Take a look back on the story so far of Tennis in Tranent...
Two years ago, in September 2012, Tennis came back to Tranent for the first time since the early 1980's. Through sunshine and more often than not wind and rain, the tennis sessions at Forester Park have provided children in the Tranent and surrounding areas with the opportunity to play tennis in what is a very exciting time for Scottish Tennis with Andy Murray at the top of the game.
Nearly 80 children have been involved in the 'East Lothian Community Tennis' programme so far which has been a fantastic achievement for the area. The kids range in age from 5 - 15 with 5 hours of coaching for the different age groups running on Friday afternoons. The tennis is run on 5 aside football pitches with the nets put up and taken down each week and courts marked out with throw down lines. Currently the 2014 season is drawing to a close with the club looking forward to a hugely exciting 2015.
Here is a look back at the story so far...
Open Day: In September 2012, The Tranent Sports Hub (TDCSC) were running a multi-sport open day and tennis was invited to take part. With children and adults taking part all day the tennis proved to be the most popular sport of the day and the tennis seed was sown.
Come and Try Tennis For Free: A come and try session was held shortly after the open day and an overwhelming 43 children turned up for the first session. Taster sessions were also offered in the local primary school’s which were instrumental in drumming up support for the sessions.
Tennis Aces – Coaching Sessions: The ‘Tennis Aces’ tennis classes were started in mid September 2012, they have now been running for 2 fantastic years. All children attending the Tennis Aces are offered East Lothian Community Tennis membership and British Tennis Membership.
2013: 2013 was a hugely important year for East Lothian Community Tennis as it was crucial to build on the foundations which were laid in 2012. Encouragingly, the popularity of tennis seemed to grow and before long new classes were created to manage the increasing numbers. In late 2013, East Lothian Community Tennis was awarded ‘The Bruce Trophy’ for East of Scotland LTA Club of the Year 2013. This was hugely exciting for the kids as some of them got their hands on silverware for the first time.
2014: 2014 has been a challenging but ultimately successful year for Tennis in Tranent. With the class numbers still high and the kids developing their skills each week some of the mini Murray’s were ready for some match experience and so East Lothian Community Tennis took their first team to Edinburgh to play against Lomond Park LTC. The team consisted of 4 boys and 1 girl with 8 matches played over the course of the afternoon. The match ended 4 rubbers each, which was a fitting end to a fantastic day of tennis. A big thank you to the weather for being beautiful and to Lomond Park Tennis Club for hosting the match. 2014 has been a pivotal year in terms of where tennis in Tranent goes from here. While Forester Park has been a fantastic place to start activity and grow tennis the dream from day 1 was always to establish a tennis club in Tranent with their own tennis courts. With support from East Lothian Council, Enjoy Leisure, Tennis Scotland and Sportscotland this dream is on the verge of becoming a reality. With a successful funding application granted the money is in place for 3 brand new tennis courts to be built at Polson Park where the tennis used to be in Tranent. It is hoped that the work will be completed early in 2015 in time for the new season.
2015 – New Courts – THE END...?: With the promise of new courts in the area the future is looking particularly bright for Tennis in Tranent and indeed across East Lothian with several other projects in similar positions. Job done, the end? Certainly not - the work goes on to continue to develop and support a successful and sustainable tennis club. 2015 is not the end by any means, it is just the start of a new and very exciting chapter.
If you would like to get involved in tennis in Tranent or anywhere in East Lothian then you can contact sbrown@enjoyleisure.com for more information. You can also follow @elothiantennis on twitter.
