4th July - 15th August

Club Ladders

Members are encouraged to join the club ladders, either as a single player, a double pairing or both. The club ladders remain the primary system used to select players for both internal and external tournaments and leagues. Contact Judie Colthurst / Tanya Mc Cormack for the ladies’ ladders and Gareth Brogan for the Men’s ladders.

Ladies and Men’s Double Box League

This league is now completed and the committee were delighted with the high number of players who entered, 70 ladies and 38 men. This made for 6 Ladies Boxes and 4 Men’s Boxes. Because of the high numbers, the format had to be altered to allow members to complete matches. A 3rd set Championship Tiebreaker was introduced.

There are plans for a Single Box League, to run early Summer.

DOUBLES BOX LEAGUE RESULTS 2025

EVENT	WINNER	R/UP
Mens Box 1	Barry Kiely & Harry Kelly	Richie Mahony & Joe Gleeson
Mens Box 2	Manpreet Bawa & Dave Ferguson	Ciaran Cullen & James Smyth
Mens Box 3	Jason McCormack & PJ Ralph	Gerry Walsh & Paddy Conroy
Mens Box 4	Alan Mahony & Mossy Nolan	Fionn Murray & Harry Reid
Ladies Box 1	Claire Dalton & Cathy Walsh	Sarah Clarke & Catriona McAneney
Ladies Box 2	Anda Strauberga & Rachel McCarthy	Tanya McCormack & Aisling McCormack
Ladies Box 3	Aimee Bagnall & Emma Bagnall	Aine Woodhouse & Mary Keena
Ladies Box 4	Eve Fahy & Laura Edwards	Lorraine Power & Catherine Kenny
Ladies Box 5	Judy Colhurst & Cathy Dalton	Lisa Moore & Joan Carroll
Ladies Box 6	Fiona Coughlan Younge & Annemarie Delaney	Elaine Arthurs & Emer Keating

 

AYU Spring Championship

It’s been another successful year for our Spring Championship which was sponsored this year by Ayu Cosmetics.  The tournament started on the 31st of March and finished on the 12th April.

95 Players took part/ Entries 89/18 Events/ Draws 18.

Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up.

SPRING CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS 2025

EVENT	WINNER	R/UP
Mens Singles A	Barry Kiely	Wayne Quinn
Mens Singles B	Philip Byrne	Blazej Kryszewski
Mens Singles C	Abhinav Parmar	Ger Murray
Mens Singles R/R	Wael Zahr	Peter Ennis
Ladies A Singles	Sarah Clarke	Claire Dalton
Ladies B Singles	Rhea Moran	Hilary Moss
Ladies C Singles	Aileen Duffy	Sharon Reilly
Men A Doubles	Gareth Brogan & Mark Warner	Barry Kiely & Harry Kelly
Men B Doubles	Tommy McAndrew & Gerry Walsh	Alan Mahony & PJ Ralph
Men C Doubles	Markus Maier & Ger Murray	David Axmark & Gerry McTiernan
Ladies A Doubles	Claire Dalton & Sinead Dunne	Sarah Clarke & Catriona McAneney
Ladies B Doubles	Joan Doyle & Elizabeth Kiernan	Suzanne Doyle & Elaine Wallance
Ladies C Doubles	Akie Hayakawa & Chris Lloyd Rogers	Emer Keating & Elaine Powell Arthurs

 

Elizabeth and Gareth would like to thank all the members for their support and a special thank you to the respective sub-committees and club committee.

Despite the frosty start to 2025 our CLT Juniors enjoyed lots of competition!  Leixlip Tennis Club were invited to join us in Clane for a gripping and fun filled friendly in February and many of our older teens competed in the DLTC Men’s Winter League! Although their teams did not qualify, one of our strongest junior pairings (Matthew McTiernan and Adriano Chicos) subbed up to Class 5 and made their mark as they battled a brilliant match against strong opponents in Templeogue!  Well done lads!!

Our junior coaching 7 week program is currently in full swing with a record number of 171 children signed up under the care of our wonderful tennis coaches.  The program began on the 26th February and will run through until the 12th April.  The introduction of hourly sessions with smaller groups across our 10-12yr age group has proven extremely successful and our juniors are really seeing the benefits!  Well done to coaches Enzo & Annemarie and to our court assistant Laura Edwards who are doing brilliant work on court with this age group!

Many of our older juniors Adriano Chicos, Hubert Matofij, Rory Featherstone, Matthew McTiernan, Jason McCormack, Harry Reid, Fionn Banim, Eve Fahy and Laura Edwards all competed in both the ladies and men’s doubles box leagues which concluded on the 26th March.  See Winners in the Ladies and Mens Section!  You might spot a few junior winners!

