As of 14th Feb, these are the latest standings and scores from our Sunday Night Winter League. I will look to update these each week.
Family Cup 2023
The Family Cup tournament recently held at ARC was an uplifting event that brought together nine pairs of players. The tournament was played on Mini Tennis courts, and the players used sponge balls to showcase their skills and techniques.
The players were all enthusiastic about the event, and it was great to see them coming together to bond and enjoy a day of friendly competition. Each pair competed in eight matches, and every player was cheering on their own, creating a wonderful and supportive atmosphere.
The players' commitment and passion were inspiring, and it was evident that they had all put in a lot of effort to prepare for the tournament. The competitive spirit on display was a testament to their dedication and love for the game, and it made the event a resounding success.
At the end of the tournament, one pair emerged victorious, with Dan and Rudi taking home the coveted Family Cup trophy with Jayden and Oscar being the runners up! However, every family had something to be proud of, having had a great day out playing tennis and enjoying time with their loved ones.
The next Family Cup tournament will be held in September, and we're excited to see even more players come together to play and compete in this fun-filled event.
Half Term Adult Coaching Sessions - What's on (and What's not!)
Our regular coaching programs take a break next week for half term, but there is still plenty going on at ARC during this week. Here’s a quick summary of what’s going ahead…
Tennis
Clubplay Sessions - Tuesday & Friday 7-9pm, Wednesday 10am-12pm
Practice & Play - Wednesday ONLY 1-3pm
Adult Doubles Clinic - Thursday 7-9pm
Badminton
No-Strings - Wednesday 2-4.30pm, Thursday 7-9pm
Clubplay Session - Friday 7-9pm
Table Tennis
Bat & Chat - Wednesday 2-4.30pm
Fitness Classes
All classes during the week going ahead as normal
Weightlifting - 8-9am Saturday 18th (No other classes on Saturday 18th Feb*)
Functional Fitness - 10am Sunday 19th
*There will be no drop in sessions, coaching or classes for any sport on Saturday 18th Feb (except a Mini Badminton make up session with Alistair, and Weightlifting class with Lottie M) due to a staff training day.
All the above sessions can be booked via Team up (payment is required at time of booking).
Impressive Results from our First Nutrition Workshop
In January ARC ran it’s first series of Nutrition workshops to help members learn about, and improve their eating habits. The four sessions were run by guest Nutrition Coaches, Frazer and Rachel McArdell each Wednesday evening throughout the month.
The sessions themselves were full of great tips, helpful advice and lots of ‘myth-busting’ science with clear, easy guidelines for the participants to follow. We also had a Facebook group to share recipes and for members to support each other and ask questions of the coaches.
Here’s what one of the attendees had to say:
“The course has been awesome, it’s really made me change up some of my eating habits, which weren’t bad but I’ve definitely needed to make some adjustments. I’ve felt so good through Jan... I’ve had more energy, focus and motivation which has resulted in me not only feeling great but it’s allowed me to really thrive in my work as I run my own business. I’ve also been sleeping really well, averaging 9 hours a night!”
There is no doubt the course made a real difference to the participants. On average the group lost 2.5kg over the four week period, and 3cm off their waist. It shows what can be achieved with the right help!
“The nutrition course was informative without being too in-depth - the take aways were clear, very achievable and really helped me to understand what our body’s need. Frazer and Rachel were knowledgeable, friendly and very supportive. I look forward to the next one maybe on sports nutrition!”
The course focused on the importance of making good food choices, helping participants identify healthy options and alternatives to sugary and processed foods. Portion sizes were also discussed, and the coaches provides some handy tips for quickly and easily planning meals and their make-up.
Frazer and Rachel talked about good hydration, exercise and physical activity that best supports health and fat loss. These tips really paid off, with everyone losing weight and feeling better as a result of their better nutrition.
“This was a very friendly, supportive and engaged group of like-minded people all wanting to understand more about the relationship between health, exercise, nutrition and hydration. Highly informative and enjoyable weekly group that I would truly recommend.
One negative......only 4 weeks.”
We will certainly be aiming to put on more nutrition courses in the coming months. If this is something you would be interested in, please drop us an email so we can inform you of the dates once confirmed. Future courses will also include a sports nutrition workshop to help you fuel your workouts and racquet sports.
