By Janice North
This is the first time we have held our AGM at a location other than Basingstoke for several years and the change of venue to the esteemed National Tennis Centre in Roehampton was most refreshing. Right from the start, it was clear that this was a popular decision, evidenced by the stark increase in attendance, with a total of 41 members present.
While some members with longer journeys came down to Roehampton the night before, most members arrived in time for the start of the AGM itself at 11:30, at which point there was just time to grab a quick coffee before heading into the room provided for us.
During the meeting and after various mandatory reports and committee elections had been duly fulfilled, we were privileged to welcome Sandi Procter, the President of the LTA to join us for an extremely interesting question and answer session with Julia Waters, one of our BATS members who is also an LTA councillor. Several members had previously submitted some questions too and it was fascinating to listen to Sandi talk about her work and the venue itself.
At the close of the meeting, we all went downstairs to enjoy a very tasty buffet lunch in the open space provided, which gave members the welcome opportunity to catch up with each other. After lunch we had been promised a guided tour of the National Tennis Centre and we started our tour around the various courts, commencing with the clay courts, moving on past the grass courts and finally on to the hard courts.
Our guide explained at each juncture how the courts are prepared well in advance so as to give our players as much competitive advantage as possible prior to upcoming tournaments on each surface. One extremely interesting fact here was that the clay provided came from Rome after their tournament, in time for our players to practise before Roland Garros!
We also went to have a look in the players’ room which the LTA had introduced as a place of retreat for the elite players containing a pool table and large screen TV. We then proceeded to the elite gym where amongst various other equipment, there was an enclosed thermo tent for players to practise exercising at different temperatures. Then finally we made our way along the gallery where we could look down and see the very young players of tomorrow practising with their parents watching every move.
After completion of the guided tour, this concluded the main part of the day and members had the option to either take their leave or play Padel tennis on one of the LTA Padel courts which although covered are essentially outside.

22 of our members had signed up for this and very much enjoyed the opportunity. There was a mixture of playing standards with those who play regularly able to share rules & tips with those playing for the first time. As you would expect from a BATS group, there were also several people cheering on the players!
Participants rotated to play with different opponents and played short recreational games giving everyone the chance to serve. The hardest skill is playing a ball that bounces then hits the back glass, as you have to run forward instead of backwards like in tennis to play the ball forwards. Serving is underarm after bouncing the ball and Padel is almost always doubles play. Easier to pick up than tennis and great fun; so something we hope to repeat if we are able to in futures years.
It’s fair to say that holding our BATS AGM at the National Tennis Centre is an absolute win for us, both in terms of its relevance to who we are, its ability to raise our profile as a community and also in terms of specific interest to our members and we have already approached the LTA to register our interest in returning there again next year.