2026 Annual General Meeting Committee Report

Please read this Annual Committee Report and take 5 minutes to complete our AGM Members Survey to provide feedback on how the Club is run and to vote on important motions, including proposals to extend our clubhouse.

This Committee Report, together with our AGM Treasurer’s Report, provides an overview of the Club’s achievements over the past 12 months and our plans for the coming year.

The deadline for AGM voting is Thursday 19th November at 6pm, ahead of our members’ meeting at the Cricket Club at 7.30pm that evening.

Highlights of the Year

We have had another hugely successful year for the Club, marking the culmination of five years of significant change, investment and hard work. Since our last AGM, we have:

• been named Berkshire Tennis Club of the Year;
• been shortlisted as one of five finalists for the LTA Club of the Year award;
• gained planning permission for and installed our second padel court;
• gained planning permission to extend and improve our existing clubhouse;
• continued to develop and improve our Club website, which was relaunched in 2024;
• run an excellent Club Championship, culminating in a successful Finals Day for tennis, padel and pickleball;
• enjoyed excellent success for our Ladies’ and Men’s teams in the Berkshire winter and summer leagues;
• watched our junior section thrive, with excellent participation at club nights and continued progress by our junior teams;
• welcomed 201 new members, with total membership hitting 601 by 30th September (our financial year-end), representing a fantastic 79% increase over just two years;
• reached a current membership high of 612 (423 adults and 189 juniors) by 28th October 2026;
• and grew total Club income by 47% from £77.2k to £119k as outlined in our Annual Treasurer’s Report.

Your Committee Team

Subject to approval at the AGM, the following members have agreed to serve on the Committee for the next 12 months. A huge thank you to everyone on the Committee for their hard work and commitment over the past year, with a special mention to Wendy Mills and Kieran Martin-Davis, who have both stepped down after four years of excellent service to the Club..

Club Objectives and Goals

Our work as a Committee is guided by the Club objectives and goals outlined below. These were originally agreed in July 2022, but we have recently updated our membership targets to reflect the Club’s significant growth.

“To advance the game of tennis (including padel and pickleball) in Wargrave and the surrounding area, by encouraging and supporting more players, of all ages and abilities, to play better competitive or social tennis, in an environment that is fun, safe and inclusive.”  

Goal 1 – Promote and retain membership at 600+ (Adults 415+ / Juniors 185+) in line with current membership levels, our improved facilities and catchment area potential.

Goal 2 – Keep our membership happy by running the club well and achieving a satisfaction levels of +85% as measured in the AGM annual survey.

Goal 3 – Manage Club finances over a 30+ year cycle to ensure we have adequate funds to maintain and improve our facilities, while holding reserves to always match 1 year of routine expenditure.

Committee Action Areas

To achieve our overall objective and goals, as a committee, we remain focused on six key “Action Areas”:

Action Area 1 – Facilities and Fees

Our aim as a Committee is to provide the best facilities we can afford while keeping membership fees competitive. Over the past four years, as shown in the photo below, we have invested nearly £300,000 in improved facilities, including LED floodlights, artificial clay courts, two new padel courts, security gates and lower fencing to improve spectator viewing.

Subject to approval at the AGM, our next major investment will be the proposed clubhouse extension, providing much-needed additional space for a membership that has more than doubled since the current clubhouse was built. Before voting on this important motion, please click here to see more details of our proposed investment. Separately, we are also seeking AGM approval to continue increasing membership fees annually, by no more than the rate of inflation, regardless of whether the clubhouse investment proceeds. This will ensure that our income keeps pace with rising costs and that we can continue to maintain and replace our existing facilities over the longer term.

Action Area 2 – Membership and Community

Our membership has grown by a fantastic 79% in just two years (see chart below), driven by the success of padel, improvements to our facilities and our reputation as a friendly and welcoming Club for players of all ages and abilities. This growth has transformed the financial strength of the Club and the facilities we can afford. Having achieved our membership growth targets, our focus will now shift towards retaining existing members and keeping them happy and engaged. With membership approaching capacity (now at 612), we are considering the introduction of a waiting list and will undertake a full review when membership reaches 630. This review will take into account overall court utilisation, membership-to-court ratios at other local clubs and feedback from the AGM survey. However, as members will always come and go, we will continue to promote the Club through our website, social media and local press, ensuring that we continue to attract and welcome potential new members.

Our commitment to membership safeguarding was reinforced this year by our Welfare Officer’s attendance at the LTA Safeguarding Conference in October. Alongside our focus on membership, we are also committed to supporting our local community, building on what we achieved over the past 12 months including: making two courts available for public booking as part of our lease agreement with the Parish Council; hosting three padel and pickleball evenings for village youth groups; running 30 junior LTA tournaments; and establishing an ongoing tennis programme for residents of Yeldall Manor, a local Christian drug rehabilitation charity. We plan to continue these initiatives over the coming year, ensuring that the Club remains an active and valued part of the Wargrave community.