Half Term Tennis & Badminton Activity Camp
Our popular Holiday Tennis & Badminton Camp is a fun-filled 3-day activity week that’s overflowing with great games, serious skills, terrific teamwork, and continuous competition! Whether you are booking them in for a half-day, a full day or all 3 days they’re bound to come home absolutely exhausted and with huge smiles on their faces!
The large age group is split down the middle depending on who’s attending each session meaning the older kids get to style it out together whilst the younger ones are kept bouncing! We provide all the equipment so just send them along with trainers and a drink. If they’re doing the full day they’ll need a packed lunch to eat in our supervised lunch break at 12pm. If you have any questions at all or special requirement don’t hesitate to get in touch.
SPRING HALF TERM - 13th-15th Feb
ARC Fitness 1st Birthday!
ARC Fitness is one year old today and what a year it’s been! We have the best members, staff, volunteers and coaches that make the gym such a fun and friendly place to be everyday. Thank you all!
It’s been great to see everyone working out, socialising, competing, having fun, moving better and of course becoming stronger and fitter this year.
Here’s to the next
ARC Awards Evening
On Saturday 26th November, ARC held our annual awards Evening. Over 140 people came along to the event, creating a fantastic atmosphere. Throughout the evening, we celebrated over 50 awards and achievements across tennis, badminton and fitness.
Towards the end of the evening we recognised our special award winners and nominees. These included our most improved players for tennis, badminton, fitness and table tennis. The award for the most improved adult and junior with a disability is always a highlight of the evening, and this year these honours went to Randa Gobara and Haiden Kellow.
The team of the Year was awarded to our Ladies Badminton team from 2021 who were put into a men’s league due to lack of ladies entries and still managed to finish mid-table.
Our Community Partner of the Year was the Northam Care Trust for their contributions to people with mental and physical disabilities in Bideford.
Finally Ella Wilson was our Staff Member of the Year for her fantastic dedication and hard work and Simon Trapnell was awarded Volunteer of the Year in recognition of his contributions to ARC’s maintaince team.
Join our Free Nutrition Seminar
Nutrition is an important and often overlooked part of sport, health and fitness and I think it will be a great offering to both racquet and gym members, giving them some key education about how to eat for health, weight loss and fitness.
ARC members Frazer and Rachel McArdell (whom some of you will know) are going to be delivering the seminars and running the course as guest coaches. Here’s a little more about Frazer…
(Frazer is from a professional rugby coach and playing background (Singapore Men’s Head Coach, Scotland age grade, Gloucester Academy) with a passion for winning and education. He has a Degree in sports science, a Masters in sports coaching and holds a Precision Nutrition coaching qualification. Frazer is well positioned to give you the knowledge and science needed to eat to your goals but also the coaching skills to make it work for your individual needs.)
The seminar and New Year’s course will be free to all staff and coaches, and we encourage you to get involved as it will set a great example for members to follow. It should also be really useful for when we advise or speak to members/clients about lifestyle or nutritional matters.
FREE SEMINAR – Thursday 8th December 6:30-7:30pm, at ARC mezzanine area.
The one-hour seminar will be offered out to all members as a way to introduce key topics relating to nutrition including;
What makes a good nutrition plan?
What are calories?
The difference between food groups, macro & micro nutrients and how these count towards your daily intakes
How many calories do you need to lose weight, gain weight, be healthy, perform best for a sport?
What is hydration and are you hydrated?
The seminar will close with an introduction and early sign up to the New Year’s Nutritional Course – Eat: Clean & Lean…
NEW YEARS NUTRITIONAL COURSE – EAT; Clean & Lean, January 2023
Cost is £39.99 to members
The course schedule is
Tuesday 3rd Jan 2023 – Weigh In (confidential & optional)
Wednesday 4th Jan – Seminar 1, 7-8pm
Wednesday 11th Jan – Seminar 2, 7-8pm
Wednesday 18th Jan – Seminar 3, 7-8pm
Wednesday 25th Jan – Seminar 4, 7-8pm
Tuesday 3rd February – Weigh Out
Additionally, there will be a Facebook group created to post recipes and meals, keep in touch with Frazer and Rachel and other members as well as share the process.
