Chair’s Message
Winter is arriving and so has the rain. It is now that we can see the benefits of the investments the Club has made in the past. The tennis air halls have gone up, thanks to Chris Hughes and team, giving us ten Indoor Courts, and the new clay ‘advantage red’ courts are playable in a much wider range of conditions. We now benefit from some of the best winter tennis provision in the country.
The golf course has proved remarkably playable given the high volume of rain we continue to receive. A big part of that has been due to continual investment in the drainage of the greens, fairways, and approaches alongside a phenomenal effort from Peter Bradburn, David Howe, and his greenkeepers. Investment in bunker drainage is next on the list. Our Health Club is one of the best of all member sports clubs in the country. The investments in studio space, free weights, Pilates, hydro spin equipment to name just a few are remarkably well used.
All of this is due to smart long-term investment and improvement over many years and is a key driver behind the Board’s current thinking and planning. After several lengthy Recorder pieces, I promise to keep these shorter going forward, so these are the key highlights:
Member Forum – successful and to be repeated
We held a very successful Member Forum last week. We had approximately 200 people attending, lasting two hours. Marc and I gave a 25-minute presentation where we walked through some of the key usage statistics, the financial information, the recent Member Survey and the Masterplan 2035 before opening up for a general Q&A. There were several good ideas put forward for the Board to reflect on.
Key messages were:
◊ The Club is in remarkably good shape, with a great sporting provision, strong waiting list, and no debt as of the end of September 2023
◊ Members are using the Club extensively and since COVID the usage pattern has increased and changed
◊ We have areas operationally to improve and where we need to alleviate bottlenecks
◊ The main development projects that we discussed, and the Board is currently assessing are:
♦ Refurbishment and expansion of the Members Bar and decking area
♦ The creation of a Padel and Pickleball Hub on grass courts 25 to 28 area
♦ The Indoor Golf Centre – currently being designed to meet planning requirements
The first project to start will be the Members Bar and decking area. We are due to receive pitches from two design firms with ideas on what we can achieve. Our plan is to work with the chosen firm to optimize a plan, which we will then present in another Open Forum session. It is likely the work will start at a quieter Member period, potentially next Easter, but more likely over the quieter summer (mid-July to August) period. We want to push forward with the electrification of the kitchen in January/ February 2024 to remove gas and benefit from the new solar panels making the kitchen a much more sustainable operation.
Click here for the Member Forum presentation
In addition to the Forum and Member Survey there has also been good feedback for the Board from the Golf Annual Meeting, Croquet Prize Giving Dinner, and Tennis Annual Meeting. We feel we have received broad representative input with more to follow from other sections in the coming months.
Single pricing
As of 1st November, we have moved to a single Member price for all items. This was the lower, discounted price on the menus. Our aim is to simplify the pricing and over time create a very good value for money proposition. We will need of course to respond to food and beverage cost inflation if it rises significantly but presently, we have frozen prices for January 2024 and reduced some prices following benchmarking.
New Club Cafe Bistro-themed menus
The new Mexican menu is open for tasting from tonight for November on Thursday and Friday evenings (except Friday 3rd November when the Bistro is closed due to the Fireworks Spectacular). Click here to be tempted by this month’s Mexican menu.
We continue to receive very good feedback on the food quality from Chef Lloyd and his team and don’t forget you can bring your own wine for a small corkage cost if you want to raid your own cellar!
Fireworks Spectacular – SOLD OUT
We’re excited that tomorrow’s Fireworks Spectacular is now sold out and look forward to seeing you there if you have already booked your tickets. There will not be any tickets available on the door on the night. If you are joining us for the event, click here for all the information
Member sports stars
Finally, I would like to say congratulations to Joe Salisbury for winning the Vienna Open and qualifying for the end of season ATP Finals with his partner, Rajeev Ram, as they look to defend the title they won last year.
Congratulations also to Hannah Klugman on becoming the youngest female at 14 to play in a WTA 100 event beating Coco Gauff’s record at 15 years old.
Plus, congratulations to Megan White who was part of the English team that won the recent EDF Dodgeball European Championships 2023 – despite playing with a broken finger.
Best wishes,
Michael Hill
chair@roehamptonclub.co.uk