The Hills Tennis Association (HTA)

Please email both Junior and Senior Tennis Grand Final teams photos to sport@courier.net.au. Please include teams name, division played and whether winner or runner up,

Congratulations to all for 2020/21

HTA

It’s that time of year again when we all come together for a chin wag and to discuss the year ahead.

The HTA AGM will be held on Thursday 8^th April at 7.15 for a 7.30 start. It will be held at the Old Mill in the Heritage room, and attendees are encouraged to support the Old Mill (who have been very generous to the HTA for many years now) by purchasing a meal and/or drinks on the night. Check the current menu here

All current, past and future members, players and friends of the HTA are welcome and encouraged to attend. We extend a special invitation to all HTA life members – we would love to see you there.

Each club is required to send at least one delegate. The AGM is usually a fairly short meeting – let’s come together and keep one of the strongest independently-run Associations in the state going!

Jo Casey, HTA President

Tennis SA’s Senior Winter Pennant Competition

If you are interested in playing tennis year-round, Tennis SA’s senior winter comp is a great way to go. It kicks off in early May and runs through to late August. Clubs may nominate whole teams if they wish, or combine with other clubs to form teams.

Men’s and Women’s (separate) Traditional Divisions are available, as well as a 4-player Mixed Doubles Comp.

If you are keen to play Senior Winter Tennis, you could:

·        Form a team yourself and nominate through your own club, following the instructions on the TSA website

·        Contact one of the HTA Clubs who have previously fielded teams to enquire if they have availability. Last year Stirling, Littlehampton and Onkaparinga clubs fielded teams in the Winter Comp.

o   Stirling – Bill Walter – bwaltertennis@gmail.com

o   Littlehampton – Jo Casey – senior.activities@hta.asn.au

o   Onkaparinga – Ted Knight – onkaspresident@gmail.com

2021 Key Dates

• Online nominations open, Mon 1 March
• Online nominations close, Tues 6 April
• Start of season, Sat 1 May
• Byes on Sat 12 June and 10 July for all competitions
• End of regular season, Sat 14 August
• Finals two-week series, Sat 21 August and Sat 28 August
• All information can be found on the Winter Pennant Website

For more information, contact HTA President Jo Casey – president@hta.asn.au

Congratulations to all teams that have made finals this season. Please find spreadsheet for finals schedule for Semi-Finals. This information has also been added to software.

All the best, JAC

Hi everyone!

Unfortunately due to Rafa and Rog pulling out, we are looking for 1 or 2 male players to join a team for Country Carnival in January. But here’s the catch  –  we only have until end of day tomorrow to round them up!

 If you are a senior male player and were thinking about joining the fun ….. JUST DO IT!! Please contact Jo Casey ASAP for more info or to sign up. president@hta.asn.au 

 Jo Casey, HTA President

The Country Carnival Tennis Event is played from Thursday 7^th to Sunday 10^th January 2021. Registrations remain OPEN.  This a FREE event for all junior players from the Hills Tennis Association. Played at Kensington Lawn TC the event has 2 hour match allocation so you never need to be there all day. Play against other Associations and play on Lawn where it doesn’t hurt as much if you fall over!! It is the best tennis event on offer to country players and has been a tradition for over 50 years in South Australia. Registrations will close 20^th December and are on the Hills Tennis Association website.

Tennis Seniors SA – Friday night open court sessions

A reminder that Tennis Seniors SA are running a fun open court session tonight from 5.30 to approx. 8.00. Why not head down to Greenhill Road for some fun social tennis. All abilities welcome.

Jo Casey, HTA President

Lower Murray Grass Senior Championships – Sunday Nov 22 and 29

One of the great things to come out of this year is that Tennis Assocs in SA are keen to get more inter-association events (and rivalry!) happening.

In the past this tournament has been a closed tournament to Murray Bridge Associations only, but in the interests of building friendly inter-Association rivalry and relationships, they have opened it up to Hills and Great Southern Tennis Associations this year. We have not had a HTA Senior Tournament for many years now, so this is an opportunity to get out there, have some fun and show off your mad skills!

The tournament will be run over 2 Sundays (22 and 29 Nov), on grass, with various events on offer –

• Men’s singles – A grade, B grade and veterans
• Men’s Doubles – Championship, handicap and 40+ (combined age of 100+)
• Women’s singles – Championship and veterans
• Women’s Doubles – Championship, handicap and 40+ (combined age of 90+)
• Mixed Doubles – Championship, handicap and 40+ (combined age of 95+)

Play will run from approx. 9.00 am to 5.00pm. The cost to play is an amazing $20 for up to 3 events played per player!!

The weather is steadily improving, so why not grab a buddy, and sign up for what looks like a fabulous event? Entry form is attached to this post – further details there.

Get involved!!

