The club provides a variety of social and competitive play, from turn-up-and-play where anyone is welcome to join in, through booked courts for individually arranged play, to regular and one-off organised events.
The most popular session for organised social tennis for adults is held each Wednesday evening, when around 20 members regularly take part. This is the best time to come along to the club if you are thinking of joining and would like to meet some members and play a few games. In this session, some of the courts are used for the club Winter Ladder during the autumn and winter. A well attended series of organised events were held through the spring and summer months in 2009. We aim to organise a similar series in 2010.
Since 1960 there has been an organised Saturday Morning Group that plays between 9:00 and 11:00 on up to three courts. Unlike other social tennis at the club, play at this event must be pre-booked and is arranged so that there is an even number of players with no-one waiting to play. The Saturday Morning Group has a core pool of members who aim to play almost every week and a second group of players who play less frequently. It has a set of rules to allow it to run smoothly. If you would like to join the Saturday Morning Group, please contact John Plumb.
Informal social tennis can be played at any time when the courts are not booked for matches, tournaments, team practices, coaching or organised social play. A trial court booking system commenced at the beginning of 2009. This allows a group of members to book a court for their use for up to an hour at peak times and two hours during off-peak periods. The number of courts available for booking is limited to ensure tha there are always courts availble for members who want to turn up and play. In turn-up-and-play games, players should play a single first to 6 set, then offer the court to any waiting players.
In the spring and summer, Basford enters several teams into the City & Suburban Tennis League. In 2008, Basford entered three men's teams, a ladies' team and the mixed doubles, winning both the ladies and the mixed doubles. In 2007, Basford entered two men's teams, a ladies' team and a mixed doubles team. Both the men's teams and the ladies' team won their respective divisions. Basford ladies' team has won the league every year since 2003. The men's A team completed the double in 2007 by also winning the City and Suburban Dale Cup tournament. Details of their success were reported in the Sentinel.
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Basford also enters a ladies' team into the Staffordshire Inter Club Tennis League, which is also played through the spring and summer. In 2009, the ladies entered two teams for the first time, one in the Premier division, where they had been runners up in 2007, and one in division 2. The A team were demoted on the narrowest of margins and in 2010 will be joining the B team, who were runners up in their division.
The club enters both over 40s and over 50s ladies' teams into this national competition. In 2009 both teams lost in the second round.
During the autumn and winter months the club runs an adult Winter Ladder on Wednesday evenings. The ladder is mixed sex and consists of divisions of 4 players playing three one-set doubles matches, partnering each of the other three players in turn. The player winning the most games is promoted and the player winning the least games is demoted.
A Club Championship is normally held in the late summer, although no championship was held in 2008. This event returned in 2009 with the finals on Sunday, September 20th and knockout rounds in the preceding weeks, however the men's finals were unable to be completed on that date. You can view the results since 2000.
The Basford Mixed Open is a mixed doubles tournament that attracts members from all over the city and has been very successful in the past. It is normally held in July but it was cancelled in 2008 due to a lack of entries. It was not run in 2009 either, but hopefully there will be more interest in the future and the competition can return to its former glory.
The Basford Open is a grade 4 competition open to juniors. You can find full details of the 2006 results and 2007 results on the LTA web site. In 2008 the competition moved to Draycott, but there is a possibility of the competition being played here in 2010.
In 2008, Basford hosted three Shropshire and Staffordshire LTA Super Grand Prix Mini Tennis competitions, which were well attended. Members of the club also enter a variety of other tournaments. You can find other tournaments to enter and check your rating and ranking at the LTA web site.
The club has a few simple court commandments that members and guests must follow when using the courts.