Last week was MATCH WEEK here at ARC. All of our mini and teen groups battled it out in their final session of the term in a super fun Red vs Blue team challenge battle! Points were scored in fun team games, matchplay and just about anything that could possibly be judged!
The week ended with the Red Team taking the win by 99 points to 82! Some smaller groups due to it being the holidays but nonetheless a fantastic week of competition for all those players who came along! Big shout out to LTA - Tennis For Britain and LTA Competitions for providing the awesome certificates and team stickers!
Tennis for Kids Party!
After a really successful term of Tennis for Kids courses we hosted our first Tennis for Kids Party to celebrate! Thanks very much to everyone who attended, It was brilliant to see so many of you there and to see the kids really enjoying playing some of their first real tennis matches!
ARC clothing now available!
Out brand new ARC Hoodies, T-shirts and Water Bottles are now avliable to buy.
For more information click here
Atlantic Racquet Centre Ratings and Rankings Tournament 2019
This year was the 32nd Tournament and as always was a great success. A total of 231 players entered from across the country, playing in 26 different events with ages ranging from 7 to 80. 60 adults from ARC competed but the best ever number of ARC juniors entered – a total of 23. We were even able to hold 8 Junior events that girls could enter, this is quite an achievement as often girls events are cancelled due to lack of numbers.
A really big well done must go to the ARC youngsters who were Winners or Runners Up in their events: Matt Daniel, Jake Cleave, Alex Grigg, Finn Gillespie Petersen, Julian Hayter, Oli Sussex, Tom Whiteley, Katie Rowe and Harrison Booth.
ARC oldies performed well too! Trophies were awarded to Tom Farnell, Martyn Beer, Billy Pearce, Kevin Hooper, Jeremy Williams, Matt Johns, Gerald Sussex, John Norman, Cath Andrews, Ian Leonard, Paul Ley, Phil Yabsley, Mark Clayton, Helen Beer, Marian Vinall, Sue Williams, Ken Stoate, Sara Milburn, Liz Booth, Caroline Richards, Tish Shere and Bev Trapnell.
There were 3 special awards; Junior Sportsmanship award - Freya Hooper, Senior Sportsmanship award – Billy Pearce and the Winsome Trophy for most improved ARC Junior was shared between Matt Daniel and Alex Grigg
A huge thank you to everyone who helped in any way to make this a big success for ARC.
Devon Social Series Badminton Tournament
The Third Devon Social Series of Badminton Tournaments of 2018/19 took place on Sunday 19th May at the Atlantic Racquet Centre in Bideford under the watchful eye of Referee Paul Widdicombe.
The men’s doubles was a close contest with the eventual winners of the morning tournament going to Paul Cook & Bradley Cloutman who play at Edgehill Badminton Club, close runners up were Harry Chagger & Lino Luongo who play at Kenwith Badminton Club.
The afternoon tournament saw Chagger gain revenge over Cook & Cloutman with new partner Glen Parry with the narrowest of margins 21-20. Chagger & Parry gaining maximum points to claim top spot.
It was good to see so many young players in the event. Teenagers Louis Bloodworth, Matthew Daniel, Adam Hooper, James Leonard, Jake Redstone and Chris Weaver have much to offer for the future.
The mixed was a smaller entry but good to see Ben and Mary Anne Redstone back on court after a few years absence who took the runners up spot. Youngsters Louis Bloodworth & Talitha Tanton finished third behind winner Alison Widdicombe who because of round robin event partnered six different men Gary Cook, Harry Chagger, Glen Parry, Lino Luongo, Paul Cook & Bradley Cloutman to go undefeated in all matches.
More events are planned in the Autumn.
Fantastic Weekend Of Tennis
U16 Boys
Saturday the 27th of April saw ARC U16 boys take on Exeter golf and country club in a team tennis fixture. It was a great display on tennis from both teams but saw ARC the victors in a 6 – 0 win over Exeter. Congratulations to Ollie Luxton, Alex Grigg, Kyle Tubbs and Ben Seaman. Great effort shown on the court form the boys.
Quorn Family Cup
Whilst the U16 boys were representing ARC on the Inside courts, outdoors there was some great tennis on display in our annual Quorn Family Cup. 10 pairs competing in a fun and exciting afternoon of mini red match play. Congratulations to Dom Letham – Gent and James Letham – Gent who were the winners on the day.
