Tennis in Southwark

[The Elusive Shadow]

Despite the current system not being broken, Southwark council have now made it so you have to pre book all the free to use tennis courts in the Borough which has now made it near impossible to play unless you want to plan weeks in advance as people are just booking up every slot possible for weeks.

Was never an issue before, worse case you had to wait for 30 mins or so or if Dulwich Park was too busy a short walk over to Belair Park usually did the trick. Now you book for a slot 2 weeks time in advance (if you're quick enough) and then if it rains cats and dogs during your slot you can't get another for another 2 weeks.

Does anyone know of any private courts / club locally you can pay to use that don't cost the earth? Was playing 3 times a week before and getting good exercise which has sadly come to an end since the new system came in

[Padders]

Yep, the system was supposedly introduced to encourage exercise but it?s actually made playing a game of tennis damn near impossible!

[handh]

To be fair I think Southwark were pushed to do it as the COVID guidance is all courts have to be pre-booked for track & trace purposes, it's happening everywhere. But it doesn't really work when the courts are free, I'd guess plenty of people don't turn up. And overkill anyway for park courts - it's more for clubs where there's clubhouses and loos to think of and the risk is higher.

Best bet is the Lambeth courts in Brockwell Park, bookable at about ?5/hour, same in Clapham Common, Kennington etc. Or in Lewisham Ladywell Fields or Sydenham Wells. Availability is fair at least at off peak times.

You could normally have joined one of the many good value local tennis clubs, but I believe as of today they have all had to cap membership because so many people want to play. Other readers may know of clubs that still have space.

Good luck and keep playing!

[ianr]

> unless you want to plan weeks in

> advance as people are just booking

> up every slot possible for weeks.

According to https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/TennisInSouthwark/bookinginfo

? Bookings can be made 7 days in advance.

? Individuals can book courts for a maximum of 1 hour each day (which can be two 30 minute bookings). If you plan to play a game for longer than an hour then a playing partner will need to make an adjoining booking. Any play/games with the same people must be limited to 2 hours to give fair access to the courts.

? Cancellations: You can cancel via your ClubSpark account up to 24 hours before the booking date. (Not cancelling bookings could stop people playing)

Is that not so in practice?

If there's such pressure for slots, the 24 hour limit for cancellation seems less helpful than it could be.

Is there no vetting or control of number of bookings per week? If the result is some people being effectively locked out, as they presumably could be by a relatively small number of every-day players, that seems to me an argument for increased rationing. Do the administrators have any idea of the numbers of people failing to find slots?

[The Elusive Shadow]

I think they may have changed it to 7 days as when i looked last week, everything was booked for 2 weeks. Either that or i just read it completely wrong last week! Either way, its still totally pointless and made things worse. Must have cost a few quid to build the booking website / system too

Before it was a sort of unwritten rule that if people were waiting you came off after an hour where as now, as long as both players book back to back you can lock it off for 2 hours.

Doesn't look like there is anything stopping you from booking every day so no vetting of that and no way of them logging how many times you've been unsuccessful getting a slot

[handh]

Still space at Belair Park for sunday.....

The Council are using the LTA clubspark booking system which I guess they'll have been given for free. That system does allow them to limit the number of bookings per person per week and lots of other venues do that. You could always email southwark and suggest they put that restriction in.

The reality is that because of COVID there's a rush of demand for low-risk sports like tennis and the free courts are bound to go first. As long as people are actually turning up then a booking system is a fairer way of sharing out the available time than turn up and wait which is not practical eg. for families with young kids, even if it's annoying to the regular users.

If it's any consolation, things should improve in the next few weeks as families start to go on holiday and other options like swimming pools and gyms reopen. The reopening of JAGS sports club next week will also add another 6 local tennis courts which should take pressure off the park courts.

[Furings]

handh Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

> If it's any consolation, things should improve in

> the next few weeks as families start to go on

> holiday and other options like swimming pools and

> gyms reopen. The reopening of JAGS sports club

> next week will also add another 6 local tennis

> courts which should take pressure off the park

> courts.

It seems like the situation is only getting worse... this is taking forever....

[handh]

Furings Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

>

>

> It seems like the situation is only getting

> worse... this is taking forever....

The situation is definitely getting worse, all tennis courts are closed until at least december due to lockdown, along with gyms. swimming pools and football pitches. Fingers crossed the lockdown works, we can all get vaccinated and some sense of normality return in the new year.