Tennis in Surrey 2015

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Tennis Surrey Patron’s
Association
The Surrey Patrons’ Association
was founded in 1968. Initially there
were twenty nine members and
over the years this has increased
to a full membership of nine
hundred and ninety nine. The aim
of the founders was to assist in
supporting Junior Tennis in the
County. The Association currently
supports promising Junior
players and assists coaches with
advancing their qualifications.
We sponsor the Surrey Junior
Championships and have recently
made grants to Clubs purchasing
defibrillators. We also contribute to
recognised charities where Clubs
are sponsoring events on their
behalf. Members of the Association
are able to participate in a ballot
for Wimbledon tickets and enjoy
social functions. There follows a
brief resumé of those for 2015.
Tennis Surrey Patrons have had
a very good year for social events,
with an extremely well attended
lunch at the RAF Club in Piccadilly
in April and a full turnout for a
tour of the All England Club in
September. There is also a dinner
to follow at the Burford Bridge
Hotel in Dorking in December.
The lunch at the RAF Club was
attended by ninety two Patrons
including, most especially,
Rex Poland, a rear gunner on
Lancasters during WW2. It was also
Rex’s 90th birthday so we arranged
a special birthday cake with a
model Lancaster on the top of it. It
was a privilege to have Rex there
with us. During the lunch, Patrons
were given a most interesting talk
about Bomber Command by Group
Captain Mike Neville of the RAF
Benevolent Fund. When lunch was
over, Group Captain Hill took many
of the Patrons across the road into
Green Park to visit the Bomber
Command Memorial there. All in
all it was a memorable occasion.
It is the second time we
have arranged a tour of the All
England Club for Patrons. We also
arranged one in April 2014 and
were amazed when this event was
“sold out” within a few days of it
being announced. We therefore
wondered whether we might
successfully repeat this event this
year - and again, the event was a
complete “sell out”. The day started
with coffee in the Wingfield
Restaurant followed by a visit to
the All England museum. This is
a very inter-active experience that
everyone found fascinating. We
booked two tours of the Club (of
forty people each) which set off at
1pm and enabled Patrons to see
parts of the All England that the
general public normally never get
to see. When the tours returned, a
delicious cream tea was laid out in
the Terrace Restaurant to round off
the day.
Further details are available from
the Patrons’ Secretary, Peter Lane.
Email pj.lane@ntlworld.com or
telephone 01737 353541.
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