Local sports club receives £5,000 for LTA Award win
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A local sports club north of Ipswich town has received £5,000 funding from the LTA after being named ‘Club of the Year’ at our annual awards ceremony last month.
Set in six acres of tranquil grounds, Ipswich Sports Club was selected as the national winner from hundreds of other venues across the country, as a result of their outstanding work over the past year. With growing membership numbers, new facilities and successful community programmes, the club places real emphasis on accessibility and inclusivity; sharing our vision to open up tennis to all.
Managed by Andy Yorke - who has been involved with the venue for over 11 years, the club offers a range of activities, courses and new sessions for both disabled and non-disabled players, as well as submitting numerous teams for local, county and national competitions throughout the year. In addition, the club has also modernised its approach to membership and communication, from developing members’ cards to integrating touch screen displays and electronic scoreboards.
The club management and volunteers have worked closely with the LTA, Ipswich Borough Council, Local Parks Boards, local clubs, schools and charitable organisations including the Elena Baltacha Foundation and Tennis for Free to deliver the above sessions and competitions, with Yorke crediting the club’s impressive success as a result of the cohesion between its partners, coaches and committee.
With over 138 new tennis members, £165,000 of tennis activity revenue and a participation increase of 30% across the disability, community, club and academy programmes last year alone, the club’s future certainly looks bright.
Who said what?
Speaking about the club’s award win, LTA Volunteering Manager Alex Beaumont commented: “Ipswich Sports Club fully deserves to be crowned the winner of ‘Club of the Year’ at this year’s LTA Tennis Awards and it’s a great pleasure to present them with £5,000 today. They truly are a community-focused tennis club and their work with local schools, as well as their disability, VI and autism programmes really shows how accessible tennis is. The LTA’s vision is to open up tennis and its benefits to many more people all year round, and the fantastic work that clubs like Ipswich do is pivotal in helping to make that a reality.”
Ipswich Sports Club Manager Andy Yorke added: “Ipswich Sports Club is delighted to have been recognised by the LTA as ‘Club of the Year’ and receive the £5000 funding. Our club is very much open to the community, offering a wide range of programmes with great facilities for all. As a not-for-profit club, we rely on the good will of our volunteers and a small professional staff team to manage the day to day operations. The Club has gone from strength to strength over recent years and in particular our growth in tennis membership, community outreach and our disability programme is something we are very proud of. We couldn’t achieve such things without working with our various partners including the LTA, Ipswich Borough Council, Tennis for Free, The Elena Baltacha Foundation and our various corporate sponsors so we’d like to say a huge thank you to them.”
