What a racket!
Kirkhill Lawn Tennis Club has been selected as the Reformer Club of the Week.
A surge in membership means the courts on Whitefield Avenue are used daily and will continue to be a real benefit to members as they stay open throughout the winter months.
The club has gone through many ups and downs with their membership, but the current peak of around 200 members seems to be a new high for Kirkhill.
The Reformer visited the club in Cambuslang to get the low-down on why they are doing so well and to find out a bit more of the history surrounding the popular tennis hub.
This week’s Reformer Club of the Week is Kirkhill Lawn Tennis Club with sports reporter Murray Spooner.
Memberships have been increasing at an exciting rate down at the courts in Cambuslang. So I decided to go along and see why business was booming at Kirkhill.
Club president Jackie Clark was there to greet me and her husband Stuart, who is one of three level five coaches in Scotland, took me through a beginner’s lesson.
I was shown how to hold the racket with the correct grip, how to serve and hit a cross-court forehand.
Straightforward and fun, tennis is a sport that gives you a good runout with a competitive edge.
And, despite the cold weather, it was encouraging to hear that the club does not shut up shop for winter, as they play all year round on their all-weather surface under floodlights.
Jackie then filled me in on how things were going on and off the court.
Can you tell me about the club’s success both in the past and recently?
Our most recent success is our surge in membership. Largely due to our increased year-round coaching programme for children and adults.
Our ladies’first team had considerable success recently with promotion in the LTA league for the last two years in succession, and winning the group cup this year.
We have also increased our participation in team league tennis from two teams to 17 teams in the last two years which is also a great achievement.
Tell me about the history of the club?
The club celebrated its 100th birthday last year with lots of social and tennis events for the public and members.
Kirkhill LTC started with more courts and a wooden clubhouse after the ground was donated to the club and fundraising locally ensured the blaes courts were installed and are still there to this day.
The club has gone through many highs and lows with membership, however, this current peak of around 200 members seems to be a new high in demand at the club.
How many day/nights is the club open?
The club is open every day from 7am until 10pm for tennis. Classes run usually after school hours from 3.30pm until 7.30pm Monday to Thursday for various classes including pre-school, mini tennis classes and squad training. Adults can enjoy beginners’classes, cardio-tennis and improver groups.
What difficulties does the club struggle to overcome?
The main difficulty at present is keeping up with demand for court time as the Scottish climate does present problems with any outdoor sport. We are in the process of upgrading our courts to more weather-reliable versions and introducing floodlights to all our courts which should vastly increase our court availability and meet demand, however, funding is always difficult to secure for these projects.
Does the club benefit the community?
We extend our coaching and are building partnerships with local schools, sports hub and active schools to reach more tennis participants.
Have the club got any important competitions coming up?
We have some team tennis competitions running on Saturdays coming up in the next few weeks for junior members to encourage competitive tennis coming into the autumn and winter period.
How much work goes into running the club?
We have an active committee who run the tennis club and make sure that work is identified and distributed to make the club run as smoothly as possible. We have recently gone online with most of our processing including joining as a member which takes some of the legwork out of the administrative processes.
Do you offer lessons for new members?
Anyone is welcome to join in with our scheduled lessons. We do, however, offer discounts to members which does make our membership very good value .
Why should someone join your club?
If anyone is looking for a very friendly, welcoming, whole-family sport experience then this is the club for you. Our membership is the best value for money in the area. A family membership for the year (April to March) is £200 for any adults and children living in the one household. So for a family of four or more this makes seven-day-a-week access to sport less than £1 per person per week for as much tennis as you want.
We are offering a half price membership currently which can be accessed on http://tinyurl.com/ hljwofr