We will be saying goodbye to Hubert, Rory, Matthew, Fionn and Cliona from our junior section this year, all of whom will be sitting their Leaving Cert in June!  We want to wish you every success in your exams and into the future.  You have done our juniors proud for many years and we hope that you will continue to thrive under the Clane umbrella of the Ladies and Men’s tennis sections!!

St. Patrick’s Day saw a super turnout of 40 of our younger juniors all who made great efforts to dress up and proudly represent our club by marching in the parade! We were delighted to welcome parents, children and members back to the clubhouse for refreshments and of course for those special St. Patricks Day goodie bags!!  Big thanks to our caretaker Tommy McAndrew who decorated the clubhouse so festively to successfully create a warm and welcoming atmosphere for all those who attended.

Thanks to all who participated in our Easter tournaments and congratulations to all our winners and runners-up.  Special thanks to Gillian Keenan who recently joined the junior committee and has taken over the running of all the 10-12yr social tournaments.  We are so thrilled to have you on board Gillian!!

A big shout out to all the parents who volunteered their time to assist with clubhouse supervision.  Junior coaching simply could not happen without your assistance!  Our Spring into Summer 6 week coaching program will begin on 30th April and we will be looking once again for your help!  Thank you all so much and feel free to let us know if you would like to help out on the junior committee or be part of a subcommittee.  We need all the help we can get!!

Our new BOUNCE program was announced on the 1st April and is set to start on the 17th May for 5 weeks.  This program will welcome juniors aged 4&5 years for the first time into Clane LTC and we are really excited about this new initiative!

May & June will see the introduction of box leagues for our older teens, generation games, interclub and social competitions for all our juniors.  LOTS to look forward to folks so KEEP UP THE PRACTICE EVERYONE!!

JNR Committee

Our table quiz was held on the 25 th January. This year Colm d’Rosario kindly volunteered to be our quiz master. Colm brought great fun and discussions to our night offering eight mixed rounds of general knowledge including music and guess the person using visual rounds. A great night was had by all with a generous amount of food and spot prizes provided by our members and our local community. We look forward to next year’s event with even more challenging questions from Colm.

Our Valentine’s tournament was to be held on Saturday the 15 th February. Unfortunately, due to poor entry numbers we were unable to go ahead with this event. Next year, we aim to make it a more successful event by running it on a Tuesday in tandem with our social night.

On the 15 th March, we organised a fund raising tournament for The Alzheimer’s Society Ireland. From time to time our club likes to raise funds for worthy causes and our members are always very supportive. We were happy to support one of our fellow members and their family by running this event. An amazing €1825 was raised through entry fees and cash donations. 

Spot prizes were also kindly donated by many of our club members and members of the community:

1st Prize – Westgrove Voucher

2nd Prize - Cookes of Caragh Voucher

3rd Prize – Madigan Cashmere wrap

4th Prize – Motion Physio Sports Massage

5th Prize – Millies Handcrafted ArtWork

6th Prize – Microwave Oven

Myself and Fiona Coughlan-Younge were delighted to present the cheque to The Alzeimhers day-care centre in Kildangan.
Thank you all for your donations for such a worthy cause.

Our Glow, Glam & Gab night was a huge success on the 28 th March bringing together our lady members and some friends for a night of beauty and class! Lesley Keane from Ayu and her assistant Reina were the perfect hosts and did a fabulous job of transforming our already gorgeous Tanya and Catriona to absolute perfection!

The bottles were popped as everyone received a glass of prosecco on arrival. There was also a huge choice of complimentary savoury and sweet delights for all to enjoy.

Ciara from Maiden jewellery and her daughter Emma had a beautiful display of setup for all to see offering a 20% discount to members on everything all year round. Two mannequins were displayed by La Maison Boutique offering a one week 20% discount for all. In addition, lots of spot prizes were raffled on the night with 14 of our ladies selected as lucky winners! Thanks to Aish, Elizabeth, Paula and Joan for organising such a successful night and to Mick Hennessy’s son Andrew who built our mini stage!

Our social Tuesdays continue to be a great success where members are welcome to play some fun and often competitive tennis. Of late, we introduced a new poll system which has proven to be a great success. Members must enter before 6pm choosing to play either 2 or 4 rounds. The purpose of the poll is to give the organisers time to setup the first round so that it can be played without delay at 7:30pm. The social team are always looking for volunteers to help with our Tuesday nights and social events throughout the year.

Please contact Paula on 085-7493399 if you would like to come on board!

A huge thank you to all who support our social team. We couldn’t run it without you!!

Seven weeks ago we started the Spring Social League and now after six matches, we still don’t know the winner!

The results were a mixed bag with some very satisfying wins and some very disappointing losses but most matches were very close fought. Regardless of results, there are few better ways to spend a Monday morning playing a favourite competitive sport followed by superb teas and chat!

I’m sure the ladies who took part really enjoyed the experience. Thanks to Aileen, Harriet, Juliette, Elaine, Annemarie, Fiona, Judie and Christina.

