Boldon Lawn
tennis club
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Boldon
LAWN TENNIS CLUB
Boldon Lawn Tennis Club enjoyed a year to remember in
2018 as they continue to play an important role in their local
community. Club Representative Viv Mcfarquhar recently
took the time to tell us more about the good work they’ve been
doing.
Involvement
Viv told us, “I have been a member for almost thirty years.
I hadn’t played much tennis since I left school, just a little in
the local park. Then at the grand age of thirty I picked up a
flyer in one of the local shops, advertising adult coaching. I
went along with a neighbour and I never looked back.
After the course finished, I joined the club and found it to
be very friendly and had many tournaments that encouraged
me to play. With some one to one coaching I soon made it onto
the ladies team. I became captain of the ladies third team and
we play in the Durham and Cleveland league; I also play for
the ladies veteran’s teams, which is ladies and mixed. Last
year we fielded a ladies over 55 team, so I’m getting plenty of
tennis!”
The Role
“The most challenging aspect is to ensure all the important
roles are filled which is sometimes difficult as everyone
involved is a volunteer (apart from the professional coaches).
The most rewarding is seeing the young players progress
and to have success with our teams. But most importantly it
is seeing people form friendships; the club has a very active
social side.”
22 Issue 01
Atmosphere
“The atmosphere here is really upbeat following our
success at the Durham & Cleveland LTA Awards. We won
Club of The Year, Coach of The Year, Volunteer of The Year
and The Education Award. We’re also gearing up for the
2019 competitive season with our senior team match practice
sessions starting on 6 March – led by our head coach Stephen
Gilbert, who won The Coach Of The Year.”
Present
“2018 went brilliantly, alongside winning the awards we’ve
seen a healthy increase in our junior membership and we’ve
grown our extensive local schools programme and increased
our profile in the wider community within the Boldons.
Now we want to continue to increase our membership
numbers and look at how we can become an even more inclusive
tennis club by offering disabled people the opportunity to
come and use our facilities. We’ll also be looking at replacing
some of our court surfaces – a costly outlay for the club but we
feel it’s something we have to do to maintain the quality of the
facilities our club has to offer our members and visitors.”
Youth
“Youth development is absolutely crucial to our club. They
are the next generation of players for our club, county and
potentially our country so we have to invest time and money
where we can to develop our young players and integrate
them into our club.