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We pride ourselves with trying to do as much as we can to preserve the environment we live in and our community.  We are therefore one of 15 clubs in the country taking part in an LTA approved ball recycling pilot scheme.

As a sport, we throw away an estimated 15 million tennis balls each year in GB. Each ball can take up to 300 years to biodegrade in landfill. Standard recycling and waste disposal companies are currently unable to recycle the rubber in tennis balls and whilst many charities reuse tennis balls, it doesn’t eliminate the problem of balls entering landfill. Dyuce was created to solve this problem and is currently the only solution to fully recycling the rubber from tennis balls, as a component in the soles of athletic footwear, reducing our reliance on virgin rubbers.

If after 3 months we decide to go ahead with the programme, it will cost the club £10 per month subscription fee and a further £15 every time the bin needs emptying, although the bin holds 250 balls so we are not sure how often that will be and will probably vary throughout the year. 

Please use the bin for recycling your old balls and if you have any comments about the programme, please let me (or another committee member) know.

The tennis Committee are looking to redevelop the area to the right of the club house entrance, to create a nice beer garden/BBQ/ seating area in the next stage of development at the club. To do this, existing water tank, which allows the bowling green to be watered, needed moving to the side of the club building, out of the way, with new pipework and the proposed area levelled to allow it to be repurposed. The slight problem was that as the club has developed, the tank was too big to be moved around the building conventionally. So to avoid having to take down the existing large tennis shed (which might prove difficult to rebuild) the tank needed to go over the roof of the shed. 

Phase 1 The Big Lift

Rob and Dave took the wooden surrounds down in less time it took to drink a cup of coffee. I think that it is the destructive element we both rather enjoy! The previous week Rob had been giving the tank the evil eye each time he went past the tank to psych himself up for the big lift and looked to bring in reinforcements. Dave formed a Whatsapp group labelled Big Strong Real Men. Obviously I am also a big strong real man, but I am shy about it so I changed the group to The Big Lift, with an icon of a Sizewell B, which in hindsight was uncannily relevant! Dave immediately changed the icon to something rather less PC (but quite funny) with Adam adding comments which he immediately deleted. Can’t think they could have ever been non pc, but we will never know as he can delete a message he has written faster than anyone I know!

And so at 9.30 on a Saturday morning a group of big strong real men (and Rob) assembled at the club to move the beast. Having psyched himself up, Rob thought about asking Adam to give him a slap across the cheeks to motivate him, as is done on a lot of weightlifting competitions, however Rob thought that by the time he woke up, he would have missed all the action!

The tank was lifted up and Dave was straight up onto the roof like a bobcat and pulled it up, with others shoving it upwards from ground level and then trestle level. The shed was obviously designed to take additional accidental loading, although this was premeditated and the shed designers will have obviously taken into account the additional likelihood and loading associated with someone running up and down along the roof rolling a 125kg water butt! I believe it is quite a common sight when walking through Bramhall village on a Saturday morning.

When it came to lowering the tank into position off the roof, Rob came up with some inspirational advise about not dropping it and lowering it slowly. That’s why they pay me the big bucks….oh that’s not the case, it was free of charge! Adam is usually pretty quick to offer a funny response to these sorts of pearls of wisdom, but at the time I think he was trying not to burst a blood vessel and be eaten alive by the enormous tank that was descending onto him from a great height! There was a rumour that rather than holding the tank up, Dave was pushing it down onto Adam muttering “take that you bu**er”, but what happens at the side of the club, stays at the side of the club

Tank moved, job done….or so we thought! 

Phase 2 The Somme Trench!

The small matter of a trench to allow the pipework to be installed to connect up the water tank formed part of Phase 2. This involved lifting 20 odd flags out of the way and digging a trench across the front and down the side of the building. Still it could have been worse, the flags might have been monsters weighing a ton each and at least we were not hand digging in clay. Whoops, no that is exactly what we faced! I think current health and safety legislation require the average age in a chain gang to be less than 60, so Euan and Mark were recruited.  Rob imparted some further sage advice to Mark and Euan, who pay good money to go to the gym, but we were offering them a much better workout and were not even charging them a fee for the privilege! My son Euan was so touched by his father’s wisdom and I think that brought a tear to his eye. 

Phase 3 The Slab

These water tanks can be placed on flag stones, so should have been fairly easy. Alas not the case! Previously in the upper Jurassic period, Rob undertook a number of structural designs for Emergency Control Nuclear blast bunkers, designed to take a near direct nuclear bomb blast. Having looked at the slab that was staring back at us, it was clear somebody had used this design to construct a slab for the water tank to sit on! I can see the builder having laid the slab 20 odd years ago muttering that “that bu**er is not going anywhere” He was so nearly right!

Now a lot of men have a pretty good selection of power tools, and I myself am pretty pleased with mine. However I was in awe when Dave pulled out every bloke's essential power tool, a pneumatic jackhammer! Just what you need for those DIY jobs at home. Most blokes tend to like being on the power tools and stay on that job, but this was brutal. After 20 mins anyone who passed close to the guy on the jack hammer was passed it immediately with the phrase ”thanks for offering mate. I’ll just have a quick sit down!” The secret was to keep the exclusion zone clear at all times. Anyway from 9.30-5pm job done! What better way to spend a glorious sunny Bank Holiday Friday.  The pipework will go in and be connected by specialists later this week and we will back fill. The club will have saved a few £000’s on this work so hopefully we can pay someone to put the flags back and finalise the design, so we are left with a really nice useable space. If designed right, it could be a really nice area. I have seen how heavy those flags are and I for one think I will be washing my hair that day! 

A huge thanks to Dave Elson, Andy Bloore (not even a member), Adam Mayers, Euan Chambers, Mike Sarginson (Bowler) and Mark Drinnon for all their help. It was a monster job!

                                                                                                                                                                    Rob

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online, you could be raising a free donation for Bramhall Queensgate Tennis Club?

• Easyfundraising have been going as a company since 2005, are a member of the Institute of Fundraising and have a 5* review rating on Trust Pilot
• There are 6000 retailers to choose from e.g. Just Eat, eBay, Amazon, Argos, M&S, John Lewis, Booking.com, Trainline, Currys, Groupon, Domino's all ready to give a free donation every time you shop via Easyfundraising.  
• It only takes 2 minutes to sign up. You enter each retailer's website through the Easyfundraising website or app and it takes you to your normal log in page or account with the retailer. Shop as normal and when you purchase, the retailer will send us a donation, which is a percentage of what you have spent. The club and Easyfundraising will not know what has been purchased, only the donation received.

Plus, if you sign up and raise £5 in donations, easyfundraising will give us a bonus £5 donation. The Committee have been trialling using this for the last few weeks and it is very simple and easy to use plus we have already raised some funds!

All you have to do is:

1.    Go to: https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/support-a-good-cause/step-1/?char=273901&invite=DPMSQO&referral-campaign=c2s&utm_campaign=raise-more&utm_medium=email&utm_content=raf-e

2.    Click 'support this cause' and create an account

3.    Choose from over 6,000 retailers to do your online shopping as normal and BQTC will receive a free donation with every purchase you make.

Thank you for your support, you'll be helping to make a real difference to Bramhall Queensgate Tennis Club in our quest to raise money to replace the floodlights on the Astros with LED's..