Our Team

I dabbled in tennis for a few years becoming quite adept at hitting a ball of two out of court and over the fence. I join in with some of the fitness classes, but my main game(s) are squash and racket ball, the latter seeing me hit the heady heights of Avenue Racket ball Champion in 2013!

Covering two periods I have supported this fantastic Club as Chairman for a total of 7 years and I now help the enthusiastic committees as President.

My aim is to support the active committees, the terrific staff, the happy members, and this jewel of a Club.

When I subsequently took voluntary redundancy 10 years ago the club became a lifeline for me. I was already a tennis member but had previously only managed to play on ‘high days & holidays’. However after joining a weekly ‘rusty racquets’ session and various mix-ins I was introduced to new friendships and a re-newed love of the game. I now represent the club (as does both my daughter & husband) playing for the ladies and mixed 3rd teams and five years ago joined our fabulous bar team.

I have also been known to use the gym and would like to see Spinning classes return! The Avenue is a great club; there is nothing better than enjoying the social side after a game and we are lucky to have a great facility and community spirit. The club also allows me to indulge in my latest passion, playing guitar with fellow member G Brown Esq, as those who have been to recent Open Mic nights will know (to their cost!).

My working career has been in Finance, initially for Barclays Bank, progressing through local branches in Petersfield, Southsea and Havant (all shut now!) before trekking the country for their Internal Audit department; occasionally seeing overseas postings including 6 months in Barbados. After 15 years with Barclays, I spent the next 14 with IBM in North Harbour (now shut – there’s a theme here!) undertaking various finance management positions with plenty of overseas travel thrown in. For the last 10 years though I changed tack and became a Bursar (Finance & Operations Manager) in the Independent Schools sector. The change to working for much smaller organisations was very rewarding as I was able to make changes that had a very direct effect on improvement of staff welfare and school facilities. Having now retired I am very happy to devote time to support the Avenue as Treasurer and give back to the club that has and continues to provide us all a great sports and social facility.

In 2006 I began my career as a Pilates instructor and taught at The Avenue for 11 years. Although I have retired from teaching now, I feel I have a lot of experience in the fitness industry, both in small gyms and also larger ones – I was previously Studio Co-ordinator at David Lloyd Gym at Port Solent for five years.

Fitness and wellbeing have been a long-standing passion of mine, and I am keen to ensure the continued growth and success of the Gym and Fitness section at The Avenue. I am a regular attendee of several different classes each week and also help in the gym on a voluntary basis. I’d like to see the section go from strength to strength and eventually one day have a Fitness Studio/Multi-purpose function room, and an extended gym.

I currently work as a safeguarding specialist for Southern Health NHS foundation Trust, and have been a safeguarding officer at The Avenue for the past 4 years. In the autumn will be introducing extra safeguarding training for Avenue committee members and staff.

Outside of my tennis and work commitments I enjoy yoga and walking.

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any safeguarding queries or concerns.

I am a Safeguarding Specialist Nurse at University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and work with Children’s Services, police, education and community health professionals to assess risk and safeguard children.

I am keen to encourage children in the club to enjoy sport and have fun.

If you have any worries related to safeguarding children, please feel free to contact me.

I was the owner of the Restaurant at the Chichester tennis club for 8 years, the long hours were difficult to combine with my young family so I moved my business into a successful outside catering business catering for events from small dinner parties to weddings for 200 people.

I have been connected to the club for over 20 years joining with my husband Grahame when we moved to Havant from Chichester in 1999.

Whilst running my business, in 2010 the opportunity came up in the Avenue office to work one day a week, relishing the opportunity to try my hand at something new I applied for the position and was successful. Although I was used to the administrative side of running a business, I was keen to hone my office skills and took myself to college to gain Microsoft qualifications. Over the course of the next 2 years I increased my office hours and in October 2012 I was promoted to Office Manager.

Alongside my position at The Avenue I continued with my outside catering business and also catered for big club events such as County week and club parties until 2017 when after over 30 years in the catering industry I decided to hang up my apron!

My work at the club is very varied In September this year I will celebrate 10 years working at the Avenue and there really could be no better place to work than looking out over our beautiful grass courts on a daily basis.

My spare time is busy, i have 3 grandchildren who keep me on my toes! i play tennis although not as often as I would like, and I like to keep fit walking, running & enjoying the fitness classes at the club, Grahame and I love to travel with a particular love of Asia.

I have always been interested in sport and started High Jumping from an early age. I represented Hampshire and England and won the Hampshire County Championships over 6 times. I even got to compete at the UK trials for the Moscow Olympics.

I took a break in my career to have my 2 children but continued to High Jump. After getting an injury I had to stop, so decided to combine my interest in sport and restart my career and trained as Fitness Instructor in 1992, which fitted in well with my growing family. I went on to teach various classes, including Step and Boxercise, in the local area for the next 17 years.

In 2009, an opportunity presented itself to teach fitness classes at The Avenue, first teaching Legs, Bums and Tums and then Spinning. After 3 years I got offered the job as Office Assistant and really love working in the office, with Justine, and I think we make a great team. The role has grown over the years and more recently I have taken on the role of Studio Co-Ordinator and overseeing the social media aspects of the Club.

During my spare time I enjoy cooking, photography and spending time with my friends and family where I have 2 small grandchildren to keep me busy.