Incompetennis - The Unforced Errors Committee

Incompetennis - The Unforced Errors Committee Torquay Tennis Club is to sports club governance as Basil Fawlty is to hotel management. Errant members are dealt with as in the best Agatha Christie novel.

It's Torquay!

“The question is why a decision like this — with real financial consequences, involving Articles that have already been ...
15/08/2026

“The question is why a decision like this — with real financial consequences, involving Articles that have already been a source of dispute once, for a Secretary’s role now without term limits and a Treasurer’s role currently empty — gets a single unquantified paragraph in a set of minutes published months late, rather than a line to the 500+ members whose subscriptions are actually paying for it.”



https://incompetennis.substack.com/p/vacant-yet-getting-a-pay-rise?

What the June minutes agreed for two offices, one empty and one without a time limit

"It’s a role (that) comes with exactly one core job description — keep an accurate, adequate record of what the Board ac...
08/08/2026

"It’s a role (that) comes with exactly one core job description — keep an accurate, adequate record of what the Board actually did."

Nine years as Honorary Secretary, and this is the record we get

We received an email this week from a longstanding member, Anonymous, who — like the rest of us — has been staring at a ...
29/07/2026

We received an email this week from a longstanding member, Anonymous, who — like the rest of us — has been staring at a Torquay Tennis Club minutes page that hasn’t moved since 12 March. She had questions. We don’t have answers. That, coincidentally, is rather the point.

A Torquay Tennis Club member has written to Incompetennis asking "Where have our minutes gone?"

"Some weeks, Incompetennis has to go digging for a story. This was not one of those weeks. The Honorary Secretary’s late...
15/07/2026

"Some weeks, Incompetennis has to go digging for a story. This was not one of those weeks. The Honorary Secretary’s latest all-members email landed with such a spectacular quantity of adjectives — “immaculate”, “impressive”, “state of the art”, “exceptional”, “community” (deployed no fewer than three times) — that it seemed almost rude not to do something with it."

What happens when the Honorary Secretary's prose meets the literary canon

's latest email to all members has "the rhythm of a thousand corporate LinkedIn posts and marketing newsletters, all ap...
14/07/2026

's latest email to all members has "the rhythm of a thousand corporate LinkedIn posts and marketing newsletters, all apparently drafted by the same invisible hand..." i.e. artificial intelligence 😂🤣

Incompetennis suspect Kirstin Neilson-Hunter has used ChatGPT or similar to draft her latest email to all members

's Committee wants its members to conveniently forget the fact that 81% of Members voted for Committee Minutes on the c...
11/07/2026

's Committee wants its members to conveniently forget the fact that 81% of Members voted for Committee Minutes on the club website within 30 days...

Why hasn't Torquay Tennis Club posted any Committee minutes for the past three months?

Is it really 12 months since 's EGM?https://incompetennis.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-egmFor the full archive of gov...
10/06/2026

Is it really 12 months since 's EGM?
https://incompetennis.substack.com/p/thoughts-on-the-egm

For the full archive of governance mismanagement visit https://incompetennis.substack.com

Torquay Tennis Club's Committee is to corporate governance as Basil Fawlty was to hotel management (just not as funny). Members who speak up are dealt with like the best plot of an Agatha Christie novel. Click to read Incompetennis on Substack. Launched 7 months ago.

Tomorrow marks exactly one year since twenty-one playing members of Torquay Tennis Club Limited signed their names to a ...
27/04/2026

Tomorrow marks exactly one year since twenty-one playing members of Torquay Tennis Club Limited signed their names to a piece of paper and, in doing so, committed the gravest sin known to the modern sports club: asking questions.

One year on: Dissent, departure, and the destruction of a Members' Club from within

What sort of tennis club manages to hound out a volunteer just days before she wins a national award for being an outsta...
20/04/2026

What sort of tennis club manages to hound out a volunteer just days before she wins a national award for being an outstanding volunteer?

No, really—what sort?

Or: How to lose a national award winner in ninety-seven days flat

New TTCL Chair, Angelo Cambianica, generously volunteered to carry out appraisals of the Club Manager’s performance. But...
14/04/2026

New TTCL Chair, Angelo Cambianica, generously volunteered to carry out appraisals of the Club Manager’s performance. But what might those appraisals and “supervision of Steve” look like?

A target for how infrequently Steve complains about Club Members might be a good start? 😉 Or making sure the directors know when he’s away on holiday?



A suggestion for the directors of Torquay Tennis Club when they next meet...

Address

Torquay
TQ25HP

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Incompetennis - The Unforced Errors Committee posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category