Dorchester & Weymouth Tennis Club Mini Tennis Box Leagues 2011/12   Over the last few years we have run box leagues for the children in the coaching programme at Dorchester and Weymouth, to enable them to put into practice what they are taught in lessons, and to get some match experience.  We will be doing the same this year and would like as many children to take part as possible, with particular emphasis on those in the performance programme.   These matches are aimed to be fun and enjoyable and to help with the learning process.  We aim for the matches to played on Saturday afternoons commencing at 4.30pm and they will run for 2 – 2½  hours.  We aim for there to be one session a month, for each age group, but this is dependent on court availability and school holidays.   The aim is for the children to play within their age groups and there is no obligation for the children to play, and they don’t have to be available for all the sessions.  We hope to play the Red leagues indoors at the Wey Valley Tennis Centre with the Orange & Green leagues at Dorchester Tennis & Squash Club.   There will be an entry fee of £5 per session for the leagues, to cover the cost of courts, umpires, balls, floodlights and prizes.  We have looked long and hard at holding the orange & green events indoors at Wey Valley, but due to the lesser number of players involved, and more courts needed, there is no way we can afford it, without charging you vast quantities!    All children will need to be British Tennis Members, which can be obtained, free of charge, by going to www.lta.org.uk/membership . This enables them to have a “rating” and for all their results to be processed through the LTA.  If you have taken part in the leagues before you will already have a rating.   Please confirm whether you would like your child to take part in the box leagues by email to s.skidmore@tiscali.co.uk giving me their names, email address, all contact numbers, date of birth and British Tennis Membership number and rating if known.    I will then keep you informed as to what is going on and when.  I will send out a reminder email approximately a week before each session asking for confirmation as to whether your child is available for the forthcoming weekend, so that we can plan the leagues to the best of our ability, giving each child fair matches.     If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me.  Sarah Skidmore 07976 618672   The RED age group is for those born 1st April 2003 or later – they will play one tie-break to 10 points, on the courts size they are used to playing on, and all matches will be umpired. The umpires will help those who haven’t played matches before and guide them through the matches. Provisional dates for Red box leagues are:  12th Nov, 3rd Dec, 14th Jan, 4th Feb, 3rd Mar. The ORANGE age group is for those born between 1st April 2002 and 31st March 2003 – they will play the best of three tie-breaks to 7 points, on the court size that they are used to playing on and all matches will be umpired. Provisional dates for Orange box leagues are: 19th Nov, 10th Dec, 21st Jan, 11th Feb, 10th Mar. The GREEN age group is for those born between 1st April 2001 and 31st March 2002 – they will play a 20 minutes timed match, scoring with traditional tennis scoring. The matches won’t be umpired, but will be closed monitored. They will play on a full court.  Provisional dates for Green box leagues are: 26th Nov, 17th Dec, 28th Jan, 25th Feb, 17th Mar.   Please note these dates are provisional. Dorchester runs an Open Tournament in April, and there are team matches in April and May.  We will fit in the box leagues if there are dates available, and a “Finals” day for each age group will hopefully take place in June/July.