To support the course there will be an exercise goal of achieving 10,000 steps a day and 3 or more workout, activity or sport sessions a week.
ARC Men's A win North Devon Tennis League
Our Men’s A team topped the North Devon Tennis league in 2022, winning Division 1, making it a league ‘clean sweep’ for our club after the Ladies A team success.
Men’s league Results
The ARC Men’s A team led by Lewie Parker had a great season, winning Division 1 by a comfortable margin of 54 points. Lewie won an incredible 23 of the 24 rubbers he played in, closely supported by Alex Grigg who won 17 of his 18 matches. ARC B and C teams captained by Tom Farnell and Alex Wingent respectively also gave a really good account of themselves, finishing in 4th and 7th place. Matt Johns and Matt Daniel were the B team aces, playing 12 matches between them and winning most of them. The C’s held onto avoid relegation, keeping 3 ARC teams in Division 1 for next season. Ian Leonard played an important role for them, winning 6 matches throughout the year.
ARC D and ARC E played in division 2 this season, coming 3rd and 5th respectively. Simon Trapnell led the D’s in a strong campaign, with himself, Dave Thresher and Mark Clayton all winning 18 matches for their team along the way. Kullervo captained the E’s, and again led from the front alongside Martyn Beer, winning 18 rubbers between them.
Our F team captained by Matt Farley played in Division 3, coming home in 3rd behind Tarka C. Neil Darnley and Richard Jones showed up the most, playing 36 matches between them and winning 19 of those encounters. Finally, ARC G team ably led by Erol Eales toiled hard to finish the season in 6th place in Division 4. Erol played in a monumental 18 games, whilst Jonathan McNeil starred for the team, winning half of the games he played in.
Make sure you come along to our ARC Awards night on 26th November at 7pm to help us congratulate our fantastic league teams and celebrate many more successes for Atlantic Racquet Centre this year.
ARC Winter Open 2022
Men’s Open Singles participants
This was held at the end of October indoors and was a great success. 80 different people entered a variety of events and competition was fierce during the week. Both weekends and 4 evenings were used and competitors were aged from 15 upwards. This tournament is an annual event in the ARC Calendar so please reserve the date for next year! (Last week in October)
The Men’s Singles Winner was ARC’s Lewie Parker, completing his hat trick of ARC wins this year. (Summer Open and ARC Club Championships being the other two) Sam Laidler from Malvern (last year’s winner was the runner up. Well done to Shakira from Bournemouth who is 15, this is her 3rd win in Grade 4 tournaments at ARC but congratulations also to Niamh Ramsay from ARC playing in her first Ladies Singles event as Runner Up.
The Mens’ Doubles title went to a pair from Ivybridge and Somerset – Jon Doel and Frankie King, they beat Matt Johns and Billy Pearce in a fast hitting final.
The Mixed final saw some of the “older players” competing against each other and after a closely fought match, Teresa Poole and Gerald Sussex beat Marian Vinall and Mark Clayton.
Vets’ Mens Doubles opened the tournament with 8 pairs and it was great to see Martyn Beer and Phil Yabsley picking up the title by defeating Gerald Sussex and John Norman in a Championship tiebreak.
The closest event of the week was the Vets Ladies Doubles where 3 pairs came out on top with 3 wins each, after a long round robin of 4 matches each. It had to be left to the computer to decide the winners, based on win and loss % of games. Congratulations go to Helen Beer and Lynne Wiseman Cooke, with Debbie Chaffe and Sara Milburn 2nd and Denise and Marian wishing they had won one more game!! The moral of this event is remember every game counts!!
The Ladies Doubles title was retained by Mother and Daughter Denise and Lottie Koval in a championship tiebreak.
The Mixed Vets’ was the largest event of the week and played on the final day and everyone felt the necessity to play as many tiebreaks as possible! After just under 7 hours of play the Winners were Andy Koval & Janet Sanders who beat Andrew and Ali Swinton from Ilfracombe in the final.
It was a great week and lots of fun was had by everyone who entered. Next ARC Adult Tournament is the usual weeklong in May with events for all categories including juniors. See you there.
