Tennis provisions in Romsey are due for a boost in the coming months as Romsey & Abbey Tennis Club working with The Romsey School has become one of the first school/club partnerships in Hampshire to set up a new Community Tennis Satellite Club.
The new Satellite Club, which will launch after the February half term, will be based at Romsey School and offer all young people in the area the opportunity to get involved with tennis through a mix of fun, inclusive programmes outside of normal school hours.
The main goal of the Satellite Club is to show that tennis is an easy sport for anyone to take part in, regardless of ability, with all sessions being subsidised to ensure they are affordable and accessible to everyone. People coming to the club can be bouncing to the beat with Cardio Tennis, taking their first steps into learning & playing tennis with Tennis Xpress or even engaging in fun competitions with Touch Tennis.
Although based at Romsey School, The Satellite Club is not just limited to its students and is part of a wider initiative to get young people playing tennis. The Club’s coaches will also be visiting other local secondary schools and sixth forms in the area to run tennis festivals, and show how they too can get involved in tennis at the club.
The Community Tennis Satellite Club is a new initiative on the part of Sport England, which is investing £49 million of Lottery funding in the development of Satellite Clubs at school and college sites across England. Many young people drop out of sport after leaving school but the Satellite Club initiative aims to prevent this by bridging the gap between school groups and local community clubs, making the transition easier. Through this initiative, Sport England aims to grow the number of 14 – 25 year olds taking part in sport, with the aim of creating 4000 Satellite Clubs by 2017.
Richard Libby, the Head Coach for Romsey & Abbey Tennis Club, who is leading the new Satellite Club said “This is an exciting initiative to be part of; we have always championed community tennis and we hope this new Satellite Club will enable lots of young people to take part in this fun lifelong sport”.
The new Community Satellite Club has been made possible with funding from Sport Hampshire & IOW who control the development of Satellite Clubs at a local level, and support from Hampshire and IOW LTA as part of their own local tennis development strategy.
For more information on how you can get involved in tennis at the new Satellite Club, please visit www.ratc.org.uk or email tennis@ratc.org.uk