A group of Notts volunteers were rewarded by a day out at the AEGON Classic at Edgbaston.
Pictured here, Karen Archibald from West Bridgford TC - runner up Volunteer of the Year; Marie Benoy (Collingham) and Jill Russell (Woodthorpe) - both Lifetime Achievement of the Year- and Ann Spalding who is the Notts LTA County Secretary .
Read on for Jill Russell's account of the day:-
We had a lovely day on Monday at the Aegon Tennis Classic at Edgbaston. The weather stayed dry which was lucky – not very warm, but dry – which when we see the rain at Queen’s (and here) for the rest of the week, we were very lucky. The tennis was wonderful – goodness me how hard those girls can hit the ball !! We saw three matches – unfortunately both Brits we saw, lost, but that didn’t detract from the enjoyment.
The club has just had a £12 million refurbishment and new “centre court”. We dined in the new part of the Clubhouse. At lunch, there were fifty to sixty volunteers from all over the Midlands, each County having its own table. We had a little talk from Van Willerton, Tennis Operations, manager for the Midlands, who thanked us all and told us British tennis couldn’t exist without all the volunteers in the clubs. On a large screen, we were shown pictures of the successes from all over the Midlands and were thrilled when our photos from the Notts LTA Awards Evening popped up amongst all the various team successes and pictures of young children being introduced to tennis.