Net gains for tennis lovers
Sunday tennis in Clissold Park. Photo: © Izzie Tran
With the joy of Wimbledon 2010 still fresh in everyone’s minds, many local residents are keen to refine their serves and perfect their backhands. Where better than in Hackney’s most established tennis spot?
Hackney City Tennis Clubs has recently won plaudits for promoting the game from its base in Clissold Park, and the upgrade of the park currently underway could help the club to increase its capacity if permission is granted to allow a vacant building to be used as a clubhouse.
Founded in 1999, the club’s accomplishments are nothing short of remarkable. Clissold Park was recently made a ‘Beacon site’ by the Tennis Foundation in recognition of the high quality work at both community and performance level and the number of coaches that have been trained at the club over the past few years.
Hackney has also been named as a ‘Tennis Hotspot’ which could potentially bring £500k in funding from the Tennis Foundation (the charitable wing of the Lawn Tennis Association).
More impressive still, five of the players who started on the club’s programme are currently ranked in the top five in their age group at national level, and several more players are making their way up the rankings. Strong performances of this sort have won the club ‘satellite status’ by the National Training Department of the Lawn Tennis Association in recognition of its ability to produce top players.
Tennis Manager Jan Coombs is understandably proud: “our performance programme is now producing some of the best young players in the country in spite of not having an indoor facilities or floodlights.”
This summer’s make-over of Clissold Park has provided an opportunity for the club to improve its facilities. On 28 July Hackney Council’s planning committee will be considering an application to turn the old park-keeper’s lodge on Queen Elizabeth’s Walk into a dedicated tennis clubhouse. The club has had the derelict building in its sights for two years, but now there looks to be a real possibility of securing it for future use. The park makeover may also include the provision of floodlights for the courts.
Some park users have objected to the fact that tennis players have been granted access to the park after normal closing hours. Concerns have also been raised over the possible impact of floodlights on those living near the courts.
Yet admiration for the club’s accomplishments is practically universal, and this summer promises to be a good one for tennis in Hackney.
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