Peace breaks out at Kate’s revolting tennis club!

The hurlingham Club, which boasts the Duchess of Cambridge among its members, has been the scene of a rancorous civil war ever since it unveiled plans for a massive redevelopment.

But now I can reveal the white flag has been raised and a peacebroker has emerged in the shape of its new chairman, Luke Nunneley, who is Lord Snowdon’s cousin.

he has, I can disclose, just eaten a large slice of humble pie by writing to club members to accept that ‘mistakes were made in respect of the West Wing Project’. It chalked up a staggering £2.55 million in professional fees which, Nunneley acknowledges, the club was obliged to ‘write off’ after the proposals were greeted with volleys of derision.

his candour has earned him plaudits from the 13,000strong membership. ‘he didn’t say it was all before his time,’ one stalwart tells me. ‘he’s effectively taking responsibility for actions undertaken prior to his term of office. I have great respect for that.’

Old etonian Nunneley also assures members that, henceforth, any proposed developments ‘will be put to members for approval’, and vows to ensure that all projects are part of a plan that ‘thoroughly reflects member needs and wishes’.

The conciliatory note will be appreciated. Opponents of the development, which would have seen a second swimming pool, cafe, sports bar and fitness studios inserted in the West Wing, likened it to ‘a David Lloyd club in essex’. They turned on the club’s then chairman, Julian holloway, whose allegedly ‘dictatorial’ manner led critics to set up a website, ‘Reform hurlingham’, which compared him with North Korea’s Kim Jong-un. holloway countered by saying that almost everything written by Reform hurlingham was fake news.

But after good-naturedly admitting that, like Kim Jonun, he was ‘overweight and [wore] glasses’, he resigned.

his successor’s powers of persuasion are not to be underestimated.

‘I still remember a speech Luke made at eton about Britain being the world’s nuclear dustbin,’ one of his contemporaries tells me.

Perhaps he’ll now see that hurlingham’s recent past is similarly consigned to history.