Welcome to the ‘CBL’ Chepstow Box League. 

As you may already know I am very keen to get kids playing the game of tennis. In sports such as football you train in the week and play a match at the weekend, whereas in tennis its train, train, train, where is the match? Tennis isn’t the coaching you receive on a Wednesday or Sunday - it’s the game itself. It’s about playing a match, gaining experience and reflecting on your strengths and weaknesses. Why bother improving your topspin forehand or serve, only to return the following week and try and improve it some more???    

The CBL is a great opportunity for you to play actual matches against players of a similar ability or stronger.

So how does it work? 

First thing you need to know is that you need to join Chepstow Tennis Club to take part in the box league – but hey that’s no big deal  – you’re keen on tennis anyway and membership gives you access to the courts the whole year round.

You will be organised into boxes e.g. 4 players in 1 box., and then asked to play matches against the other players in your box.  It is up to you to organise when you play the matches. You will be provided with the contact details and court time but you are responsible for completing all the matches over a given period. (There will be penalties if players do not complete ALL matches during the dates given.) 

When all the results are in, you may be promoted to the next box up, but if you were unfortunate enough to finish bottom of the box then you would go down to a lower box. However don’t treat this as a negative thing, the standard may be closer to yours and therefore you’ll gain more enjoyable from playing. Plus, you then get the chance to improve your results and get yourself back up to a higher box for next time.

The CBL will run from April until the end of July so once you have the details of your box and the other competitors in it you will have about 15 weeks (there will be specific dates given) to complete your matches.

Court time will be made available at Chepstow during the Saturday morning junior club sessions which will be supervised by Patrick Wilson, one of our tennis coaching assistants. Don’t worry if you can’t make Saturday mornings, you can also play your matches at the club any time the courts are free (see the Information Sheet). However, this will not be supervised by anyone from the club, so parents will need to be responsible for the safety of their children. If you thinking of playing at the weekend then you would be advised to book a court via our secretary Claire Chisholm (01291 629737)

And just think – because you have become a member of the club you can also play for fun at any other time the courts are free and take part in our junior club tournament in September.     

So how much does it cost? 

The cost of membership of the club is £25 for primary school children and £40 for secondary school children. However, if you pay up before April 30th then you get a 10% discount. There is an even bigger discount of 50% if you are the child of an adult member. There are also family memberships available – see the Membership page for details.

Membership of the club entitles you to free entry to the CBL.  So for £36 an intermediate will get 3 months of supervised match play sessions – that sounds like less than £3 per week – never mind the other benefits of being a member of the club. 

What do you get as a CBL member? 

• Organised boxes with relevant info on players so matches can be organised

• Structured match play and supervised time on a Saturday morning to play your matches.

• Trophies and prizes

• Vital match experience, putting those training hours and acquired skills into practice, as well as the life experience of dealing with winning and losing!

• Facility to play at the club when the courts are free

• Entry into our club junior tournament.

PHASE 2 BOXES

Note: Will Bruton wasn't relegated due to only having 3 players in his box in Phase 1. 

Ollie has now balanced out the boxes for Phase 2.  He hopes you agree.

Huw Ellis is a new member for phase 2 and has been placed in box 4 on account of his age and experience.

PHASE 1 BOX RESULTS HERE

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What are the match rules? 

Primary school children will play 1 set, first to 4 games (proper scoring e.g. 15 love, 30-15 etc) and a championship tie-break if the score reaches 3-3. (A championship tie-break is first to 10 points)

Intermediates will play a normal set & a championship tie-break if the score reaches 6-6.

What happens when all the matches in a round have been played?  

Once you have played all your matches and the results have been counted and verified (I will require confirmation from both players as to the result of each individual match), then there are 3 possible outcomes ready for the start of the next round:

1. you will remain in the same box but it will have different players in it

2. you will be “promoted” to the next box higher up

3. you will be “relegated” to the next box higher up

NOTE: one box higher up or indeed lower down does not necessary mean a difference in standard, as there might well be 8 players all of the same age and standard split into 2 boxes of 4. Therefore when you are moved down a group for example, the standard could be very similar to that of your previous box.

At the end of the 3 months there will be play off matches for the players who have achieved the most wins during the 1^st & 2^nd rounds, with trophies and prizes up for grabs. See the diagram overleaf.

How do I join?

If you would like to join just contact Jill Maule (01291 624706) for an application form or if you usually join as a family member with your parents then that is fine – do it that way and just let Jill know that you want to take part.

PLAYOFFS:

Players with the most wins over the 2 rounds playoff in final round of matches 

WINNERS / OVERALL RESULTS:

As you can see the CBL is a league with many incentives for you to join with the best incentive surely being that you can play in some proper organised matches just like you would do all year round in other sports such as football. 

I look forward to hearing from you soon 

Ollie Bendall (CCA Professional Tennis Coach)