The Tournament is very fortunate to be supported by so many of the local tennis clubs in Leicestershire. LEICESTERSHIRE LAWN TENNIS CLUB The entrance is from Westernhay Road. Limited parking is available at the club, and visitors are required to consider local residents when parking on adjacent roads. Telephone: Ground 0116 2705279 or 0116 2708813 Postcode: LE2 3HF What3Words: stray.spends.finest CARISBROOKE LAWN TENNIS CLUB Within walking distance of Leicestershire LTC. Visitors and players entrance is via Kenwood Road, where parking is available. Telephone: Ground 0116 2705316 Postcode: LE2 3PF What3Words: bond.flag.faces OADBY (GRANVILLE) TENNIS CLUB Situated adjacent to Leicester Race Course. Access is via Leicester Road (A6) approaching the city. Parking spaces available at the club. Telephone: Ground 0116 2712889 Postcode: LE2 4AB What3Words: foods.modern.glad ROUNDHILL TENNIS CLUB Entrance to the club is from between house numbers 24 and 26 Homeway Road. Access and parking is very limited and visitors and players are advised to give every consideration to ensure local residents are not inconvenienced by inconsiderate parking. Telephone: Ground 0116 2736509 Postcode: LE5 5RG What3Words: reward.filed.opens VICTORIA TENNIS CLUB Entrance to the club is from between numbers 3 and 5 Holmfield Avenue. Parking is very limited and visitors and players are advised to give every consideration to ensure local residents are not inconvenienced by inconsiderate parking. Telephone: Ground 0116 2702896 Postcode: LE2 2BT What3Words: intelligible.tools.march

The process is fairly straightforward! If you have entered any other LTA listed tournament then this is just another one of those. For interested 'seasoned Leicestershire players' - we have now switched to using the LTA TTP system. When the link to enter is available, we will add it to this page. For any trouble entering you can get in touch with us HERE.

No - however you will need one before you can enter the tournament. It is simple and free and you can do it using the LTA website HERE. Speak to the Tournament Ambassador at your club or your club coach for further help if you need it.

Players of all standards play in the Leicestershire Senior County Closed. The level events are usually played by people who play in the higher divisions in the Summer Leagues and those who represent the county in county matches, but not exclusively. Sometimes, in all the level events – singles, doubles and mixed -people fancy a chance to try their game against the players vying for the title of County Champion – sometimes they cause an upset too! It isn’t often that you get the chance to say I was beaten by (or even I beat) a County Champion! (see how the Leicestershire stacks up in the list of county championships) The handicap events attract a wide range of standards too – from players entering their first senior tournament to a few division 1 or 2 players. (see the question about Strong Players in Handicaps for more on this subject). Every year we have players who don’t play league tennis or play in the lower divisions through to players from the top divisions entering.

There are two parts to the tournament which have different entry requirements. The Level Events require that you meet the LTA county criteria for Leicestershire - here are the slightly watered down (but still turgid) rules from the LTA. that you haven't played county tennis for another county in the last 12 months AND that your place of birth or permanent residence at date of birth was in Leicestershire OR your place of permanent residence has, for at least one year immediately preceding the competition, been in Leicestershire OR at any time your place of residence has for a period of five consecutive years been in such area Note: A County boundary is defined as that which applies for the purposes of local government (not necessarily as defined by postcode) The Handicap Events are open to anyone - with no restrictions.

With a broad range of standards entering the handicap events it is a challenge to make every match a close fought tussle. The handicaps are set using the playing record of each entrant (or pair in the doubles events). So, initially each player or pair is ranked based on the division in which they play their summer league tennis. Then the handicapping committee look for anomalies - where a player is playing in a lower or higher division than would be expected or where they are enjoying a particularly good or bad run of results. Consideration is also given to results in matches in previous years of the tournament - even if partners have changed. Players who the handicapping committee don't know and / or who have no history of league tennis are difficult to handicap and sometimes the committee ring around their contacts at the various clubs, including coaches, to find out more if possible. Once everyone has been given their initial handicap the committee go through again trying, on paper, a few combinations of matches to see whether it all looks like it might be close. The aim of the handicapping team is to have close matches where the victory is up for grabs and that initial feeling when you walk on the court of 'oh dear, they are better than us' is replaced with 'they might struggle to beat us with that handicap if we play well' or 'we should have this in the bag' is replaced with 'better be careful a couple of points going against us and we could struggle here'

Unfortunately, the desk can't generally allocate you your preferred surface for matches. Matches are put onto the courts in sequence so the next court available is generally the one you get. We also have an issue when your opponent prefers a different surface from you so if we were to accede to your request we would be penalising your opponent or vice versa. Most, but not all, level matches are played at the Leicestershire club while the handicap matches are often played at the other clubs who kindly let us use their courts.

We encourage you to enter more than one event ...to a max of 5 and make a real week of it. If you are considering entering 4 0r 5 events please be aware that your schedule could get very crowded with 3 (or in exceptional circumstances - even 4) matches being played in a single day on the opening weekend. If you are successful in multiple events and win a few matches you could find yourself playing two matches each evening and if you are very successful, come finals weekend, you could be in for a busy time too - possibly having to play some semis and finals one after the other. We are keen for people to play as many events as possible - but the schedulers do have to cram matches in for those in 4 or 5 events to ensure that nothing gets held up.< Remember you can combine Handicap and Level events. Do check the FAQ re time off requests.

There are always a number of people who enter saying 'Partner Wanted' so we suggest you do this and we will try and find a suitable match or help accommodate you should you find a suitable partner before the draw is made. This applies to both level and handicap events.