Held on Wednesday 29th October 2025 7.30pm in the Clubhouse

Present : Martin Burch, Pippa Braint, George Milne, Sue Platt, Honor Gascoigne,          Ben Minski , Jenny Howse, Steve Parker , Gary Van Der Byl and 8 club members.

Agenda

1.Chairman’s Welcome

Martin Burch welcomed members to the Club’s 79th AGM. 

2. Apologies for absence

Sally Radford, Robert Radford, Cyril Woodruff, Fiona Borrows, Sheila Colver, Steve Colver, Ayman Hassan, Karen Chapman (A complimentary email from Cyril Woodruff was read out, regarding the healthy situation of the club)

3. Acceptance of the Minutes of the 2024 AGM

The Acceptance of the 2024 Minutes was proposed by Honor Gascoigne and seconded by Katie England.

All were in favour.

4.Matters arising from the Minutes

There were no matters arising from the Minutes.

5.Chairman’s Report

Martin Burch gave his report to the meeting : –

Hello everyone.

I hope you’ve had a chance to read through the individual committee reports that were circulated recently. If not, then I recommend taking a look as they give a great insight into everything that’s been happening across the club and some ideas that we have for the future. A big thank you to all the committee members for putting these together in such detail.

In summary, the club continues to be in an excellent position both on and off the court. In regards to the clubs finances, our net profit for the year was £18,073, up from £4,854 last year, which was mainly due to increased clubhouse hire, memberships and coaching income. Our cash reserves now stand at £154,093, which means we’re in a strong position to fund future court replacements, planned for around 2030–31, without the need for loans. Thanks to Pip and John who again have done a great job this year keeping this all in order.

Membership remains very strong at 571, just below our record high, and it’s fantastic to see so many new faces joining and getting involved in club activities. The junior and primary sections continue to flourish, with 287 young members — a testament to our excellent coaching programme.  Thanks to Gary for keeping on top of all things membership related and with helping with so many other bits around the club.

On the court, for our seniors it’s been another fantastic year. We entered 16 teams in the summer leagues, with several divisional winners including the Men’s 1st, Ladies’ 1st and 2nd, Over 60’s Men’s, and Mixed 1st team, who also made history by winning the Mercury Cup for the first time. The Men’s Regional and Ladies’ National teams both achieved great results too — congratulations to everyone involved.

Our junior section continues to go from strength to strength. All 28 weekly coaching sessions are full, with around 180 children regularly attending and over 20 representing the county — an incredible achievement. We have also had an increasing number of juniors representing our senior teams in leagues matches, which is great to see and really encouraging for the future. Huge thanks to Ben and Zaheed for all of their work on the court and a special mention to George, whose time, organisation and dedication to junior tennis at the club are simply outstanding and we are very very lucky to have you.

The grounds and facilities have also seen major improvements this year, including the completion of the new Garden Room building, made possible thanks to the income from the dementia group hires. It’s a fantastic addition to the club and will officially open in mid-November. A big thank you to all the volunteers for keeping everything looking so good around the grounds and a special mention to PHT and Simon who give up lots of time to keep the club looking great. Also a big thanks to Dean Zarins for his exceptional work building the new garden room. The clubhouse refurbishment is the next big item on our list, which is planned for 2026.

Socially, the club remains as lively as ever. Events like Tinsel Tennis, the Quiz Night, and our popular American tournaments and curry evenings have been well supported and are great fun. Huge thanks to everyone who helps with catering, the bar, and general organisation of all of these — these events really add to the friendly, community feel that we have at Oadby and it is lovely to see them being so well supported.

As many of you know, I’ll be standing down as Chairman this year. I’ve really enjoyed my time in the role, it has been a bit strange at times with us being closed for COVID and with various other challenges that we have had to deal with over the years but it has been privilege to be part of such a fantastic club and to work alongside such a dedicated and supportive committee, who in reality do an awful lot more than me! During my time as chair there has been lots of projects, starting way back with the fence to block off the car park from the courts. We now have a new garden building, pergolas, viewing areas, LED floodlights and lovely plants and flower beds and lots more.  I think looking around the club now we can collectively feel very proud of what, as a group of members and committee we have managed to achieve and so thanks again to everyone who works so hard to make this club the success it is.

Now you are finally got rid of me, I am delighted that Steve will be taking over as Chairman. Steve has been great as vice chair and I know he will do a brilliant job in leading the club forward and making more and more improvements.

Finally, I’d like to thank the entire committee and all of our volunteers for their amazing efforts once again this year, the club simply couldn’t run without you. Oadby Granville remains a friendly, family-orientated, not-for-profit club that depends on its members’ enthusiasm and willingness to help. If you can spare a bit of time, please do get involved as it really does make a huge difference.

Thanks and here is to a successful 2026.

6.Committee Reports

There are now two extra members since the report was written – now 573

7.Acceptance of Accounts

The Acceptance of the Accounts was proposed by Steve Parker and seconded by

Sue Lester

All were in favour.

9. Election of committee for 2025 /2026

All voted in favour of Steve Parker as the new Chairman .

The incoming Chair Steve Parker said a few words about Martin’s excellent and long Chairmanship.  The keypoints being: 

*He has been the longest serving Chairman – 6 years consecutively                                                  * Provided strong leadership during Covid                                                                                                             * Great years of success on court and for the Club – Club of the Year 2021                                          * And personally, always fair, well respected and a genuine good guy

Steve Parker read out nominations for committee posts : –

Position	Name	Proposed	Seconded
Chair	Steve Parker	Martin Burch	Rich Evans
Vice Chair
Secretary	Jenny Howse	Martin Burch	Katie England
Treasurer	Pippa Braint	Steve Parker	Justin French
Tennis Secretary	Honor Gascoigne	Martin Burch	Kevin Rossell
Membership	Gary van der Byl	John Braint	Veena Lakhlani
Social	No nomination
Juniors	George Milne	Richard Maddock	Dr Raj
General committee position	Veena Lakhlani	Steve Parker	Justin French
Clubhouse	Paul Heighton towers	Gary van der Byl	Steve Parker
Bar	Divyanshu Lakhlani	Karen Chapman	Rich Evans

The election of the new committee was proposed by Katie England, seconded by John Braint.      All were in favour.

 10.AOB 

Veena suggested that she knows someone who is IT skilled who might be able to contribute to the committee.  We have already had a specific volunteer but all names welcome.  Also she suggested a sub-committee for IT/club-spark who can then feed back to the Committee.

Clubhouse premises officer is another skill set that we require, ie ordering supplies, dealing with lettings

Martin wanted to acknowledge the Safeguarding work that Jackie Rossa does. It is invaluable

The garden room is nearly finished and we will create a sub-committee for décor and furnishings.

Suggestion of a garden room opening event maybe combined with a Christmas event.

The LTA venue registration can have any club volunteer registered next year.

Sue asked who would be writing the nomination for Club of the Year

Sue also mentioned that the Club is 80 next year

The question was raised about whether to keep the Winners boards in the clubhouse- this will be decided when the clubhouse refurbishment is done

The meeting closed at 8.15pm