| SUMMER 2017 NEWSLETTER Serving Tennis to Disabled People Changing Lives Through Sport | WELCOME TO OUR SUMMER NEWSLETTER Where on earth have the first six months of this year gone, I simply cannot believe The Wimbledon Championships are just around the corner! Good luck to everyone taking part but particularly our wheelchair tennis participants, many of whom have been beneficiaries of The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust (DMTT) grants in one form or another over the years. Grant applications are surging year on year and it’s so important that we keep focussed on raising funds for this wonderful charity, as I know from having spoken to so many grant recipients, just how important our support is. Which is one of the reasons I was so bitterly disappointed to have missed our major fundraiser of the year, The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust Golf Challenge, thanks to a nasty bug that was doing the rounds at the time. Nevertheless, it was as always a fantastic event and you can read more about it later in this newsletter. I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who supported the event and a very special ‘thank you’ to Task Systems who generously entered 5 teams! I’m on Tour in the autumn, performing at a number of lovely venues around the UK during October and November and please look out for an opportunity to raise funds for DMTT where you can win 2 top tickets to come and watch one of my performances at a venue of your choice from the Tour plus an array of signed goodies from me! There’s more information on how to enter further on. I hope you enjoy the newsletter, there’s so much going on! Have a wonderful summer and enjoy the tennis! Elaine x ELAINE PAIGE OBE
President Elaine's website |  Photos taken by Mark Bullock | There was an excellent display of talent interwoven with a healthy dose of nostalgia at the inaugural Wheelchair Tennis Reunion Event, brainchild of "The Quadfather" Peter Norfolk and DMTT Trustee and wheelchair player Noel McShane. Noel and Lynn Parker organised the event with support from DMTT, Peter's company EPC and wheelchair makers Invacare. Sixteen former players took part in this fun event of doubles play over the late May Bank Holiday weekend at Oxstalls Tennis Centre in Gloucester. In a novel format that proved hugely successful, players swapped doubles partners and points were awarded to individuals for each game won. Over a series of 18 games on the first day (three matches), the top scoring eight players proceeded to the semi-finals on Day 2 and the remaining eight into the Plate. Away from the on court action, players’ families joined in the evening fun at a convivial dinner during which DMTT Chairman, Sue Wolstenholme, presented the Jim Cochrane Award (for services to wheelchair tennis) to Martin McElhatton. Martin has played and coached wheelchair tennis for more than 25 years. He is Chairman of the National Wheelchair Tennis Association of Great Britain, President of the International Wheelchair Tennis Association and member of the ITF Wheelchair Tennis Committee, all in all a very popular and deserved recipient of the award. Somehow alongside all his voluntary activities, Martin also manages to fit in a day job where he is Chief Executive of WheelPower – British Wheelchair Sport at Stoke Mandeville. The feedback from the event was so good, it now looks set to become an annual event! |  Lynn Parker, Sue Wolstenholme and Noel McShane with Martin McElhatton, winner of the 2017 Jim Cochrane Award | |  Scotland 2016 DMTT Team Tennis Winners | Now in its third year, the DMTT Team Tennis Event for Wheelchair Tennis Players gives recreational tennis players a chance to play in a national competition. Set up as the first event of its kind in the UK, the competition sets off with regional rounds during July and August, with the winner of each region going on to compete at the National Finals at Oxstalls Tennis Centre in Gloucester over the weekend of 14th and 15th October. It’s a great event giving many wheelchair tennis players their first ever experience of competition play and perhaps the incentive and confidence to enter more tournaments! Teams for 2017 NORTH: Loughborough, Grantham and Scotland
LONDON: Sutton, Gosling and Bedford
SOUTH WEST: Taunton and Cardiff
MIDLANDS: Birmingham, North Wales and Warwick | The Tennis Foundation runs an array of tournaments for all impairment groups. If you would like to go along and watch – or indeed enter – take a look at the list of events on their website: Tennis Foundation events |  Gordon Reid celebrates winning Gold in Rio | After Team GB’s most successful Paralympic Games ever in Wheelchair Tennis, it was really disappointing to see the funding decision by UK Sport. The report from BBC Sport’s website below outlines the detail: See Report from BBC Sport Britain's ability to win future Paralympic wheelchair tennis medals is "at risk" after having its funding cut by UK Sport ahead of the Tokyo Games.
