Club Rules
COURT PRIORITY REGULATIONS
(These Regulations are written to assist with the allocation of courts, particularly during busy periods. They cannot anticipate every situation which may arise – common sense solutions should be agreed between members where issues arise which are not specifically covered in the Regulations. When a Court Supervisor is on duty, the Regulations do not apply and the allocation of courts is determined by the Supervisor. Any difficulty with the operation of these Regulations should be referred to the Committee.)
Every player or group of players playing on court (including members receiving coaching) must write their name and starting time in the Court Register before going on court.
Two or more players present and waiting for a court to become available should sign their name in the Court Register marked “waiting”. Players signed into the Register must take the first available court, even if some of the group have not arrived or, alternatively, forfeit their place and go to the back of the queue. Particular courts may not be reserved.
The order of going on court is always determined by the order of names signed in the Register unless the Committee has determined a different priority – this will arise, for example, in the case of League matches, some Club competitions, Ladies Morning, American Tournaments.
Courts must be vacated after one hour if members are waiting to play (subject to the priority rules in point 5). Members who vacate a court for this reason may, (after a 15-minute gap), re-join the queue again by signing their name in the Court Register marked “waiting”.
The following priority rules apply for going on court:
COURTS 1, 2 and 3 : Priority for adult members at all times.
COURT 4 : Priority for coaching until 7pm (priority for adult coaching until 7pm on Monday). In the absence of coaching, equal priority for all members until 7pm, and priority for adult members after 7pm.
COURTS 5 and 6 : Priority for junior members until 7pm. Priority for adult members after 7pm.
For court priority purposes, junior members are those aged 17 years and under.
These priority rules apply when all the courts are occupied and there are members waiting to play. Once on court, members may play for one hour and must vacate at that stage if other members are waiting to play subject to the following exceptions:
Club Competitions where it has been announced that matches may be played to completion.
League matches.
Official Tennis Ireland matches (e.g. Spring Challenge matches)
Ladder challenge matches, provided these matches do not commence between 7pm and 9pm on weekdays.
Junior members playing on Courts 1, 2 and 3 must vacate the court (even if they have not played for an hour) if requested to do so by two or more adult members waiting to play – the junior members may switch to one of the back courts if available.
Adult members playing on Courts 4, 5 and 6 before 7pm should move to Courts 1, 2 or 3 (if vacant) should they be requested to do so by junior members waiting to play.
Junior members playing tennis after 7pm have no priority on any court and should be under the supervision of a parent or adult member.
Where an adult member is playing singles with a junior member, the priority rules for junior members apply. Where two or more adult members are playing doubles with junior members, the priority rules for adult members apply.
When players are playing under lights at night, the time shown on the Court Register must be followed even if there is time left on the clock.
Normal priority rules apply to groups including visitors playing with a member provided the court visitor’s fees have been paid in advance and the visitor’s book signed.
The visitor’s fee of €5 for adults (including OAP’s) and €2 for juniors can be paid in the office during the day, and in the bar in the evening.
Remember that visitors should not be invited to play during peak playing times in deference to members of the Club waiting to play.
Members are allowed to bring a visitor once a month, but the same visitor may not play more than six times a year.