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CHRISTMAS 2016 NEWSLETTER

Serving Tennis to Disabled People

Changing Lives Through Sport

WELCOME TO OUR FESTIVE AND FINAL NEWSLETTER OF 2016

Here we are charging towards another year end and I, for one, feel as though I need a little ‘time out’ to catch my breath! But then I look at all the amazing achievements of our sportsmen and women this year and I guess pace of life is a perspective!

It’s been a fabulous year for our sport, so many highlights come to mind. Yet alongside all this success is the stark truth that there is still so much more to be done, so much progress to be made and so much more money needed to help achieve the potential we know is there.

The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust plays a small but I believe a very important role in providing tennis opportunities for disabled people and for those supporting a range of programmes, events and initiatives in this area. Yet we always have far more requests for our funds than we can support.

So if you are keen to help, how about this: there’s a totally fabulous and free way that your online Christmas shopping can raise funds for the Trust and it really is so easy! If I can do it I’m telling you anyone can! Please do give it a try – just read further on for more information.

Now all that remains for me is to thank you for all your support during the year and to wish you a fabulous Christmas full of sparkle and a joyous and happy New Year!

Elaine x
Elaine Paige OBE
President
Elaine's website

PS - If you would like to see me in my final concert date of the year at London's Drury Lane Theatre - there is an auction for a VIP package - see details in the Newsletter or click HERE
but hurry, bids close on 9th December!

Whether it’s on your smartphone or traditional paper format, here’s a date for everyone’s diary:

The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust Celebrity Golf Challenge
The Buckinghamshire Golf Club in Denham - Tuesday 2nd May 2017

This longstanding, welcoming and good fun event is the Trust’s major annual fundraiser. Open to golfers and non-golfers alike, the latter are very welcome to attend the Event Dinner and enjoy the Club’s facilities during the day.

For more information and details of the Early Bird Discount, contact Gilly English at the Trust.

The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust was invited by The Tennis Foundation to help celebrate the most successful Paralympic Games ever by the ParalympicsGB wheelchair tennis team in Rio earlier this year.

At a special event at St James’s Palace, jointly hosted by The Tennis Foundation and Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Gloucester, Honorary President, the Lawn Tennis Association, the players celebrated their haul of six medals in Rio – two bronze, three silver and one gold.

Gordon Reid, Alfie Hewett, Andy Lapthorne, Jamie Burdekin, Lucy Shuker and Jordanne Whiley all picked up medals and GB finished top of the seven countries that made up the wheelchair tennis medal table in Rio winning 33% of the available medals for the Paralympic Tennis Event. This was a 200% increase on medals won in wheelchair tennis at London 2012.

"For me, Rio 2016 was absolutely amazing! Although I had aimed for the Gold medal; to come away with 2 medals and in particular the Silver in the Singles event was just brilliant.

The people of Rio really embraced us as athletes and it was great to see a change in a nation’s attitude towards disability. So all round it was a great success!

I believe wheelchair tennis is in a very strong position right now and has massively improved over recent years. So much so, I believe it will be the biggest and most watched disability sport in the world very soon.

To my mind this has come about because the sport is attracting younger athletes and new technology in the chairs allows us to play at a very fast and high level, which makes it more interesting to watch.

For the sport to continue to develop in the UK I would love to see even more TV coverage. It would be great to build upon what we have already had in recent times, with more kids playing the game so we have strength in depth.

I'm currently World Number 1 doubles player and World Number 3 singles player, so looking forward for me, my goals are to continue to build upon the success of 2016 and be in big matches at Grand Slams and World Team Cups (our Davis Cup).

The support I received from the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust in the lead up to Rio really made a big difference. It meant that before and during Rio I had the right people around me to help me bring back 2 medals from Rio! Without this help this would not have been possible and the results could have been very, very different

I would just like to say a big ‘thank you’ to the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust and its supporters for helping me to succeed and believing in me. The Trust played a big part in making my dreams come true in Rio and for that I will be forever grateful"

The result of the Dan Maskell Tennis Team Finals in Gloucester in October was wrapped up like an early Christmas present after the singles were completed on day one of the two day event.

Not that we are claiming a stake in their success but three out of the four players in the victorious Scottish team had received wheelchairs from the Trust, as had just under 50% of all the participants in this year’s Finals.

Congratulations to Team Captain Kevin Simpson and his team and to all the participants in this year’s event.