The sport received £1,925,270 for the Rio cycle and the team won six medals, including men's singles gold for Gordon Reid.
But UK Sport has decided that the sport should "fully self-fund" its world-class programme.
"The medal potential is not in question here," said a UK Sport statement.
"We are operating within such fine margins of investment that we need to scrutinise every investment proposal for evidence of financial need."
Elite wheelchair tennis in Britain is run by the Tennis Foundation charity, which works alongside the likes of the Lawn Tennis Association.
They say they are 'disappointed' by the UK Sport decision not to provide full funding to the programme.
UK Sport said that to "manage the transition" it will extend the current world class programme award to 30 June and has also agreed to provide Athlete Performance Awards to athletes for the Tokyo cycle, which the Tennis Foundation says accounts for around a quarter of their world-class programme costs.
But for subsequent cycles, the sport will need to finance their own performance strategy, which the Tennis Foundation says could affect their future medal chances.
"The decision to remove our core programme funding that we use to provide central support to the country's best wheelchair tennis players clearly puts at risk our ability to continue the progress that was made in Rio," said a statement.
"Our athletes won six medals (more than any other nation), including Gordon Reid's memorable gold medal in the men's singles event - success that has helped to inspire a record number of people to pick up a racquet and play wheelchair tennis across our network of venues." | The first two meetings of the DMTT Trustees in 2017 have considered over 70 grant applications – 36 in January and 35 in April – with a whopping £50,000 committed! There are a further two meetings scheduled for 2017, so if you, your club or organisation is thinking about applying for a DMTT grant, here are the key remaining dates for 2017: Meeting Date Monday 31st July
_Closing Date for Applications Friday 30th June Meeting Date Monday 2nd October
_Closing Date for Applications Friday 1st September Please visit our website for more details and a grant application form: How to apply for a grant | Take a look at some of the marvellous fundraising activities and programmes that DMTT is benefitting from – we’re hoping they will also inspire you to get involved! |  Mick Fitzgerald and Tiff Needell share racing tips! | DMTT’s annual big ticket fundraiser delivered a healthy boost to the charity’s coffers with over £13,000 raised at the DMTT Golf Challenge held in May at the glorious Buckinghamshire Golf Club. This year the team numbers were swelled by the very welcome entry of 5 teams from regular supporter of the event Task Systems. In total 13 teams were joined by a dashing array of celebrities including Marcus Buckland, Andrew Castle, Barry Cowan, Mick Fitzgerald, Chris and John Hollins, David Mercer, Tiff Needell, Jonathan Whaley and one Sion Tudor Owen who conducted the auction at the event’s dinner in a style that can only be called his own – and what a success it was! The earlier date of the event worked well and so is likely to be repeated in 2018. The competition element of the event was tight indeed with only 2 points separating the top three. Many congratulations to the team from the Tennis Foundation who made it a hat-trick of wins with 87 points, closely followed by The Bradleys with 86 points, Mallard Whackers in third place with 85 points and The Niblicks in fourth with 82. Robbie Playle took the prize for the Longest Drive and Nearest The Pin was won by Derek White. A very big thank you to everyone who supported this event and the much needed funds raised will soon be in action, helping serve tennis to disabled people nationwide. |  Martin McElhatton and Noel McShane with Tennis Foundation Winners | |  The Buckinghamshire |  Andrew Castle enjoying a break in play |  Pauline and Gilly with the famous raffle board! | | | “I am playing tennis for 24 consecutive hours for DMTT because tennis should be accessible for all to enjoy!” Freddie Levett will start his 24 hour feat at 2pm on Saturday 10th June at the Ashford Tennis Club on Woodthorpe Road in Ashford, Middlesex. He is keen for as many people to join, support, donate with all funds raised going to DMTT. He has set up a Just Giving page which makes donating easy and you can find out more about his story by visiting: Freddie's JustGiving Page and if you can make a donation, however small, that would be amazing! | Over the last few years, DMTT has been one of the very fortunate recipients of funds raised through the Christopher Taylor Foundation, set up by the parents of 21-year old Christopher who died in a tragic accident on the River Avon. Christopher’s mother, Jill Taylor, said “We chose the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust as a recipient because Christopher was an exceptionally keen tennis player and the fact that he used to hit with various wheelchair players at the South Ribble Tennis Centre where he trained daily himself for about 10 years. Indeed he shared his coach, Rob Cross, with a world ranked wheelchair player Jamie Burdekin and knew Jamie well.” A very successful Fashion Show at the end of 2016 raised £1,790, again matched by Jill’s employer, Barclays Bank, through their employee scheme. We are exceptionally grateful to the above and all other events and clubs that have selected us as their official charity, together with all those who also undertake such sterling efforts to raise funds and make donations. There’s no getting away from the high bar we set ourselves with a very challenging annual fundraising target of £50,000 for our grant aid programme. This is no easy task and there are never enough opportunities to say ‘Thank You’ to every individual, club and organisation that takes the time, effort and commitment to help fundraise for what we clearly believe to be such a worthwhile cause. | We very much hope you have been inspired to give some serious thought to running an event at your club to raise funds for our charity. To help you with all your efforts, we have produced a fab fundraising pack that includes template posters, balloons, collection box, sponsorship forms, indeed everything we think you’ll need to help you help us! If you would like to order a FREE fundraising pack, please email us with details of your event to danmaskelltennistrust.org.uk | DMTT is signed up to online charity fund-raising sites that enable you to help raise funds for us for FREE when you do your shopping online. The sites are funded by partner retailers and enable you to support us when shopping via the site. It doesn’t cost you any more than the purchases you would have made anyway and you may even save money as you are rewarded with the most up to date discount codes, daily deals and promotional offers. A percentage of the money you spend with a partner retailer via one of the sites below, is then awarded to DMTT – it’s that simple! So whatever and whenever your planning to spend online, we think there’s a very good chance the retailer will be signed up to the online charity fund-raising sites, making it easy for your to donate without it costing you a penny! Once you have signed up with GivingABit and/or EasyFundraising - each time you shop online you will get an automatic prompt to action the donation from the retailer. If you need any help in signing up, please contact us. Retailing partners includes thousands of household names including Amazon, John Lewis, Waitrose, Sainsburys, Selfridges, Crew Clothing, Argos, Boden, House of Fraser, Ticketmaster, Boots, B&Q – the list goes on! www.givingabit.com
www.easyfundraising.org.uk | DMTT is fortunate to have been the recipient of very generous donations from the Wimbledon Foundation, which in 2016 alone delivered grants and donations totalling £700,000 to 96 organisations. Established in 2013, The Wimbledon Foundation is the charity of The All England Lawn Tennis Club. The aim of the Wimbledon Foundation is to help change people’s lives using the resources and heritage of the All England Lawn Tennis Club and The Championships. They do this through: Playing: Using the power of sport, particularly tennis, to advance young people’s personal development. Giving: Making a valuable contribution to meeting social needs, especially in the Foundation’s local communities of Merton and Wandsworth Learning: Using Wimbledon’s unique heritage, in conjunction with the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Museum, to support the education of young people DMTT’s Chairman, Sue Wolstenholme and Executive Director, Gilly English, recently attended the Foundation’s annual Reception at The All England Club to learn more about the Foundation’s activities and achievements. | The Trust needs support in many ways and is delighted to announce a partnership with Wilson Sporting Goods who have become the official supplier of golf and tennis balls for DMTT events. | As our President mentioned in her introduction she is touring GB in the autumn - see her website for dates and venues - and one lucky person will be able to get the opportunity to win 2 tickets plus an array of goodies for one of these concerts. Full details will be available very soon. Look out on our wesite and social media platforms for more information and we shall also send you a special alert. Tour dates | Contact Details Telephone 01737 831 707 - E: danmaskell@sportwins.co.uk W: www.danmaskelltennistrust.org.uk Charity No. 1133589 Summer 2017 Newsletter compiled by Gill Perkins, LSPR Communications and produced by Gilly English, Executive Director | President: Elaine Paige OBE Hon Vice-President: John Barrett MBE Chairman: Sue Wolstenholme OBE | |