U14 Boys
Sunday the 28th of April saw the U14 boys travel to Torquay to play their first fixture of the year in team tennis. It was an extremely close match and with a nail-biting doubles match to decide the overall winner, Torquay were triumphant 4 – 2. Fantastic commitment from all the boys all the way to the end, Congratulations to Julian Hayter, Matt Daniel, Ollie Sussex and Ollie Ross.
Devon Training
While the U14’s were away at Torquay, back at ARC there was an adult Devon coaching session led by Tom Vinall. Players from all different parts of Devon representing all different age categories came to ARC to train ready for their season ahead.
Overall it was an awesome weekend of tennis and everyone playing and participating should be hugely proud of their efforts.
UPDATE: Part-Time Badminton Coach Role
We’re looking for a Badminton Coach to join our awesome team!
Read MoreCardio Tennis-a-thon!
A huge thanks and congratulations to the 67 people who took part in our 12 hour Cardio Tennis-a-thon on Sunday 7 April 2019 raising a whopping £505.64 for Cardiac Risk in the Young!! Constant Cardio Tennis from 6am - 6pm in the evening with 67 pumping hearts and hundreds of panting laughs! A great day for all involved!
Birthday Parties
Looking for a new and exciting way to celebrate your child’s birthday? Here at Atlantic Racquet Centre we offer fun, exciting and affordable birthday parties. No matter if your child has played tennis before or not, they are bound to have a smashing time playing loads of fun tennis games and activities whilst possibly learning something new!
After one recent party the parent emailed our coaching team saying this: -
“Hi,
Just wanted to say thank you for our child’s lovely tennis party yesterday. He and all his friends had such a great time and the parents all thought it was ace!”
For any enquiries or to make a booking email: - info@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk
Or check out our web page to see our new 2019 party packages! - http://www.atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk/birthdayparties
ARC Open Weekend - January 2019
Thank you to everyone who attended our Open Weekend at the end of January. We welcomed 188 visitors over the two days who were able to try out our fantastic Tennis and Badminton facilities with both coaching session tasters and free court play available.
ARC Planning Application: Westward Ho! Park
Atlantic Racquet Centre is a Community Charity, which is dedicated to promoting, encouraging and facilitating the playing of tennis and other racquet sports, plus gym and fitness, to benefit the public health well-being of the whole community within Torridge from young to old at an affordable and accessible level.
ARC have joined with Torridge District Council to submit a planning application for a mixed development, which includes two brand new tennis courts, a community building, and a children’s play area, all to be located on the existing tennis courts and park site in Westward Ho!
It is ARC’s opinion that the proposed TDC scheme represents the best opportunity for high quality tennis facilities to be made available to the whole community in Westward Ho!
ARC have no financial commitment to this project, and will not benefit financially in any way from this scheme. They are however prepared to promote the facilities and provide tennis related activities on the two new courts.
They are prepared to provide Tennis Coaching for children and adults, holiday camps for local children and holidaymakers, and encourage local schools and other community groups to utilize the courts.
ARC Trustees
ARC Raises £400 for Macmillan at Charity Coffee Morning!
Over 70 people took part in the World’s Biggest Coffee Morning on Friday 28th Sept hosted by Atlantic Racquet Centre.
As well as helping to devour the fantastic array of freshly baked homemade cakes and savouries, they enjoyed trying out the new badminton facilities and played table tennis and tennis.
A huge thank you to everyone who supported it by baking, helping with and taking part to raise £400 for Macmillan Cancer Support.
Open Day Success!
Photo By Lottie Miles (https://www.lottiemiles.co.uk)
More than 450 people came to see the brand new indoor courts and to try tennis on 13th January, a real family event.
The trustees of the charity are working hard to raise the remaining funds and complete all the indoor facilities by the end of 2018.
Watch this space and our Facebook page for progress on the three squash courts, large gym, table tennis, badminton, studio, changing rooms, bar and leisure area.
Anyone can book an indoor court from £12 an hour, or an outdoor court for £6 an hour.
Lines are on! →
The Surface is complete and the lines are on! Just nets and curtains to go! Click here to check out the pictures!
Tennis courts are open!
The contractors have finished the resurfacing work and the courts are available again from Saturday 28th October!
They will remain temporarily black with white lines until they are repainted in Spring 2018 with the original colour scheme.
The full coaching programme will resume at ARC after the half term break on Monday 30th October, and club nights for members of the tennis and sports club will continue as before on Tuesday and Friday evenings.
Want to use the courts without purchasing one of our membership packages? No problem. Pay and Play – book your court for just £5.00 per hour. Book here!
60 Free Tennis Racquets!?
Tennis For Kids 2017 goes off with a bang at ARC!
