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The first "RAF Tennis For All" event took place at the RAF Halton Tennis Centre 21/22 Jan 11. The coaching team and several members of the RAFLTA Committee had been plugging this new approach to the start of our season, and as the B Squad Captain, I took the responsibility of getting players on to the courts.

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RAF Tennis For All is a phrase that summed up our goal - to get more RAF personnel playing and enjoying tennis. It was aimed at all standards - from novice to A Squad. Emails, phone calls, posters and Facebook were all used to encourage anyone and everyone to turn up and hit some tennis balls on Halton's fantastic indoor and outdoor courts.

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13 ladies and 23 men signed up for the event, which started outside on a cold but sunny day. The Friday focused on groundstokes, serving and volleying with some team games to keep it competitive. The Saturday was more about match play, with coaching in the morning and matches in the afternoon.

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A lot of players agreed last year that we should be more social, but without it affecting our tennis. With this in mind the RAFLTA provided dinner at the tennis centre on Friday, which was a huge success and many thanks to the catering staff at the club. However I may request next time that the 6pm dinner becomes an 8pm dinner, as post-food drinks turned from "1 or 2 beers" to a few more!

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Sgt Andy Keeley