Chris Lloyd Rogers

Our year started off on a stormy front with some fence poles being lifted out of the ground behind court one. Luckily this caused no damage to the court and thanks to the volunteers the following Saturday morning we managed to put the poles and fence back into place with very little damage. This in turn has led us to move the sponsorship signs to the side of courts one and two. We also decided to put the screens up on a separate fence with stones in between the court fence and screen.

All this work is well under way and hopes to be finished soon. We plan to make our own planter boxes and put them behind courts 1 & 2 to add a bit of colour through the summer. Late last year the club held the annual Gabrielle Lee tournament and thanks to the generosity of our members and Thomas kindly picking the grounds for the funds raised, we were able to buy a large high quality planter box for the front entrance to the club. As always the club looks to support local businesses and we were able to do this when purchasing our planter box.

Other works carried out included planting daffodils bulbs last October which all blossomed in bright yellow this spring, the cutting back of leylandii trees opposite court three and a general sweep up of the grounds after winter. Looking ahead our spring/summer work includes new court carpets for courts 3 & 4,general weeding, painting and planting of flowers to give the club a colourful look for all members to enjoy.

Can members be mindful of litter around the club grounds especially the discarding of tennis ball lids on courts one and two. Bins are provided outside the gates of each court. We came up with a solution for not being able to empty the water off our on court benches, “bungee cords”. This allows the benches to remain in place during windy days but allows you to pull the benches forward to empty the water off or unhook one side to do the same. Finally we introduced a recycling collection point for old tennis balls in partnership with a company called “dyuce”.

This company recycles tennis balls and turns them into new products like runners etc, thus helping the environment.

As always a big thank you to Tommy for the daily upkeep and maintenance of the club!!

At Clane LTC we are committed to making tennis accessible to everyone in our community. With the help of professional coach Enzo Dowling we recently introduced the successful Enjoy Tennis Program with KARE who supports people with disabilities. This initiative provides a welcoming and supportive environment for all participants to experience the joy of tennis. Our partnership with KARE shows us the positive impact that inclusive sport programs can have on people’s lives.

EXPANDING OUTREACH with FREE MEMBERSHIP for Local Children

We are excited to announce the next step in our club’s commitment to community outreach. We recognise that many children in our local area have the potential to be great tennis players, however, may face financial barriers to participation. To address this, we have launched an initiative to offer free membership to four deserving primary school children from within the Clane community.

This initiative aims to make tennis more accessible and open doors for children who might otherwise miss out on the opportunity to be part of our wonderful club. As part of our outreach program, we will continue to expand our efforts to ensure that tennis remains a sport for everyone and remain committed to promoting an inclusive and welcoming environment for all!

We are excited to announce Wayne Quinn’s new mentor initiative at our club which is aimed at developing the skills and confidence of our older junior teenage boys. Through this innovative program, six of our top junior players (Hubert Matojif, Rory Featherstone, Matthew McTiernan, Jason McCormack, Fionn Murray and Harry Reid) will be paired with six of the club’s top male players (Wayne Quinn, Gareth Brogan, Barry Kiely, Harry Kelly, Colin Gray and Dave Fergusson) in a box league format.

This initiative will provide a unique opportunity for our older interested juniors to learn from the experience and expertise of our most accomplished men players and to gain valuable insights both on and off the court. The box league will not only encourage healthy competition but allow for personal mentoring, focus on skill improvement, match strategy and mental toughness.

We believe that this program will enhance the lads tennis abilities and their love for the game as they receive support and guidance from the well established players in the club.

Thanks Wayne for driving this brilliant initiative!!

If any of our ladies would like to offer the same opportunity for our older girls please text Aish on 086-0268997.

A Heartfelt Thank You to all our sponsors throughout 2024/2025 and to AYU Cosmetics for helping us to run our special social ladies event on the 28th March “Glow, Glam & Gab”.

AYU’s support has made a significant impact enabling us to introduce tennis coaching programs that cater to all skill levels within our club.  With the funds provided, we have been able to offer professional coaching ensuring that both beginners and advanced players have the opportunity to improve and enjoy the sport in a supportive and structured environment.

In addition to the coaching program and with the help of Sonja O’Neill,  AYU’s involvement went above and beyond with the successful social event, Glow, Glam & Gab.  This fun and engaging evening was attended by 40 of our lady members and created a wonderful sense of community within the club.

Lesley Keane, AYU’s professional make-up artist not only transformed two of our lady members Tanya McCormack and Catriona McAneney into gorgeous super models but gave everyone lots of tips and tricks on how to improve our make-up game!!

Not only was this event a great way for our members to connect, but it also raised additional funds that will continue to support the club’s growth and activities.

And Finally

Thank you to all our sponsors for their continued support of our club.