Marian
ARC Ladies A team reigns victorious!!
Sally, Nicole and Captain Lottie collecting their trophies for winning the League, Cup and Houldsworth Cup in 2022!
2022 was another fantastic year for ARC in the North Devon Tennis League. Our Ladies A team conquered the North Devon Tennis League, winning both Division 1 and the Knockout Cup competition!
Ladies’ league results
Our ARC A team led by Captain Lottie Koval defended their Ladies Division 1 title by a clear 60 points over their nearest rivals Rock Park A. They won an incredible 92% of their sets played throughout the season. Sally Rana stood out amongst the A team players, winning an incredible 17 of her 18 matches played across the season. Nicole Wickett, Anoushka Lynd, Martha MacDonald and Hannah Miller all made regular appearances for the team, each contributing to their amazing success. Our A’s also won the Knockout Cup this season and the Mixed Doubles Houldsworth Cup, making it an stunning Treble winning year for the team and their captain!
In the same league, our ARC B’s finished in a very creditable 6th place, avoiding relegation in a division where they were the only ‘B’ team amongst a sea of A’s! Captain Marian Vinall held things together beautifully during some tough matches whilst Cath Andrews really stepped up, playing 8 matches for her team.
Our ARC C and D teams were playing in Division 2 this season. ARC C, captained by Lorraine Clements, finished 2nd to Ilfracombe B with a 75% set win rate. Zoe Green, Debbie Chaffe and Sarah Powell were the superstars of their team, playing 58 rubbers between them, winning 38 of them. Our D team also managed to avoid automatic relegation with an impressive 7th place finish just ahead of Woolsery A and only 3 points behind Tarka B team, with captain Fantastic, Sally Ferguson turning out for 24 rubbers over the summer.
In Division 3 ARC was once again represented by our E team ladies and their skipper, Tish Shere. They did really well, finishing in 5th place, which is actually this team’s best ever result in this league! Fiona White was ever present for the E’s, playing in 12 rubbers and winning 3 despite coming back from a nasty injury at the beginning of the year.
Make sure you come along to our ARC Awards night on 26th November at 7pm to help us congratulate our fantastic league teams and celebrate many more successes for Atlantic Racquet Centre this year.
Next week we’ll post a review of the men’s season…
ARC Awards Evening 2022
We’re excited to announce that the annual ARC Awards Evening will be taking place on Saturday 26th November from 7pm – 8pm in our upstairs future Café space. The evening will see the winners crowned in various categories including Most Improved Athlete in Fitness, Badminton, Table Tennis, Tennis & Disability Sport along with Volunteer of the Year and many more. The evening will also form the presentation ceremony for the ARC Club Championships, Junior Boost Leaderboards, North Devon Tennis & Badminton League victors and various other events which took place during 2022.
Please do come along for an hour to have a drink and celebrate the many successes of our members during the year. Who knows – perhaps you’ll win an award! The evening will also include an exclusive glimpse at our brand new Squash courts ahead of their anticipating opening in early 2023 so its well worth coming along to support.
We’ll look forward to seeing you all there.
By Tom Vinall, General Manager
ARC Members Donate to the Foodbank
Thank-You!
ARC members donated over 70kilos of food and toiletries to the Northern Devon Foodbank
Throughout October, ARC members have been donating food and toiletries to our Food Bank Trolley. The generosity of our members has been amazing, with all sorts of handy items such as shower gel, dog food, fruit juice and even some non-alcoholic beer being donated alongside all the food!
Today, we took all these donations down to the Northern Devon Foodbank in Bideford. They were hugely grateful for the contribution our members had made, and told us it would be put to good use. In total we donated 74kg (163lbs) of items to the Food Bank.
Thank-you again to everyone who donated to this cause.
Volunteer and Staff members Fiona and Lottie dropping off the donations on behalf of ARC
Our donations totalled 74kg or 163lbs of food and toiletries
Club Championships Round-up
Club Championships 2022
A Round-up of our 2022 Club Championships Finals featuring Tennis, Badminton and Fitness…
This year the ARC Club Championships expanded to include events for U8, U9 and U10 in the tennis events and also the very first Gym Club Championships.
