British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

I try to vote if I remember each month - I do most but occasionally it slips my mind

I've been a bit AWOL for the last couple of years due to having to concentrate on studies, but that's pretty much done now, so am planning on being around more on the board and following British tennis again. I like the PoM, it gives me a summary of who's done what each month (irrespective of who wins) and helps me keep an eye on our up and coming players which I love to do (also love CD starting player threads for them).
I don't vote religiously, although I do plan to do so more, and I guess it depends whether it's worth the work it takes you Jon vs the number of us that actually vote and read the thread each month. I personally would be sad to see it go.

foobarbaz wrote:

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I do think PoM is a good thing, as people have said it summarizes the achievements of the players, and educates us all in that way. It gives us a chance to discuss the merits of the players over the month in a comparative way with some data to back up those arguments. It also leads into the Player of the Year vote, providing a more quantitative body of data to justify player inclusion.

Having said that, I haven't voted every month this last year. That's not for any one specific reason. However, I do think it detracts from the PoM vote, having the men and women all in the same vote. I think it would be better if they were in separate votes, ie the top player in each was recorded, and the 2nd place thing was dropped. I have to say, on a few occasions I've struggled to rationalise how the vote ended up the way it did, and maybe the players all being in the same vote contributed to that in some way.

-- Edited by foobarbaz on Thursday 2nd of July 2026 09:20:17 PM

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 Thanks Foobarbaz - interesting feedback and lets come back to this at the end; Id be interested to see if others share similar views. Noted and we will return to it. Thanks 

Ive voted the first box as I usually vote but there have been occasions where i have forgotten. (Although I did have a lapse a while back where I was struggling to understand why certain players had won on any given month and I had the feeling that they would always win no matter what else was achieved by anyone else).

Having said that I nearly didnt vote this time because I looked at it on Monday and we all know what happened on that day. And I felt completely depressed about the whole tennis thing!

I would like to see it continue Jon if you are happy to do it. I am sorry that I just dont have the consistency of time available to help on the occasions when you need help - like this week when you are supposed to be on holiday!!!!!

Thanks to those who have voted so far, and to those who have had their say.

Id really love to hear from those who for whatever reason dont vote in PoM and their thoughts on it as well. What could make it more appealing if anything? We usually get around 1/3rd of the people who visit the board whilst a PoM vote is taking place actually voting, so Id expect this vote to hopefully end up reflecting that with, ideally, some thoughts on why or how it could be made better.

Just to clarify - the aim isnt to potentially stop doing PoM, not yet at least. The aim here is to see if it can be made better in some way. Its great to see the affirmative comments and that is largely reassuring. But there must be a reason the vote has dropped so dramatically this year and Im keen to get under that.

I think Foobarbaz feedback is worthy of a discussion, so Ive captured that for something to revisit once we see if there are separate ideas that come in over the next week.

I think player of the season feels like it works, as a process and structure. But Id also be interested if there are any comments on that as well as player of the month whilst people are maybe thinking of it.

Helen40 wrote:

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I would prefer mens and womens to stay together. I don't really follow mens tennis, and it's nice to just keep an eye on it once a month, especially the up and coming youngsters.

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 Thanks Helen

I will see what ideas come out overall over the next week and have any sort of "steam" behind them and possibly throw those out for an ongoing discussion.

As we are halfway through this season and we have some "rules" and "structure" that has governed things like qualifying for Player of the Season, I am probably not minded to change anything before 2026 season is over, but it is good to have the debate and any ideas and see what the general feeling is. 

I will note down anymore that come up.

 

indiana wrote:

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It is striking how so mamy folk like reading up on the narratives at the end of the montn, liking these as a summary, and making them aware of successes in areas they don't follow that much, be it say junior, college, wheelchair, or simply the opposite sex.

I always just thought the narratives good to have as a summary of the PoM candidates' achievements for that month but they clearly form a bigger more useful function than that. Hopefully all who read up largely to get that bigger feel also vote and if some quite often don't vote maybe we can squeeze a few more votes out of them.

Whatever, going forward, it looks like there should always be a place for narratives giving an overall summary of British achievements in a month. I reckon allied to this we might as well vote for which we think best, we could maybe call that Player of the Month, and the thread with the achievements maybe call it the Player of the Month Nominations thread 

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 Haha 

I see a second person has voted for "let it die away".

Recognising anonymous is good, I would love it if those folks could be willing to put their head over the parapet and say why they think that. It may be that there is a learning in it. Just saying "it has had it's day, let it die away" is totally fine, but it really helps if there is some context or thought around that to share.

I hope that is ok and those two folks are willing to speak out - this is the point of all of this, really.