Tennis Book 2009 - TIA UK

Wimbledon spectators making the most of their tickets. Picture David Musgrove.
Successful participants are then invited to join the ABTO as
trainee members (free at this stage) but will also be required
to gain a Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) Enhanced
Disclosure Certificate. The participants are then qualified to
Line Umpire at tournaments.
Having gained experience as a Line Umpire, progress to Chair
Umpire requires a further Chair Umpire Accreditation Course
of which 2 to 4 are run each year. This course lasts 2 days,
and covers the introduction and training with a combination
of classroom and on-court work with an exam at the end.
Again, successful candidates are invited to join ABTO as full
members and, as with line umpires, can be selected for
tournaments to Chair at local club finals days and junior
tournaments to gain the requisite experience. Further courses
would follow before selection to more high profile events.
For further information on officiating, you should contact
officiating.feedback@LTA.org.uk or call 020 8487 7047.
How can I get tickets for Wimbledon?
How to obtain Wimbledon Tickets is another recurring
question. The answer is brief and that is via Wimbledon’s
Public Ballot which covers advance sales of the main
showcourts, namely Centre, No1 and now No2 courts.
To enter the Public Ballot your application must be in by the
end of each year for the following year’s Championships.
The date should however, always be checked and the best
place to do that is on Wimbledon’s own website at
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www.wimbledon.org/tickets.
Tickets are also sold through the LTA to affiliated clubs,
schools, the British Tennis Membership Scheme, and foreign
tennis associations.
Tickets are also available on the day but you are warned, any
tickets not purchased from an authorised source, ie on the
Black Market, will not gain you entry into the grounds.
How can I find a Tennis Coach?
Finally, the problem of finding a Coach. Like finding a club,
the best way is to get in touch with the British Tennis Coaches
Association which trades under the name of tenniscoachUK.
Again, the first stop is to click onto their web site
(www.tenniscoachuk.com) where, under the ‘find a coach
service’ heading on the left hand side menu, you can search
for a fully qualified coach working in your area. Just follow
the simple instructions which come up when you go into the
site.
Hopefully these answers to frequently asked questions will
prove helpful but the best source of information is the LTA
website and obviously Wimbledon for matters concerning
The Championships. In fact every organisation which services
tennis either as a supplier or a service, has its own specific
website so in the first instance our recommendation is to
approach them and if that doesn’t answer your question, then
a phone call should follow.