THE Channel Islands Lawn Tennis Association have defended themselves against criticisms levelled at them by Geoff Martel.
Martel retired as a junior tennis coach after 40 years of service.
He is frustrated that young players on the island were being overlooked. His main gripe is that there is a lack of indoor facilities where he can hold training sessions for his juniors.
Rick Denton (pictured) the chairman of the Guernsey sub-committee of the Channel Islands LTA, said that the island’s only indoor courts at the Guernsey Tennis Club’s Long Camps centre have been arranged by the LTA to be available to budding young players.
‘To help the development of future tennis stars, the Guernsey Tennis Club has created special membership for juniors,’ said Denton. ‘They charge £50 per annum for children aged 12 and under to become members of the club with unlimited play on the four indoor courts and the three outdoor courts. For those aged between 13 and 18 the charge is just £100.
‘Geoff Martel has criticised the availability of the indoor courts to him and his personal pupils. In Guernsey we have tried to develop a sense of teamwork between the coaches and all coaches have been invited to participate in the Guernsey squads that are run at the Guernsey Tennis Club by sending their future stars to be trained together under the watchful eye of a number of co-operating coaches.
‘Geoff has preferred not to participate. While I commend all that Geoff has done in his long career and wish him every success in his retirement, we must recognise that teamwork between coaches and between tennis clubs is the best way of developing our future talent.’
Denton also said that Guernsey with the schools’ courts and Beau Sejour, is ‘blessed’ with four major tennis clubs – St Martin’s, La Mare, Kings Club and the Guernsey Tennis Club – which all have good facilities.
‘Guernsey has one of the highest ratios of courts to local population anywhere in the UK,’ said Denton.
He added that all the clubs have active coaching programmes supported by players and coaches such as Jo Robinson, Andy Privett, Richard Smeed, Chris Chalmers and Jose Alvarez.
He urges parents to contact these clubs to find more about the coaching on offer.
Martel had said that the lack of opportunities and facilities had led to Guernsey’s best young players such as Heather Watson, who has just competed at Junior Wimbledon, Dom McLuskey and Rob West, all leaving the island.
Denton says this is necessary for players to develop and that the LTA have given financial support for this.
‘Thanks to funding by the LTA we have been able to support the travel costs of these young players to give them international experiences,’ he said.
‘As we have seen from Wimbledon this week, it is only through international travel and competition beyond Guernsey or even the UK that we can stretch our children to become internationally recognised players.’
Denton paid credit to work that Martel has done.
‘I should state clearly that I admire Geoff Martel’s dedication to creating and advancing his tennis squads over many years,’ said Denton.
‘He has done an excellent job in giving the children in his squads an interest in tennis, particularly in the initial stages of their development. He has also run some of the best-attended tennis events held in the island.
‘However, he should not be despondent about the future of tennis in Guernsey.’
Article posted on 9th July, 2008 - 2.29pm
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