Back in March 2011 the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and the Tennis Foundation announced that Shaftesbury Tennis Club in north Dorset was to be awarded ‘Beacon’ status as part of the AEGON Parks Tennis programme in recognition of their high quality, affordable community tennis programmes.
The announcement was made following the clubs great efforts to deliver access to free and affordable tennis to the whole community and their commitment to do more to engage with new markets making the sport as accessible as possible.
Since the launch of the Beacon the club have been delivering an all inclusive programme to adults and juniors at an affordable rate to encourage them to play the sport. The club based on a school site in the town runs coaching for adults and juniors year round on their floodlit Astroturf courts. Ian Griffin and the team have done a fantastic job encouraging more and more schools to feed in to the programme and a lot of time is given for free to the schools to grow the game and support the teachers in delivery.
The club are also producing real depth of young competitors on the programme by offering Timed Tennis competition within the programme every half term, this has really helped to engage the juniors and reward them for their hard work in training.
Head Coach Ian Griffin “We are grateful to the LTA for their help and support in preparing for our Beacon Status, they have given us great support and direction. We now run more sessions than ever before including adult and juniors, beginners and team training.”
LTA Tennis Development Officer for the South West “Without Ian and his team delivering in the North of the County there would be an obvious gap in provision and they have filled this gap with a fantastic club offering tennis to the community for an affordable rate. The programme gives juniors and adults the opportunity to play and receive professional coaching on a great facility.”
For more information on the club check out the website http://www.shaftesburytenniscentre.co.uk/