Gosforth Lawn Tennis Club are celebrating after finishing third in the Benenden Tennis Festivals Venue of the Year 2016 awards.
The club were nominated as the North regions ‘Club of the year’, out of around 160 clubs who arranged Benenden events this year. Gosforth were then awarded third place in the national awards.
Christine Klee, Regional Tennis Competition Coordinator said, “I made my decision based on the fact that Gosforth have utilised all 4 of the Benenden festival packs this year, completed the online review forms, and seem to have really embraced the events as a way to enhance their existing programme at the club. And I’ve enjoyed seeing them all being documented on Facebook!”
The award marks a remarkable year for the club, situated on West Avenue in Gosforth. Floodlights were installed in October allowing play in evenings throughout the year with assistance from Sport England funding. The club continues to expand community links, including working with the Liberdade physical theatre group as well as in a number of schools - this year being awarded ‘Best External Provider’ by Newcastle School for Boys.
Chris Gray, Club President and Chairman said, “We’ve had a great year. Membership has increased, our teams have had a lot of success, the coaching sessions are buzzing and of course we’ve just had floodlights installed following years of work. The committee has worked hard, we’ve been open to ideas and I feel we’ve been quite innovative this year. Many thanks to Andy and Carlos, these guys are massively important to the club and always put on high quality sessions – you can tell as people keep coming back and the numbers are increasing.”
Andrew Reed, Head Coach said, “The Benenden Tennis Festivals have been a fantastic opportunity for venues throughout the country to host fun, themed competitions for local players. They have been a great way for us to encourage families to lead healthy lifestyles through tennis and be part of a health and wellbeing community. We are really looking forward to making the events bigger and better in 2017.”
If you want to know about Gosforth Lawn Tennis Club, look at their website www.gosforthlawntennisclub.co.uk or like ‘Gosforth Lawn Tennis Club’ on Facebook.