Help for new team players
As a club we mainly play in the Kidderminster & District league in the summer and the Hereford & Worcester league in the winter. If you are new to our club you don’t have to do anything before playing in the Kidderminster & District league (other than pay your membership fees) but there are some tasks that need to be completed before playing in the Hereford & Worcester league…
The Hereford & Worcester league uses online results submission and links all matches to players individual LTA records. This means if you ever want to enter individual tournaments yourself, your results in this league help can determine your seedings and the level of event you can enter. Even if you are not interested in this benefit, we cannot submit results for Hereford & Worcester league matches without all players being registered to our club. The following details explain how to get yourself ready to play for Kidderminster Tennis Club.
Have you never played for another club or know you do not have an LTA number?
If you have never played for a club in a formal LTA county league, are completely new to tennis or just know you don’t have an LTA account you will need to follow the steps shown here.
1. Go to the LTA website www.lta.org.uk and once there click the “join us” button in the top right hand corner.
2. Once the new page loads, scroll down to the Fan/Player options selection and use the arrows to look through until you find the Advantage Play+ option (on the right in the image). Click on it. This is free and is the type of membership required to play for us in the Hereford & Worcester League. Signing up for this also gives you the opportunity to win the chance to buy Wimbledon tickets each year.
Now complete the sign up form that has opened. After this you will be sent an email to verify your account.
3. Now your account is verified you will receive another email confirming your new LTA membership. Within that email click on the “Log in to advantage home” button. This will take you back to the LTA website. Sign in with your account details set in step 2.
As this is the first time you have signed in, the site will automatically ask you for more details to complete your registration. Please select that you are a “player” when asked, select “yes”when asked if you have an existing membership and then add Kidderminster Tennis Club saying your payment type is “Subscribe to a venue”. Once you have answered all the required questions (this includes your address and age of birth) you are ready to play for us.
To confirm this, get in touch with the captain you will be playing for or email us at kidderminstertennisclub1@outlook.com and we will be able to check that we can now find you on the system.
Do you have an LTA account already but are joining us from another club?
If you already have an LTA account the process to get ready to play for us is a lot more simple.
1. The first step is to go to the LTA website https://lta-tennis.force.com/s/login/ and sign into your account. if you have forgotten your username or password click on the required “forgot …” button on the login page.
2. Once logged in, on the bottom left of your screen will be the “view account button”. Click on it.
3. Once you are viewing your account, scroll down to the “My Venue (s)” section, expand it and then click on “update venue (s)”. From here search for Kidderminster Tennis Club and add us as a venue. You are now ready to play for us. You can have multiple venues listed so don’t feel like you need to replace your old club with us.
To confirm this, get in touch with the captain you will be playing for or email us at kidderminstertennisclub1@outlook.com and we will be able to check that we can now find you on the system.
Other information for new team members
- Can I play for Kidderminster as well as for other clubs? Yes. If you play for another club outside of the Hereford & Worcester or Kidderminster & District leagues you can still play for us. In the same way, the Hereford & Worcester league rules state that you can play for club X in their Men’s/Ladies league but club Y in the Mixed league. In fact we have a number of members who play for us in the Hereford & Worcester Mixed league but not the Men’s/Ladies and vice versa. It is also fine to play for us in the Kidderminster & District league but another club in the Hereford & Worcester league.
- How do I become tied to a team?– Players become tied to specific teams within a club after playing a certain number of matches for them within one season. This is done to stop bigger clubs putting their top players into a lower team’s match to guarantee a win. In the Kidderminster & District league you can play 3 matches for a higher team (e.g. the A team) before you can no-longer play for any lower team (e.g. the B team) that season. In the Hereford & Worcester league it is 2 matches. If a player who is tied plays for the wrong team this leads to that team being disqualified from the match so it is important to remember what team you have played for. Also, Men’s/Ladies and Mixed Divisions are treated as separate so you could play 3 matches for the Men’s A team and still play for the Mixed B.
- Am I a named player?– In the Hereford & Worcester league which team within our club you can play for is made more complicated by the addition of “named players”. Before each season the captain of each A team (Men’s, Ladies and Mixed) is required to name 4 players. These players are meant to be the top 4 players at the club and are only allowed to play for the A team. If you are a named player the captain of the team should inform you. Note: Being a Men’s/Ladies named player does not mean you definitely are a Mixed named player.
- When are team matches?– In the Summer (April to September) we currently enter 2 Men’s teams and 2 Mixed teams in the Kidderminster & District league (we also enter a Ladies team if there is enough interest from other clubs to run a league each year). “A” team matches are played on Tuesday & “B” team matches on Thursday evenings. The league is designed to alternate one week of Men’s then one week of Mixed matches so if you want you could play a match every week of the summer. We also enter a team in the H&W Mixed Summer league who play less frequently on normally Saturdays or Sundays. In the Winter (September to April), we enter 2 Men’s teams, 1 Ladies team and 2 Mixed teams in the Hereford & Worcester league. Matches for all these teams normally take place on Saturdays or Sundays and there are normally around 6 matches per team for the season.
- How do I get involved?– The best way to get involved is to contact the captain of the team you are interested in and get down to mixins so people can see you play. We have teams for all standards of players (with the bottom teams designed to give new players match experience) so don’t be afraid to join in. To find out who is the captain of which team go to the team’s page on our website.
- What happens during a team match?– In all the leagues we play in, each team match requires 4 players for each team. Players then each play 2 doubles matches with the same partner. Matches can be played at home or away. This is a great opportunity to play against new people and get to play on different surfaces such as indoor courts, astro or clay.
- Who do we play?- In the Kidderminster & District league the majority of the clubs are within a 30min drive of Kidderminster. The same is normally true for the Hereford & Worcester league but we can in theory play any club from Worcestershire or Herefordshire as well as a a few select clubs from the top of Gloucestershire and the bottom of Staffordshire.
- What does it cost?– There are match fees associated with playing team matches. These fees vary depending on the league so it is best to check with the captain of the team you are interested in playing for.