LTA Pledgeball League 2025 is live

Ilminster Bowling & Tennis Club claim first place in the opening round of the LTA Pledgeball League 2025, securing a £250 grant to spend on sustainability project.

Building on last year's introduction of a bike rack and wildflower desginated area at the club, designed to encourage biodiversity, the pledges made by members at Ilminster equate to saving over 26,000kg of carbon dioxide emissions, which is the quivalent to driving around the Earth three times in a petrol car! 

When speaking to Ilminster Tennis Club chair, Gill Dunn, on the venue's third victory in the LTA Pledgeball League she said, "It is a source of great pride that following on from our successes in previous years, Ilminster has topped the LTA Pledgeball League once again. We see this as a positive reflection on how our members are continue to see sustainability as a big part of our club's long-term culture.

"Ilminster is a small town in Somerset with a population of approximately 6,000. However, it unfortunately hit the main news channels in January this year when flash flooding caused devastation and extensive water damage to homes and businesses in parts of the town. This brings home the reality of how the climate crisis is impacting our communities and how we can make a difference, however small, to reduce these environmental changes.

"In our efforts to be as sustainable as possible, the club has had solar panels installed, designated a wildflower area around the car park to support biodiversity, installed bike racks by the tennis courts to encourage members to cycle to the venue and recently replaced the floodlights on our three tennis courts with LEDs via funding obtained from community grants and previous Pledgeball wins. The next project is the car parking lights upgrade to LEDs to further demonstrate our commitment to quality and sustainability.

"Discussions are also taking place via a project group lead by Katie Cross, Pledgeball CEO to ascertain ways to involve the community with the Club's sustainability work and how the Club can learn from the work already taking place locally around us. As previously documented, we would encourage all clubs to take part in the LTA Pledgeball League - and see the difference each pledge can make."

Greenwood Park Tennis Club took second place, along with a £150 grant, which they using to help support tennis ball recycling at the club. In third, Priory Tennis Club, taking £100 back to their venue to spend on increasing their sustainability.

The total pledges in June equate to over 117,200kg of carbon dioxide emissions being saved, the equivalent of air-drying 2.34 million loads of laundry instead of using a tumble dryer.

This year has already seen the greatest engagement across Great Britain, with more players at tennis and padel venues pledging than ever before, and there are still three rounds to go!

The members of Ilminster Bowling & Tennis Club continue to rally together with more nature-friendly pledges being made than the previous round. The total pledges made from this months title winners equated to saving over 35,000kg in carbon dioxide emissions, that's the equivalent to lighting 70 football stadiums for a full match!

On discussing Ilminster's second win of the year the Chair of the Ilminster Tennis Club, Gill, said, "Wow! The club is so proud to have back to back wins for June and July, and of course is aiming to retain its podium position for August and achieve a hat trick!

"This win is very timely in that Tennis club members met earlier this week to discuss future sustainable projects, including the addition of water butts around the site, LED lights in the tennis pavilion, a bug hotel, and providing reusable bottles to our junior members which will hopefully also prove to promote the Club's junior section.

"The £250 from the June win is already being put to good use as work starts soon to replace the car park lighting with LEDs thus providing energy efficient and environmentally friendly lighting for both Club users and local residents."

The venue, based in Somerset, takes home yet another £250 grant to spend on making the club even more sustainable. Whilst Victoria Park (Bristol) and West of Scotland Seniors LTC, take in second and third place respectively. 

Victoria Park in Bristol is a non-profit organisation run by volunteers and local residents. The members of Victoria Park have pledged to offset over 2,280kg of carbon dioxide emissions, the equivalent of leaving your laptop running for 38,000 hours!

The volunteer-run venue are already taking environmentally positive action; encouraging players to cycle by the installation of bike racks, thinking about their water usage, by using a water butt to collect rainwater, which is then used to water an ever developing green space and, with nature on its mind, the venue have also included hedgehog houses, giving the animals valuable protection.