Scotland
Team Captain – Kevin Simpson
1. Keith Thom
2. David Denholm
3. Neil Duncan
4. Scott Farquhar

Warwick
Team Captain – Jeff Youell
1. Jeff Youell
2. Nick Young
3. George Jeremiah
4. George Davies

Gosling
Team Captain – Phil Martin
1. Ben Crabbe
2. Martyn Baker
3. Jack Pegram
4. Sophie Barnett

South Wales
Team Captain – Dave Liddiard
1. Tony Tibbs
2. Martin French
3. Tony Heslop
4. Ashley Davis
5. Jack Chapman
6. Amanda Harris

SCOTLAND - DMTT Team Tennis Champions 2016

For the second year running the South Wales wheelchair tennis team made it through to the Dan Maskell Team Tennis national finals which were held at Oxtalls Tennis Centre, Gloucester, over the weekend of 8th and 9th October.

Having beaten Taunton in the South West Region play–off, South Wales faced teams from Scotland, Warwick and Gosling in the round robin finals of a different format from last year when we finished second, with each team having to include two novice players new to tournaments, with two experienced players in each match.

Amanda Harris and Jack Chapman were our novice players accompanied by the experience of Martin French, Tony Tibbs, Tony Heslop and Ashley Davis with team captain Dave Liddiard.

Scotland had a strong team and after the singles matches on Day 1, they were well ahead, with South Wales, playing well but narrowly losing some close matches, in joint third with Gosling. Day 2 saw the doubles with each novice paired with an experience player and again whilst Scotland proved too strong and ending comfortable winners, the minor places were separated by one point each.

With some great doubles performances South Wales eventually finished third, despite a sterling effort from Martin French and Jack Chapman, narrowly losing in a tie break that would otherwise have seen us overtake Warwick to finish second.

Despite finishing one place lower than last year the South Wales players remained buoyant and being the only team to reach the finals both years are already looking forward to competing again next year in what is an excellent event both competitively and socially.

Winning Tennis Scotland Award

Glasgow Disability Tennis is the only Disability Tennis Network in Scotland that provides coaching for all four disability groups and only one of a handful in the UK as a whole.

Lesley Whitehead, Chair Glasgow Disability Tennis and one of the coaching team, talked to DMTT about the organisation and its success:

Could you give us an overview of Glasgow Disability Tennis:

“Having set up the LD coaching in Nottingham, I was keen to set up similar opportunities when I moved to Scotland. Glasgow Disability Tennis was the result of this. It started back in 2013 providing coaching to learning difficulty (LD) & wheelchair players. We are part of the Tennis Foundation's Disability Tennis Network (DTN) programme providing opportunities for disabled people to play. Three years later and we’ve grown from strength to strength. The programme now provides deaf, learning disability, visually impaired and wheelchair tennis sessions. This has been possible through visiting 32 schools and linking with Glasgow Sport, Scottish Disability Sport, Tennis Scotland and community disability groups.

“We now offer six weekly coaching groups all year round, as well as taster sessions every 6 weeks in the spinal injuries unit at a local hospital. We have also started new Regional LD and wheelchair monthly match play sessions which are popular with Glasgow players as well as other players from across Scotland. The programme has recruited new players and benefits from excellent volunteer support. Two volunteers have now taken the LTA Level 1 course and one is currently taking their LTA Level 2 qualification.”

What do you think sets your programme apart to be award-winning?

“Glasgow Disability Tennis has trained our coaching team through various disability tennis coach education courses and this has greatly enhanced the quality of the sessions. Our priority is to let our players learn at their own ability level. A typical coaching session will see players of all ages learning together but using an appropriate ball & court size for their ability level. As a result, this promotes success, enjoyment and confidence.

“We actively encourage our players to attend the Tennis Foundation (TF) disability camps as well as regional and national competitions across the UK. Numerous medals have been won and this is something we are very proud of. In addition, we organise a TF learning disability and wheelchair camp and a TF Regional Series learning disability and wheelchair Tournament. We have also been involved in a West of Scotland Paralympic Festival, The Sainsbury's School Games, Ticket to Tokyo, Great British Tennis Weekends and the TF Push2Podium event.

“For some individuals who attend our coaching sessions, tennis has literally changed their lives. Many of our players, parents and carers acknowledge the ongoing benefits they see individuals gain, especially regarding hand-eye coordination, health and fitness, confidence and self-esteem. Friendships and support for all individuals is also a key long term benefit.

“Glasgow Disability Tennis is a valuable part of our community. It actively promotes an inclusive, welcoming, safe and friendly environment that we all feel proud to belong to.