Read MoreTEMPORARY COURT CLOSURES
UPDATE FROM TOM VINALL (HEAD COACH) - 03/10/2017
All after-school and weekend coaching sessions will take place at Bideford College for the next 2 weeks.
We’ve recently received the hugely exciting news that our indoor tennis courts will be laid commencing on the 7th October, however the court surfacing company are also resurfacing our outdoor courts at the same time due to a fault in the tarmac which is covered by our warranty. This means that our lovely purple courts will be out of action for at least 3 weeks.
All coaching sessions scheduled between 7th October and 21st October will take place at Bideford College. Sessions will still be led by our great coaches and all equipment will be provided as usual.
When arriving at Bideford College, please park in the main car park and enter the tennis courts via the large gate to the right of the courts. Do not enter via the main school reception. Toilets and changing facilities are available for us to use.
All sessions will take place at their usual time excluding those listed below:
Saturday sessions 9.30 – 10.30am (RED 1, RED 2, CARDIO, U12 DEVELOPMENT 1) – Unfortunately due to a long standing booking at Bideford College the courts are unavailable at this time.
Saturday RED 1, RED 2, CARDIO, U12 DEVELOPMENT 1 will take place at the earlier time of 8.30am – 9.30am for the next 3 Saturdays. Apologies for any inconvenience caused by this unavoidable change.
We apologise for this information being sent out at such short notice. As if often the case with building works there were complications meaning that we did not get the final dates for re-surfacing until this week.
Please note that Tuesday morning Cardio Tennis will not run until the courts are re-opened.
Tom Vinall
Head Coach & Sports Development Officer
Many of you will now be aware that the outside courts at the centre have been scheduled to be re-laid under warranty during October. We have now received confirmation from the specialist contractor, Chiltern Sports, of their planned programme.
Work will commence on Saturday 7th October. All courts will be unavailable at the commencement of these works. We anticipate the courts will remain unavailable for three weeks. Courts 5 and 6 should become available week commencing 30th October, in the following two weeks the remaining courts will be completed.
This schedule is entirely weather dependent, adverse conditions will delay the programme. We will notify you, through the website and Clubspark, as and when the courts become available.
On completion of the resurfacing works the courts will be left black with temporary lines painted on them. They will be fully painted in Spring 2018 with the current colour scheme.
The contractors will also commence work on laying the indoor tennis courts in October. We anticipate these will become available in January 2018 and plan to offer table tennis and badminton next year as well as tennis. We will keep you informed of progress through the Autumn.
Separate arrangements are being made to ensure the planned coaching programme can continue by using courts at Bideford College and Westward Ho! Tom Vinall is leading on this and will update those affected.
We apologise for any inconvenience the closures may cause.
Martin Morris – Chair ARC Trustees
Apprentice Club Coach Appointed
The trustees are pleased to welcome Tom Poole to the growing team as Apprentice Club Coach. Tom started on 11thSeptember and will be working 30 hours a week initially assisting with a variety of sessions across the full programme under the leadership of Tom Vinall, Head Coach and Sports Development Officer.
Tom is from Barnstaple and has represented Division 1 side Braunton A in the summer league for several years. He has worked part-time as an assistant coach at Tarka Tennis Centre whilst completing college and joins us as a Level 1 Assistant coach. Over the next year he will complete both his Level 2 and Level 3 coach qualifications.
Many will have met Tom before either at our annual tournament or out on court in the summer league. His hours are mainly in the afternoon and evening so you may well meet him soon; please introduce yourself and offer him a warm welcome to the ARC family.
Full Time Community Coach Appointed
The trustees are pleased to announce the appointment of Lottie Koval to the full time position of Community Club starting in late July.
She is already a very popular member of the part time coaching team for mini reds and following the successful interview process she will work closely with Head Coach Tom Vinall to continue to grow and develop our exciting programme.
Lottie will lead on specific projects such as targeted schools outreach and competitions.
Having played tennis at the club since her junior days, she is now an A team player. This year Lottie won the Devon LTA Young Volunteer of the Year award and went on to win the South West region Young Volunteer of the Year, as a result she will represent the region at the national awards yet to be held.
School Visit to ARC
On Friday 9th June, 60 children from Year 6 at St Margaret's visited ARC. Following on from Tennis Tom's outreach work in school, they chose to come to the tennis centre for an afternoon as one of their Leavers trips. They had a great afternoon with a fiercely competitive doubles competition and fun coaching games. Every child joined in and had great fun and amongst the winners were two children with disabilities who had never won anything in sport before. Inclusion at it's best, thanks to ARC.