The gym competition was open to all members, we ran a Men’s and Ladies category and we saw an encouraging uptake with 22 athletes signed up! The competition began with a qualifying stage which involved participants completing 3 workouts throughout August. Their results were put into a leaderboard which gave 3 finalists in both categories. The 3 finalists in the men’s category were Steve Carruth, Harry Edney and Tom Chambers and the ladies finalists were Victoria Kelly, Charlotte Hocking and Lottie Miles. The finals took place on Finals Sunday up on an indoor court alongside the racquet finals. The finalists battled it out over 2 tough workouts in an entertaining and competitive event with eventual winners Harry Edney in the men’s and Lottie Miles in the ladies – congratulations to them both.
The Badminton events were fiercely competed for over 2 nights in the Round Robin format. 14 players entered and both the singles and genderless doubles were played on ARC Finals Day. The play was of a high standard with new names on the trophies in both cases. (All results below)
The tennis events attracted 88 players with ages ranging from 6 to 81. Six weeks of competition culminated on September 11th with 15 titles being competed for on that day. All the events were either Round Robin or Compass draws so plenty of tennis was played by everyone.
The winner of the youngest event (8 & U Singles ) was Jessica Smale whist Veteran player Neil Darnley (one of our ARC Trustees) took 3 Senior titles. The Beer family (Martyn & Nick) took 4 titles between them! The main events in the Singles were won by Lewie Parker and Lottie Koval. (All results below)
Overall great fun was had across the 3 sports and lots of new friends made. If you didn’t participate this year, look out for the details next year. We will also be adding in Table Tennis and Squash.
All trophies will be presented at the ARC Awards Evening Saturday November 26th.
ARC hosts County Cup Championships
The weekend of September 17th/18th saw ARC host Boys Group A in the LTA U12 County Cup. This was one of 12 groups held regionally across the country. We were pleased to welcome teams from Avon, Somerset, Devon, Wiltshire, Cornwall and The Channel Islands. The best 6 Boys from each County came with their County Coach and play in a Round Robin Tournament with the Final being held Sunday afternoon.
Every team plays 4 Singles and 2 Doubles against their opposing County. If it is a draw then they play a Tiebreak Shootout which can only be compared to penalties in the world of football. There were 2 of these over the weekend and Devon won a very exciting one to take them into the final against Avon. This Avon team were the overall Winners and will now represent the South West in Nottingham in October.
This was a great event for ARC, the tennis was of a very high standard and visiting teams and parents were very complimentary about both the facilities here at ARC and the staff and volunteers who work here.
The next County Cup event will be here in March for U18’s.
Report by Marian Vinall.
ARC Winter Open - Enter now!
The 2022 ARC Winter Open will take place during the week of 22nd to 30th October. The various events will be played on evenings and weekends throughout the week, with set days for each event (therefore you only need to be available on the evening/day of your event).
All matches will be played indoors and in the Fast Four Format. They will be either compass drawn or Round Robin so there will be lots of tennis in each event.
Saturday 22nd October - Mens & Ladies Vets’ Doubles (Men 12pm, Ladies 3pm)
Sunday 23rd October - Mixed Doubles (10am)
Tuesday 25th October & Wednesday 26th October - Ladies Singles & Mens Doubles (6pm)
Thursday 27th October & Friday 28th October - Mens Singles (6pm)
Saturday 29th October - Ladies Doubles (10am)
Sunday 30th October - Mixed Doubles Vets (10am)
Entries close on the 12th October. If you enjoyed the ARC Club Championships, then please play in this!
Any questions, please contact competitions@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk or Marian 07712 216831
We’re looking forward to seeing you all there as this was a great event last year with lots of tennis and lots of fun!
Part-Time Coaching Roles at ARC
Are you a qualified Tennis, Badminton or Table Tennis coach? Or are you interested in completing tour qualifications?
We are currently recruiting for part-time coaches across all 3 racquet sports, opportunities range from between 3 - 20 hours per week.
Successful applicants will work as one of our ‘Club Coaches’ delivering on court sessions to both children and adults. Hours will be based on termly demand with no guaranteed or set number of hours and could be a combination of weekly evening, daytime and weekend work as well as occasional cover work. Becoming an ARC approved coach will also afford the successful applicant the opportunity to offer individual lessons at the centre also on a self-employed basis.