“We are also always looking for ways to develop and expand our programme so that we can provide the best possible opportunities for our members.”

What does it mean to the Programme to win the awards?

“In 2016 Glasgow Disability Tennis was the proud winner of two prestigious awards: Tennis Scotland’s Disability Programme of the Year and the Aegon British Tennis Disability Programme of the Year – the latter being the highest award possible in Great Britain.

“Winning these awards was absolutely fantastic! We are so pleased that we can offer coaching to those who like to come along once a week to learn new skills, meet friends and to get fitter, but also provide tournament & match play opportunities for those who are keen to compete locally or nationally. These awards are recognition to the strength of our programme and to all the hard work put in by everyone.”

And looking forward, what are you hopes and aspirations for 2017 and beyond?

“We will continue to develop and improve our programme. We are looking to work with some additional disability groups so we can inspire others to start playing tennis. We hope to organise a new LD League to encourage those playing at red & orange ball level to learn about match play in a fun environment. This will bring together DTN venues across Southern Scotland. In addition we are hoping to host a VI Team event.

The programme did receive support from The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust, how do you think this helped the programme?

“The Dan Maskell Tennis Trust funding enabled us to start deaf coaching sessions. We linked with local deaf groups and ran taster sessions before setting up our weekly coaching. Having the funding to add deaf tennis to our programme has enabled us to now provide all four disability tennis groups and we are the only programme in Scotland doing that!”

The Wimbledon Foundation

The Wimbledon Foundation has once again very generously offered the Trust a wonderful donation of £20,000.
The Trust is extremely grateful for the continued support of the Foundation as this funding is vital to our charity's livelihood. A proportion of the the Foundation's funds come from the re-sale of tickets each year during The Championships which is then matched by HSBC.

A successful application was made to The Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights' Charity for funds towards tennis wheelchairs for junior players for which the Trust received £3,000.

Martin Baker Aircraft Company Ltd

Another thank you to one of our major supporters - Paul Badman - whose company Martin Baker Aircraft Co Ltd has generously given a further donation of £1,000.

The Christopher Taylor Foundation

STOP PRESS! The Christopher Taylor Foundation, which has supported the Trust so generously, recently held a Fashion Show and raised another £3,500 for the Trust with matching funding from Barclays Bank. Earlier in the year Alex Stoddart and Amy Rimmer ran a half-marathon in the name of the Foundation and their final fundraising total for the Trust came to over £700.

HOW YOU CAN DONATE WITHOUT IT COSTING YOU A PENNY!

Now here is a totally simple and FREE way to raise money for The Trust when you are shopping online. And who doesn’t do a bit of shopping online at Christmas – so please give this a go!

The Trust has signed up to three online charity fund-raising sites that enable you to help raise funds for The Trust for FREE when you do your shopping online – and what better time to get on board with this than

The sites are funded by partner retailers and enable you to support The Trust 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 The Trust – it’s that simple!

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! Time for some retail therapy!

Just click on the links below to register and then a reminder will pop up each time you shop at a relevant retailer.

Easyfundraising

Give As You Live

Giving A Bit

The demand for Grants was so high this year that our budget for 2016 was reached at the September Meeting and the fourth meeting of the year scheduled for the beginning of December has been postponed to 12th January 2017. Closing date for applications is 10th December - (the 2016 application form may still be used).

This year we have allocated 39 tennis wheelchairs, 18 of which were for Clubs and Centres and 21 to individuals; 6 equipment packages and just under £32,000 for 52 grants to organisations, clubs and individuals.

If you would like to support the work of the Trust, please consider making a donation - you can do this via PayPal (no account needed) using a credit card please visit our home page and click on the "Donate" button or via our JustGiving Page - click HERE

Every donation goes directly into our grant aid programme for the benefit of disabled tennis players.

ELAINE PAIGE'S LAST TOUR DATE AT LONDON'S DRURY LANE THEATRE - SUNDAY 18TH DECEMBER 2016 -

2 up close and personal tickets, signed copy of EP’s book, CD/DVD of 50th Anniversary, CD of her new Musicals compilation, signed poster and VIP laminate.

This is an auction with all proceeds going to the Trust with bidding starting at £150 - please enter by completing the form
click HERE

These will be sealed bids with the prize going to the highest bidder at the time of the closing time of 4 p.m. on Friday 9th December.

The package will be available for collection on the night provided payment has been made in advance.

Contact Details

Telephone 01737 831 707 - E: danmaskell@sportwins.co.uk
W: www.danmaskelltennistrust.org.uk

Charity No. 1133589