Gardens Lawn Tennis Club
Rules, Regulations and Tennis Etiquette on court

GLTC is a thriving club with a long history, a healthy membership and run by a committee of volunteers. We have four tennis courts, one of which is rented by our resident coach for most of the day. In order to create a pleasant environment in which to play tennis and socialise for all our members and for the club to run smoothly and fairly, members are expected to adhere to the following rules, regulations and etiquette. Unacceptable behavior should be reported to the Committee as soon as possible after the incident. Censuring of the member may only be done by the Committee in accordance with the Constitution (Point 1.1.3 of the Club’s Standing Rules).

General rules and regulations for court use

• No pre-booking of courts is allowed.
• On the whiteboard on the outer clubhouse wall, please note the time you start playing and your names on the relevant court. Play is restricted to 1 hour should other members be waiting to play. You must sign up even if other courts are available when you start playing, otherwise this system will not work! Arriving members can then see easily from the board when a court will become available without having to interrupt play to ask. If you and your partner/opponent have both arrived at the club you can put your names on the whiteboard as “waiting” for a court.
• On weekdays after 16.30, Senior and Week Day members will have precedence over Junior members for the use of the courts. (Point 8.1.4. in the club’s Standing Rules).
• If your opponent has not yet arrived at the club and other members are ready to play and waiting for a court you must vacate the court and let them on. Similarly if members are waiting for a court and you are practicing (eg. your serve) on your own you must vacate the court for waiting players.
• Players should come off court to the clubhouse area once they have finished playing and other members have come on court to play. Please do not linger on the court benches, as this can be distracting.
• No dogs, litter, food, alcohol, glass, toys, bicycles, skateboards, roller blades or skates allowed on court.
• All water jugs, cups and club balls should be returned to the clubhouse and not left on court at the end of a session. Please re-fill water jugs and return to the fridge.

Etiquette

• No bad language or swearing (a swear word is a word you wouldn’t want your child to use!)
• If players need to walk onto a court to access or leave another court, please wait until the point has beenplayed and cross quickly as a complete group to minimize disruption to the game in progress.
• Appropriate tennis clothing (including tops!) and non-marking tennis shoes must be worn on court.
• If one of your balls rolls onto a neighbouring court during play please inform that court immediately sonobody trips up on it and please wait until a point is finished before returning a neighbouring court’s balls so it does not disrupt their game.

Social tennis
Social tennis is a chance for members to play tennis with others of different tennis abilities (intermediate level and up) and is often the best place for weaker players to improve – just remember we were all weaker players once!

• Social tennis times are currently:
  Tuesdays 9.00-11.00 on the top two courts
  Wednesdays 16.00 onwards on courts 1, 2 and 4
  Saturdays 13.30 onwards on courts 1, 2, 3 and 4 except during league season Sundays 9.00-11.00 on the top two courts during league season
• The “Order of Play” board is used on Wednesdays and Saturdays (Point 6 in the club’s Standing Rules on how it works are displayed on the board – or ask a committee member!)
• When you have finished your social set (first to 6 games) all players must come off court and put their name disk on the “Order of play” board in the appropriate place depending on the outcome of the game (winners’ names first).
• Pre-arranged games of tennis are not in the spirit of “social tennis” so please organise games outside of social times.
• Visitors may only participate in Social Play on Wednesdays and Saturdays for a maximum of 3 times in a calendar year to “try out” the club.

League practice
League practice evenings begin in the week prior to league commencing until the last week of league on the top two courts.

• Men’s team practice on Tuesdays from 17.00 – 19.00
• Ladies’ team practice on Thursdays from 17.00 – 19.00

Visitors

• Visitors are welcome at GLTC to play ideally with members – R40 per player per session.
• Visitors should sign into the visitor’s book and pay their fee into the honesty box BEFORE stepping oncourt so that other members can see that visitors have paid their fees.
• Visitors should also sign up on the whiteboard on the club-house wall the time they start playing andtheir names.
• Members have playing preference on the top two courts so visitors can be asked politely to move down tothe lower courts.

Thank you for your consideration and helping to make our club the top club in the Western Cape!