Jo Casey, HTA President

Covid-safe plan

As you would know, all clubs must have a covid-safe plan in place before any tennis can be played at that venue. These covid-safe plans are quite simple and quick to complete, and need to be submitted to both Tennis SA and the HTA.  Here is the link to the website where you can create your plan:

https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/business-and-work/create-a-covid-safe-plan

Please note – no matches will be permitted to be played at your venue unless your club does has a covid-safe plan in place. If the HTA/Tennis SA have not received your covid plan before Wednesday 8^th October, any matches (Jnr/Snr/Night/midweek) due to be held at your venue will be rescheduled to another venue and your club will be responsible for paying court hire to that other venue.

Covid marshals

Each club is required to have a covid marshal on site at every official tennis match or activity, including coaching. More information about this role can be found here – https://www.covid-19.sa.gov.au/business-and-work/covid-marshals , and the quick and easy training can be done here – https://marshal.clickontraining.com.au/.

Covid marshals need to be easily identified – how you do this is totally up to your club, but some ideas include using a high-viz vest (hung on the netpost if the marshal is a player), badges, stickers and posters to indicate who the marshal is on that day.

IT IS EACH CLUB’S RESPONSIBILITY to ensure that a covid marshal is present at all tennis activities at the club. From the HTA’s perspective, the only exception would be a night tennis match with only 10 people in attendance – this would be deemed to be a time of “low patronage” and would not require a marshal.

Please contact Tennis SA if you need any further information regarding your covid-safe plan or the implementing of your covid marshals at your sites.

Jo Casey, HTA President

Through its Dunlop sponsorship deal, the HTA would love to give away:

·       3 x Dunlop Force 98 Tour Racquets (with racquet cover) – full size racquets with 4½ inch grip; and

·       3 x Dunlop racquet bags, with a tin of balls

To go into the draw to win, send an email to President Jo Casey (president@hta.asn.au) with the following details:

Ø your name

Ø your HTA club

Ø what you love most about playing tennis in the Adelaide Hills!

We can’t wait to hear from you!

Here’s a fun way to ease into the tennis season for our members who are 35+. As a means of helping shed the gloom of COVID and winter and as preparation for summer tennis, Tennis Seniors SA are conducting a fun carnival on 3 and 4 October for 35yo+. We’d love to see a strong HTA representation at this carnival tournament. It’s doubles only, with single gender doubles being played on the Saturday and mixed on the Sunday. A promo flyer is attached.

So if you’re not doing anything on the long weekend, add this to your “to do” list! Contact Max Foran at Tennis Seniors SA for more info – 0409 096 017, maxieforan@gmail.com.

Jo Casey, HTA President

As the Summer Season draws closer, we want to make sure that all of our member clubs are aware of their responsibilities with regards to the current covid situation.

Access to latest Community Tennis Guidelines and latest covid info available on the Tennis SA website:

Covid Marshal Required for all activities

The HTA has been notified by Tennis SA this week that all clubs are required to have a Covid Marshal present at any and all tennis activities after tomorrow, Friday 21^st August, as per the recent SA police direction. Again, this is not a huge responsibility – it just requires Marshals to complete a short online training and to be aware of their club’s Covid-safe Plan. More information, including a link to the training, can be found HERE.

Covid Safe Plan

Every HTA club needs to have a Covid-safe Plan before conducting tennis activities. This doesn’t need to be an onerous or difficult task – attached to this post is an example from Littlehampton TC that you could use to form the basis of your club’s version. Your Covid-safe Plan needs to be submitted to both Tennis SA and the HTA – please attend to this as soon as possible. The link to creating your own plan is HERE.

Clubs that co-exist and share clubrooms with other sports should have an identical plan to those other sports but should submit a plan under the name of the tennis club to ensure their compliance.

Tennis SA have confirmed that contact tracing records are currently not necessary for outdoor tennis activities.

Further Covid clarification on some additional points from Tennis SA:

• Continue to enforce social distancing;
• Limit social gathering – same mentality of get in, play, get out;
• Use of hand sanitiser at court entry points;
• Tapping of racquets upon completion of match, no handshakes;
• Essential players/staff on site only (encouraged only to have one parent per child);

Hi there HTA Family!

It’s been an interesting few months (to say the least!). Thankfully though (fingers crossed), we are able to look at getting the 20-21 HTA Summer Season up and running again.

Our AGM had to be delayed because of the covid situation and will now be combined with the Senior/Junior Conference. This meeting will be held on Monday 10^th August at The Old Mill in Hahndorf. It will be 7.15 for a prompt 7.30 start.  Clubs are required to send 2 representatives to this important meeting, where essential information regarding the new season will be discussed and distributed.

Clubs will be required to update all contact information. Please ensure any trophies/shields from the 19-20 season are returned on the night. The Agenda will be posted closer to the meeting date. See you all then!