The Lawn Tennis Association’s (LTA) president, Peter Bretherton, praised Derby tennis clubs on Friday, last week, for their outstanding work in helping to make the game available to local people of all levels and abilities.
Derbyshire Tennis Centre and David Lloyd Derby were two of four Derbyshire clubs visited by the President of the Lawn Tennis Association who had come to see for himself how the region is producing a high standard of community-focussed and performance-based programmes. Bretherton also visited Duffield Lawn Tennis Club, Chesterfield Lawn Tennis Club – both identified as among of the top clubs in the county.
Speaking at Derbyshire Tennis Centre, Bretherton said: “I was particularly struck by the energy and enthusiasm on display in the performance programmes both here and at David Lloyd Derby. The LTA is committed to identifying and developing our most talented youngsters, as part of our commitment towards growing and sustaining British tennis, so to see performance programmes operating so well in Derby really bodes well for the future.”
The visit, organised by Derbyshire Lawn Tennis Association, demonstrated how some of the county’s top clubs are attracting new players, improving player programmes and offering opportunities to play to all members of the community.
Derbyshire Tennis Centre combines the county association’s offices with facilities for the club, pay and play opportunities for local non-members and coaching courses for players of all ages and abilities. It has two indoor and four outdoor courts.
Bob Gibson, Secretary of Derbyshire Tennis Centre said: “We were very pleased to welcome Peter Bretherton to the centre. We are very proud of being the only county tennis centre in the UK and were keen to show him our coaching programmes and the work we do with schools.
“Last year we contracted a company called Serving Up Tennis to do all our coaching and that is working very well. The centre is also used for a large number of tournaments while we also try to encourage as many non-members to come and play as we can. I know Peter’s main objective is to get more people playing tennis and that’s our aim as well.”
Derbyshire tennis officials also took part in a question and answer session with the LTA President before he moved on to the David Lloyd Centre which has doubled its membership and installed two new courts in the last year.
Gavin Bailey, Sports Manager at the David Lloyd Centre, said: “We were very keen to show Peter Bretherton how far we’ve come since last year. The last 12 months have been the best we’ve ever had. We had great success in getting adult members to sign up while achieving high performance among the juniors has been a big focus. Thanks to funding from the LTA we’ve improved our junior tournament programme and now have 125 regularly competing juniors. As I think we demonstrated, we’re now ready to move on to the next stage.”
Bretherton’s visit concluded at Derbyshire’s annual tennis awards evening at Pride Park stadium Duffield LTC was crowned Derbyshire ‘Club of the Year’ in front of 350 tennis enthusiasts and Wimbledon referee Andy Jarrett.
After celebrating a great year for the sport across the county, Derbyshire LTA Tennis Development Manager Paul Sheard believes the future is looking bright for Derbyshire tennis:
“We were delighted that Peter Bretherton spent the day visiting our clubs. We’ve been able to show him the excellent progress we’ve made in getting more people playing tennis and competing on a regular basis. The future for Derbyshire tennis looks extremely positive and it’s a tribute to the people who work tirelessly within the sport across the county who are helping us make a significant contribution to British tennis.
“The county team are working really hard to improve tennis opportunities across Derbyshire. The awards evening is a great opportunity to recognise the efforts of tennis people throughout the county and we are delighted that it is so well supported by more than 350 Derbyshire tennis enthusiasts.”
