The CCTO-LEE TENNIS Clay Court Management seminar 2007 was again a resounding success.

The lecture was delivered this year by John Welborn of HarTru/Lee Tennis, Virginia with expert remarks from the leading Ontario tennis court construction company Court contractors. See www.hartru.com and www.courtcontractors.com.

In addition to representatives from ten Ontario tennis clubs, the City of Toronto Parks and Recreation staff was present to learn more about the surface which is essential for senior tennis players.

The seminar attracted three new member clubs to join the CCTO. We have welcomed the Chicopee TC from Kitchener, the Quinte TC from Bellville  and the Quaker TC from Peterborough. CCTO has now nine member clubs in Southern Ontario.

We have learned some interesting statistics including the 10% growth in tennis memberships in the USA last year. This is good news for tennis in Canada as our country usually follows the US trends.

While there is only 20% clay courts in the USA, the world 60% tennis courts are clay, with most of the 40% remaining hard courts in USA and Canada. One could say that the world plays on clay while the north american continent  plays predominantly on asphalt hard courts.The trend to clay court tennis however is gaining momentum as more senior players need the gentler surface to continue active tennis. The clay surface prevents 80% of injuries attributable to hard court asphalt surface. CCTO therefore suggests that more clay courts should be available in general to Ontario tennis players. Most clay courts are in private tennis and country clubs while community courts are predominantly asphalt. However in partnership with municipalities Parks and Recrteation the clay court clubs could provide access to safer surface at an affordable cost. We have to get this message across to Ontario municipal polititicians.

Last year we learned about the HydroCourt system with an underground irrigation that saves up to 60% of water consumption. There are over 2000 HydroCourts in operation now. The new trend seem to be synthetic tennis surfaces with granular toppings available now on the market. They have the advantage of installation on the top of existing asphalt courts. LeeTennis has a product called ClayTech which is a polypropylene fiber membrane topped with a granular infill. For more info go to claytech@leetennis.com.

CCTO appreciate the support of its members and the assisatnce our clubs receive from Ontario municipalities. We hope to repeat the seminar in the future.