Leigh & Westcliff LTA will be holding an extraordinary meeting on Monday night to decide two matters which could have a major impact on the association.

The announcement last November that Leigh Tennis Club will officially close on March 31 after owners Anne and Megan Wright decided to sell the club meant that members have been forced to seek other clubs to join.

Most of them are set to become members at Westcliff Lawn, which has prompted a problem with where the new teams should be placed within the L&W league structure.

The other item on the agenda is a proposal to alter the format of The League competition which is played during the summer months by L&W member clubs.

Members from the 17 clubs will attend the meeting on January 17 at Westcliff Lawn Tennis Club, with each club receiving two votes.

League rules state that teams joining the league must start out in the bottom L&W division and work their way up. This happened when Deanes and David Lloyd joined the association in recent years.

The problem the association faces is that the Leigh teams are established and would be absorbed into Westcliff Lawn to play alongside the London Road club’s teams.

If the teams start in the bottom divisions, it would cause an inbalance which may lead to weaker teams being demoralised by playing stronger opposition.

However, current rules prevent them from being placed into the divisions the Leigh teams currently occupy.

If the meeting decides to let the former Leigh teams to continue in their current positions, the L&W’s league-locking rules will still apply. This means a club cannot have more than one team in the same division, with the exception of the bottom division.

“In the past when clubs have closed, such as Access and Heaths, the members have been distributed evenly around other member clubs,” said L&W league secretary Dave Lincoln.

“However, most of Leigh’s members are going to Westcliff Lawn, so this has caused a unique problem.

“The difference is that these are not new teams, they are established ones.

“It is for the clubs to decide but the committee hopes that common sense will prevail.”

If the meeting votes against all the old Leigh teams starting in the bottom division, it is expected that a rule change will be proposed at the association’s annual meeting.

The proposal to change The League format has been put forward by Southend Lawn to introduce two different formats.

The League has featured a men’s, women’s and mixed pair playing in the summer since the association was formed 60 years ago.

Southend Lawn are proposing to allow teams to elect at the beginning of a season whether they play the existing format or play three mixed pairs.

It two teams want to play mixed pairs, they will play that format, however, if either team wants to play the traditional The League format then that will be used.

The proposal to change The League to a full mixed format has been put forward at several annual meetings in the past but has always been defeated.

The advantage is that the proposal would accommodate player who want to play more mixed tennis, while the disadvantages include a distortion of the league standings if teams are playing different formats and the administration of running two formats within one league.

The meeting starts at 7.30pm at Westcliff Lawn Tennis Club