Action Area 3 – Adult Competitive Play

Our aim is to provide a positive environment at the Club that encourages competitive play. Over the past 12 months, more than 80 members have represented Wargrave in the summer and winter tennis leagues, with some outstanding results. Our Men’s Second Team won their Berkshire Division 2 title with five straight victories, while our Men’s First Team continue to compete in Division 1. Our Ladies’ teams also enjoyed some excellent results, including notable victories for the Third Team against Maidenhead and Wokingham. In addition, our biggest-ever Club Championships attracted over 100 competitors, culminating in a memorable Finals Day in September.

Competitive padel continues to grow at Wargrave, with five Club Padel Championship Finals and the launch of our new Padel Americano Divisions in October, attracting 110 members of all abilities. We also aspire to establish teams to compete against other padel clubs in the coming year. Special congratulations to Mem Aldridge, who represented England and won the Over-70s title at the Four Nations Padel Tournament. Many thanks to Head Coach Ollie Brown, our Club Captains, Match Secretary Paul McDonald and all the players and volunteers who make competitive play at Wargrave such a success.

Action Area 4 – Adult Social Play

Encouraging social tennis remains a core part of our Club, with around 50% of adult members describing themselves as “mainly social players” in our last AGM survey. We currently offer five weekly social tennis sessions, promoted through our website and WhatsApp Community, providing opportunities for members of all ages and abilities to play and meet others. With over 90% of social players saying they enjoy being members of the Club, we remain committed to improving these sessions and have included specific questions in this year’s AGM members survey to seek members’ views on how we can encourage greater participation, for example, whether some sessions should have a minimum playing standard or whether we should organise more social tournaments.

The introduction of padel and pickleball has further strengthened our social play offering, encouraging members to try new sports and meet other players. We currently run two weekly Club padel sessions, while our new Padel Americano Divisions help social players arrange more matches and meet other members. Pickleball is also thriving, with over 40 members in its WhatsApp group and three weekly sessions. With the help of volunteers, we hope to organise more social tournaments and events, building on the success of our Boxing Day Competition, June padel party and the padel and pickleball competitions held on Finals Day in September, as well as exploring other ideas suggested from the AGM members survey.

Action Area 5 – Junior Tennis

Junior tennis at Wargrave continues to thrive under the leadership of Katie Hodgkins, with excellent support from Head Coach Ollie Brown and his team. At the end of September 2026, the junior section had 187 members, our highest-ever level and an increase of over 30% in the past two years. During the summer, we regularly had over 60 children attending our Friday afternoon junior club sessions, while our coach-led Monday evening sessions for older juniors have been a great success. We have also introduced juniors to padel and pickleball at our club sessions, and hope to develop more opportunities for them to enjoy both sports over the coming year.

We have seen encouraging progress in competitive junior tennis, with three junior teams playing regular matches against other local clubs. We held another successful girls’ and boys’ junior tournament as part of Finals Day, with congratulations to all the finalists, including our new junior champions, Finley Hodgkins and Lucy Gupta. We are delighted that several of our junior boys have entered regional LTA tournaments, with some now playing for our adult teams. This progress bodes well for the future of the Club.

Action Area 6 – Club Coaching

Our Head Coach, Ollie Brown, has been with the Club since February 2023 and became our sole Head Coach in April 2024. Since then, he has continued to develop a busy coaching programme, playing an important role in the success of our teams in the Berkshire League and the development of our junior section. In addition to regular coaching for adults and juniors, Ollie organises around 30 junior LTA tournaments each year, attracting talented young players from across the region, alongside a busy programme of holiday tennis camps. He also provides valuable support for our Club teams and Tuesday social tennis sessions. Special congratulations to Ollie on reaching the semi-finals of the Men’s Over-30 Masters Doubles at Wimbledon, partnering his former university teammate Peter Avis. We have also expanded our coaching offer to include weekly padel sessions with LTA Padel Coach Peter Savage.

Ollie’s coaching programme continues to make a valuable financial contribution to the Club, broadly in line with 2025 and 62% higher than in 2024, helping to offset the investment we make in supporting junior tennis and other Club activities. Member satisfaction with coaching has also improved significantly, reaching 93% in our last AGM survey, compared with 70% in 2024 and 86% in 2025. Ollie remains a highly valued member of our team and has played an important part in the Club’s success over the past year. While we recognise that coaching is a personal choice and no single coach can meet everyone’s needs, we feel very fortunate indeed to have Ollie here at Wargrave – thank you Ollie!

Thank You and AGM Survey

Well done to you if you managed to read all of this report… now, please don’t forget to vote and complete the AGM Online Survey. The voting deadline is Thursday 19th November at 6pm, ahead of our members’ meeting at the Cricket Club at 7.30pm that evening.