Tennis club to serve success after opening of new courts

POYNTON Tennis Club has plenty of reasons to smile after opening its new tennis courts.

The club welcomed Macclesfield MP David Rutley as guest of honour to open two hard courts.

It means that the club now provides seven courts, including four all-weather and three hard courts, so tennis can be played through the year.

Fundraising for the development project also resulted in new floodlights and improvements to fencing and pathways.

Much of the work was paid for using Sport England funding, as well as donations from members.

The club also benefits from support from its sponsor Fastrak Retail Ltd, which has paid for the junior team kit and equipment.

The event earlier in September saw speeches and a ribbon cutting before junior members rushed to the courts to demonstrate their skills.

The event continued with the Annual Rosebowl tournament, which was won by Pauline Kilpatrick and Simon Piggott.

A large crowd of senior and junior players gathered to hear Alastair Nicholson, the project manager for the work, as he spoke of the journey from originally applying to Sport England for grant funding through to the appointment of contractors for the courts, the planning approval for floodlights, and finally the painting of the courts in a striking “US Open” blue with a green surround.

‘I hope more local residents will take the opportunity to get involved’

He also thanked new sponsor Fastrak Retail Ltd for its generous donations and Poynton Round Table and the Cheshire Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) for its support too.

Individually Alastair thanked Michael Atherfold, the club tennis coach, who has built up the junior team to almost 100 members, and David Myers, Trevor Green and Nigel Glasgow, who were in the development team.

Finally he spoke of the funding appeal to members which had raised over £10,000.

Mr Rutley said: “It was a real honour to be asked to open the new courts at Poynton Tennis Club and to see the progress being made at the club. The number of young members is particularly impressive.

“I would like to congratulate the tennis club, and the Poynton Sports Club more widely, on all that they are doing for the village and its residents.

“I hope more local residents now take the opportunity to get more involved and take advantage of these outstanding new tennis facilities.”

The Lawn Tennis Association has recently completed a health check at the club and renewed its Clubmark status for a further four years.

The Clubmark award is recognition of the club’s excellent standards, comprehensive activity programme and approved policies and procedures.

A spokesman for Fastrak retail said: “The club is proud of this achievement and we’re equally proud to have helped.”