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Scone Tennis club net
prestigious award August 28 – Scone Tennis Club has achieved the coveted
Clubmark accreditation – only one of three non-commercial clubs in Scotland
to do so. Tennis Scotland president
Christine Lawrie presented the award to club president Fiona Bruce, secretary
Ian Hunter and committee member Morag Bull. Clubmark is a cross sport
quality accreditation for clubs throughout the UK and is only awarded to
those who comply with consistent good practice and reach minimum operating
standards. Achieving Tennis Clubmark
means the Lawn Tennis Association, through Tennis Scotland, endorses and
supports Scone Tennis Club's tennis programme, its policies and procedures,
action and development planning and club management. Richard
Wilkins, Perthshire Advertiser |
It’s game on as Mavis takes on tennis players 50 years her junior
Mavis Massey, of Motcombe Grove, Heald Green, is
set to compete in an open age competition at Hazel Grove Tennis and Bowling
Club, where anyone aged 18 or over can enter. Despite playing against a wall with an old ball
and racquet as a child she only took up the sport last year after losing her
husband Roy to bowel cancer. But now she is hitting aces, backhands and
winners with the best of them – finishing runner-up in the last open age
tournament at the club, on Douglas Road. Mavis, 69, a retired bridal shop owner, said:
"I may be drawn against an 18-year-old but I feel fine about that and
feel I can hold my own. "I’m not an aggressive person but find when
I hit the ball it is a wonderful feeling, getting rid of all that energy that
has built up that no other way can. "In my 60s I found myself on my own having
always been with someone and I didn’t know what to do. "I played with an old racquet with strings
missing as a child but never played properly. "I was very hesitant about joining but the
minute I walked through the door everyone at the club made me feel very
welcome, it was if they had known me all their lives. "Now they are like my new family." The club will have Brian Steeles as its president
next year and Mavis, who has two daughters and four grandchildren, has been
selected to be the president’s lady. Brian said: "I think Mavis shows that you
are never to old to take up tennis or fulfil your ambitions. "She has been a great addition to the club
and I’m sure she will make a great president’s lady." Anyone wishing to join the club can come along on
Saturday (August 29) and Mavis will show them round. Stockport
Express |
Wheathampstead
villagers fed up with tennis court lights
Residents
in Necton Road, Wheathampstead – whose back gardens look out to a fenced
court – say they have not been able to enjoy a peaceful evening since
floodlights were fitted on the ground, allowing the “foul-mouthed” players to
play at night. Wheathampstead
Lawn Tennis Club was granted planning permission by St Albans District
Council in 2002 to install the lighting at the courts in Marford Road with
the condition that they are not used between the hours of 8.30pm and 8am. It
recently failed in a bid to allow the floodlights to remain on for longer in
the evening. Villagers are happy with this decision, but now want the
restrictions changed to earlier in the evening. Resident,
Bill Shears, 70, who has lived in Necton Road for four years, said: “This
tennis court is not in the interests of the people in Wheathampstead. “The
last time I spoke to some people there, two were from Luton and one was from
St Albans. You get people coming in from out of the village. Mr
Shears added: “We don’t like the lights because it makes us feel vulnerable,
like everyone is looking into our garden.” Another
resident in Necton Road, Alan Gray, told the Review he moved to the area in
1960 and still remembers the grounds as potato fields. Mr
Gray, 70, said: “We can’t even sit out in our gardens in the early evening
without having to hear the bad language. It’s upsetting for our neighbours
who have young children, and the lights shine through the house in the
winter. “Nobody
wants the lights on any longer than they are. Why should we draw our curtains
and close our windows just to shield ourselves from all the problems? The
courts shouldn’t have been put there in the first place.” The
tennis club says many of its members cannot play early on in the evening and
appealed for the time the lights stay on to be extended, allowing players to
come after 8.30pm. But
a Government inspector ruled in favour of the council and villagers, saying
the courts were only eight metres away from homes and the area also provided
a habitat for a number of bats. The
inspector also stated: “The floodlights would be seen from residents’
properties at a time when it is reasonable for the occupants of the houses to
expect a degree of peace and quiet.” Nobody
at Wheathampstead Lawn Tennis Club was available for comment as the Review
went to press. Report
by Manisha Mistry, St Albans and Harpenden Review |
