British Tennis Membership will now be free for all members of affiliated clubs until at least 2012.

Over 96,000 people have signed up to British Tennis Membership since it was launched in March. It's encouraging that so many people have signed up and are beginning to receive their benefits, however, there are approximately 400,000 members of tennis clubs in Great Britain so many of your members may still be missing out. It would be great if you could promote the extended period of  FREE British Tennis Membership to your adult and junior members so they can all start enjoying the benefits.

Remember that from 2009 the number of Wimbledon tickets allocated to your club will be based on the number of your club members that have signed up to British Tennis Membership by the 30th November 2008. In addition, in 2009 all of your club members (including juniors aged 9 and over) must be able (if they wish) to enter your clubs’ Wimbledon ticket ballot without restrictions and those tickets distributed through your club ballot can only be allocated to members of British tennis.

To recognise and reward clubs that are being successful in signing up their members to British Tennis Membership, 250 clubs have received an additional allocation of Wimbledon tickets. For further information and to sign up visit http://www.lta.org.uk/britishtennismembership

Well done to the Juniors from the Club that entered the Kent County Junior Championships Aug 25-30th.

Jack Ibbetson, Laurence Harvey, Eve Davies, Lauren Benson, Harry Palmer and James Carlton all perforded well against the best players in Kent. With up to 128 players in each age group the competion run over 6 days at three venues - Beckenham, Bromley and Orpington.

Laurence made it through to the third round before losing to Gianluca Sidhu - the third seed in the U18 boys event.  Jack went out in the second round of the U16's, and Harry won his first round match before losing in round two agaist Kent player Sean Ward.  James made it to the last 16 in the U12's main draw before Ben Abbot from Canterbury -  seeded two - beat him.

Eve Davies ( U16 girls) and Lauren Benson (U14 girls) both lost in the first round but then proceeded to work their way through their consolation draws with both of them getting to the final. Eve narrowly lost out in a third set tie break, but Lauren won her final beating Naomi Wylde from Maidstone 6-4 6-1.

James also teamed up with Joe Shields from Hythe in the boys doubles and won three rounds before going out in the semi final.

Well done to all players as they improve their game through playing competition whilst also representing the Club.

The Ladies Tournament was attended by 8 ladies so we had 2 groups of 4.  From Group 1, Sara and Ann Morgan went through to the final and from Group 2 it was Jane Harvey and Lyn Hope.

In the final stage of the tournament, we each played 5 games with each other person and added together the number of games won to find the overall winner.  The results were as follows:

Jane Harvey     12 games
Sara                  8 games
Lyn Hope           8 games
Ann Morgan        2 games

The Mens Tournament was played alongside the Ladies, and also enjoyed with 8 men taking part, the eventual winner being Tom Carlton.

The tennis was made quite difficult because of the blustery conditions, but the afternoon was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.

Whilst Roger and Rafa were preparing to play in the final of the mens event at Wimbledon in the afternoon , Bethersden held their own prelude to it in the morning when 13 men – most of similar physique to Nadal - turned up to play a singles event at Ashford School Courts.

With the wind getting stronger by the minute and rain forecast, it was always going to be tricky for our talented sportsmen but in the early round-robin group stages there were some titanic battles going on.

Jeremy Hall was playing in his imperious style in an early encounter with Sam Carlton but failed to take two match points and ended up on the wrong end of a 7-5 scoreline.

Paul Scullard shot down young pretender Jack Ibbetson 6-3, and Simon Hall and Nick Sparkes traded blows before Simon sneaked home 6-4.

The group stages were all about vying for position when the knock out stages started so good results should have ensured an easier draw. Dark Horse David Wallis got two wins out of two against Pete Sparkes and Sam Carlton. Tom Carlton saw off Pete Jones but then lost 6-4 to Laurence Harvey which gave the 17 year old a bye to the quarter finals.

Tim Winch also notched two wins and along with Laurence and Simon could wait and watch whilst the knock out stages began with the 5 remaining quarter final places at stake.

Graeme Valentine overcame Pete Sparks 6-2, and in a marathon encounter it was Pete’s dad Nick who edged out David Wallis 7-6. Sam saw off a good performance from Paul whilst Jeremy lost to Tom. Young Jack played his best tennis of the morning but still couldn’t overcome the experience of Pete Jones.

In the last eight it was Graeme who came through 6-3 against Pete Jones whose plight wasn’t helped by a hamstring injury. Tom and Tim faced each other with Tom going through 6-1, the score line not reflecting the game. Nick faced Simon for the second time of the day but the result was the same – Simon through to the semi final to face Laurence who beat Sam 6-2.

By now the wind was a major factor and with the rain also falling conditions was less than easy, however the two semi finals continued with Laurence seeing off Simon 6-1 and Tom going through by the same score against Graeme.

The final was a great match with both players managing to deal with the wind. An early break of serve gave Laurence the advantage and he looked set for victory before Tom levelled in up at 5-5.  The match proceeded to a tie break where it was Laurence who was victorious 7-4, his big serve proving to be vital.

Well played Laurence!!

Tom Carlton – Bethersden’s Head coach has voted as as Coach of the Year 2008 by Kent LTA. At the Kent LTA’s annual presentation and awards dinner, Tom was announced as the winner and picked up the award.

The award was in recognition of the work done at Bethersden over the last few years which has put the Club firmly on the tennis map. The school links and junior development programme was highlighted as well as the achievement of the Club in being the first in the country to gain Tennis Clubmark Accreditation.

Tom thanked the Club Committee for all the support they have given him and also acknowledged the part that Tudor Rowe, Kent LTA’s Club Development Officer has played in the Clubs progress.