New Tennis Opportunities In Thame (Contributed)

THAME Tennis Club has just completed a major development project to increase the playing facilities at its Queens Road location, including the construction of three new, all-weather courts and floodlighting.
Having been in existence and in the same location for over 80 years, the Club now has a total of six high quality, all-weather courts, one of which is dedicated as a priority court for junior players.

With the new facilities now in place, the Club is growing as expected with new members joining on a regular basis. The Club is now able to offer both evening tennis all year round as well as the facility of multi-discipline activities being able to take place at the same time, both of which had not been possible previously.

The new lit courts are in full use each evening and all of the courts are in use at the weekends, where it is not unusual to see all six courts being played on at the same time, with matches, coaching and club play all taking place simultaneously.

The junior priority court, with its special mini tennis line markings for coaching sessions, also allows for junior members to play as a priority over adult members. Whilst adult members can use the court if it is not in use, junior members are empowered to ask them to vacate the court if they need to. The Club rigorously enforces this priority usage.

The development of the junior section is further and significantly aided by the appointment of Simon Langley as the Club?s fully qualified and LTA approved Head Coach, and Simon has successfully implemented a new and integrated coaching programme.

In addition to extensive work with the local schools, the impressive coaching programme has resulted in new members joining, as well as the Club being recently awarded the highly valued LTA Mini Tennis Accreditation status.

The coaching programme, which is for adult and junior players, continues to expand and also offers specialist one-to-one sessions.

The Club also successfully runs a large number of adult and junior teams in the local leagues (i.e. Oxfordshire, Aylesbury & District and Thames Valley), so there are great opportunities for competitive league tennis at all levels, all year round.

The Club is delighted to have achieved Mini Tennis Accreditation status and its next ambition is to become a performance centre of renown in Oxfordshire.

New members are always welcome and the Club is holding an Open Day at its Queens Road Courts on Sunday, April 23, to which everyone is welcome and where demonstration racquets and other equipment will be available for use.

For further details, please call the Chairman Aidan Coles on 01844-238900 or visit the Club?s website at www.thametennisclub.org.uk.