Friday 8th July 2011
What should have been a straight forward day of travelling to a tournament, training and signing in turned out to be a little more eventful than we all imagined!
I met up with Mia Smith and Milo Bargeron at 9.20am this morning and started the 2 and a half hour journey from Kent to Solihull. The weather was terrible the whole way so I started making calls on the way up as to the state of the clay courts at the tournament site and on hearing they were out of play due to the rain I started contacting some local indoor centres to try and book some court time. Billesley Indoor Tennis Centre seemed like the best bet and so after visiting the Solihull Arden Club to confirm the courts were unplayable we made our way over there.
At first the staff at the centre were more than happy to take our money and book our court but this soon changed as they didn’t seem happy with us going through our physical warm up on the outside courts before our session started indoors. The manager, Keith Hill, demanded that we stopped and said that we would have to pay for the court if we wanted to use it. When I explained we were just warming up he then said that we couldn’t use the court, I wouldn’t be able to coach the players on court and we’d have to get a refund. I asked if the players could go on the court themselves and I’ll wait on the balcony but he said I’d still be coaching and he wouldn’t allow it. It was absolutely ridiculous and I can’t believe that a centre that is funded by the LTA could not use some common sense and allow 2 players to train with their coach when they are competing in an international event down the road.
I then called the David Lloyd at Cranmore and explained that I was a member at Dartford and the situation that we were in and they were more than happy to help. They allowed us all to train at the centre, use all of the facilities and even the other tennis coaches were welcoming. We spent around 45 minutes completing some movement and speed work and then an hour and a half on court before going into the gym to cool down and stretch out. Mia and Milo worked very hard and found a very good training level together so at the end of the day everyone was happy.
We then went back to the club to sign in and after checking in at our hotel we drove back into Solihull for dinner at Pizza Express. It was then back to the club after dinner to check the draw and arrange practise for tomorrow.
Schedule for tomorrow:
Alastair Gray (GBR) (UNR) vs Milo Bargeron (GBR) (UNR) – 2nd round on after 9am