The ideal candidate will be a Level 2 or 3 qualified coach with current LTA/BE/TTE License. They will be enthusiastic and passionate about developing and retaining players in their sport and will have experience in doing so at other clubs/centres. They will be committed to continual professional development as a coach and will be able to provide evidence of this.
Less experienced applicants including newly qualified Level 2’s or experienced Level 1’s are also welcome to apply with the possibility of some additional unpaid coaching experience and mentoring available to the successful applicant.
Positions work on a self-employed basis with the -potential for this to grow with increased demand. Pay will be based on qualification and experience.
Acceptance will be subject to satisfactory references and a DBS check.
If you are interested in applying, please send your CV and names of 2 referees to hannah@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk.
If you would like any further information regarding the position, please contact Hannah Miller – hannah@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk
ARC Awards Evening
On Saturday 27th November we held our first ever awards evening and we had a lot of awards to give out to all our fantastic members and volunteers. Here’s all our winners!
ARC Awards Evening Winners & Runners Up
We have a whole host of events for next year and we hope to see you all here. Maybe you could be one of our winners in next years ARC Awards Evening! Follow us on Instagram and like us on Facebook to be notified of any upcoming events.
You can also contact us at info@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk or by phone: 07587782675
Customer Survey Results
We’d like to again thank everyone who took part in our recent customer survey in September. 150 people shared their views, made suggestions and helped us work to continue to improve our fantastic community racquet & fitness centre.
You can view the full survey results here.
Everyone who entered their name at the end of the survey was entered into a prize draw to win £100 to spend at the centre. We’re pleased to announce that the winner of this draw was…
🎉 CLAIRE LEWIS 🎉
Congratulations Claire! To claim your prize simply contact our admin team – info@atlanticracquetcentre.co.uk
North Devon Tennis League Success for Team ARC!
ARC Team Tennis End of Season Report 2021
October marked the end of the North Devon Tennis league for 2021. Covid restrictions led to an abbreviated season this year with teams playing 50% of the matches they would usually play, but this didn’t dampen the excitement of our players who were delighted to return to competitive Tennis after the events of 2020.
A total of 90 Tennis & Premium members represented team ARC this season across the various divisions and events. Relative success was shared by the majority of teams but particular emphasis must be applied to the Ladies’ Open A and Ladies’ Open C teams who both completed the ‘clean sweep’ winning both their division and the cup event that partners it. Likewise the Men’s Open A and Men’s Open E teams managed to gain second place in both of their division and cup events respectively. Winning success was found also by our Ladies’ Vet’s A team who won their division and the mixed doubles Houldsworth Cup A Team who became Runner’s Up.
Team Tennis Captains Lottie Miles, Tom Farnell & Alex Wingent said: “Overall a very good season for all involved considering the conditions and the struggle for players. Everyone we’ve spoken to seems to have enjoyed the season and were very glad to be back to competitive tennis. We’re hoping to have even more players interested in representing ARC next season and helping us achieve some even better results”.
We’d like to say a huge congratulations to everyone who took park in the league this year and represented team ARC so well. Now get booking those indoor courts and keep practicing over the winter ready for 2022!
You can see the full results below:
Men’s Open Team Results
Men’s A – 2nd in Division 1 + Runner’s Up in the Knockout Cup.
Men’s B – 6th in Division 1
Men’s C – 5th in Division 1
Men’s D – 4th in Division 2
Men’s E – 2nd in Division 3 + Runner’s Up in the Pete Stacey Cup
Men’s F – 5th in Division 3
Men’s G – 4th in Division 4
Ladies Open Team Results
Ladies’ A - 1st in Division 1 & Winners of Knockout Cup
Ladies’ B - 6th in Division 1
Ladies’ C - 1st Division 2 & Winners of Pete Stacey Cup
Ladies’ D - 7th in Division 2
Ladies’ E - 6th in Division 3
Ladies Vet’s Team Results
Ladies’ Vet’s A - 1st in Division 1
Ladies’ Vet’s B – 5th in Division 1
Houldsworth Cup Team Results (Mixed Doubles)
ARC A – Runner’s Up.
