Berkshire LTA would like to congratulate Shinfield Tennis Club who recently became the 16th club in Berkshire to achieve the tennis Clubmark status.
On Tuesday 30 August TDM (Tennis Development Manager) Jo Downing partnered Rob Walter and joined in with the members for a “friendly” doubles during the weekly club night session before presenting the club with the award.
The journey started back in October 2009 when the club formulated an action plan which would focus around the following objectives - increase membership and therefore BTM’s, introduce regular coaching throughout the club, implement junior competition and achieve Clubmark. Cut to today and the volunteers have been working extremely hard to make these aims a reality and what a difference! The club has more than tripled its membership over the past 2 years, now at just under 200 and still growing. Jonathon Smith was appointed as Head Coach and has supported the club by recruiting LTA Licensed coaches to deliver the programme which caters for both adults, juniors and links to local primary schools in the area.
The coaching team along with the help of Sheelagh have started to add competition to the programme ensuring that young players are given the opportunity to put their skills into practise and aim to represent the club teams. It’s unlikely this bunch of volunteers are ready to put their feet up just yet though, the next project is to explore improving the quality of the club’s facilities on the current site.
TDM Jo Downing said “it’s been an absolute pleasure working with Shinfield Tennis Club over the past 12 months and see them achieve the goals they identified in the original action plan. I would like to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work, commitment and enthusiasm shown by the volunteers to really turn the club around. A brilliant example of what can be achieved by a voluntary committee in a small club with limited facilities if there is a shared vision in place. I wish Shinfield every success in their future projects”.