Princess’s tennis club embroiled in conduct row

THE Princess of Wales’s favourite tennis club has been shaken by two cases of ‘inappropriate behaviour’, I can reveal.

Catherine, who is currently recovering from abdominal surgery, takes Prince George for tennis lessons at the £1,400-ayear hurlingham, set in 42 leafy acres on the north bank of the thames near Fulham.

the first incident, I can disclose, occurred in the club’s sauna, adjacent to the indoor swimming pool.

authorities who, as I revealed last week, have established a ‘conduct committee’ to counter numerous cases of ‘unacceptable’ behaviour, reacted immediately, emailing a stark memo to members and also prominently displaying it on a notice board.

entitled ‘Formal Reprimand — Rule 22’, it states that: ‘a senior member has been issued a formal reprimand for conduct deemed to be discreditable as laid out in Rule 22 IV B.’

Refraining from naming the miscreant, it adds: ‘the member made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature to a fellow member while in the sauna.’

It’s not the sort of decorous conduct with which hurlingham was once synonymous — and which the Princess of Wales must surely, and understandably, have taken for granted, as another club member explains.

‘the sauna has always been mixed and all ages,’ he tells me, adding that it has never been tainted by the seedy connotations of uninhibited Californian bath-houses or even the bracing authenticity of the thermal baths of Budapest.

‘It has always been really tame,’ says the club stalwart, who suggests that it may still be but has perhaps fallen foul of differences in generational outlook, with senior members speaking in a carefree manner which their younger, more puritanical counterparts struggle to cope with.

‘My feeling is that it’s unlikely to be as grim as it sounded in the email.

‘I can see someone saying to a yummy mummy, “Isn’t that a nice swimsuit?” or something like that. Probably something I would have said.’

a second — apparently unrelated — incident is said to have landed another member in hot water. ‘ someone has been banned because of inappropriate behaviour,’ I’m told.

the hurlingham club declines to comment on either episode.