Floodlights
Kintbury Tennis Club has got three tennis courts, all with County standard floodlights. The floodlights are operated by a token system, with members able to purchase tokens from the following people, most of whom live in Kintbury.
| member contact info | tokens available | Derek Wilson ( tel 01488608338 ) | 10 | Roy Hutchings ( tel 01488 658691 ) | 20 | Graeme Coulam ( tel 01635 41547 ) | 21 |
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The cost of a token is £1.50 each. Each token gives 30mins of light time.
Clearly, to use the token, you will need to get access to the clubhouse. Clubhouse keys can be obtained from the chair for a refundable fee of £10. Or you can borrow a key from another member, of course.
Please note, lights are free of charge when used on a Wednesday evening clubnight all through the winter. During a club session on any other night, a charge will be levied towards the cost of using the floodlights. (This is to cover both the cost of the electricity and the cost of replacing bulbs.)
Very few clubs have lights of the quality that we have at Kintbury. We first installed lights on courts 1 and 2 somewhere around 2004, and this enabled us to continue clubnight on into the summer evenings, and also throughout the winter. We were also able to play winter matches, and to run a well attended matchplay night. But having lights on two courts only made it more obvious that the third court needed lights too. Quite often, members were playing on court three in the half light from the existing floodlights, but it always felt like a poor option.
For some period of time, we debated adding lights to court three, but the bigger job of rebuilding the courts in 2010 kept us from completing our dream until 2013.
Once planning had been approved, things moved very quickly. We received quotes from several suppliers and apointed LTL (who had done the orginal lights) to install lighs on court three. Within a week during October, the work was completed, and now we have lights on all three courts. Below is a selection of photos taken during the works. Thanks to Pete Ambler for liaising with the architects to get teh plans drawn up, and to John Howell for seeing the work through to completion, and to the many members who made financial contributions to ensure that we were able to pay for the work without loans or grants........ meaning another major contruction projected completed at KTC without any input from the LTA!
Lowering the poles into place
Poles in place without lights
Poles in place with lights
View of the courts from the cherry picker cabin
