Bedfordshire’s Neil Frankel and Riverside Lawn Tennis Club win Disability Award

In 2020, the programme at Riverside continued to offer activities to suit all abilities and backgrounds and recorded record participation figures within specific groups such as the visually impaired, learning disability and Down syndrome.

Frankel’s helped catapult participation to new heights, embraced technological innovation in lockdown and fostered a wide-ranging support network to help the club’s disabled players.

No Barriers at Riverside forms part of the LTA's national Open Court disability tennis programme, which is one of the largest of its kind across any sport and has helped a record number of disabled people get on court and enjoy the benefits of tennis.

Nominations were drawn from over 25,000 volunteers, nearly 5,000 coaches and 1,000 officials, 22,000 schools, nearly 3,000 clubs and over 9,000 LTA approved tournaments, with Frankel recognised for his inspirational work in the Bedfordshire region.

The quality and quantity of the awards nominations this year demonstrate outstanding work that has been done in tennis through the pandemic, and David Rawlinson, LTA President, said: “The LTA Tennis Awards are a real celebration of the people that make our sport thrive.

“They celebrate the achievements made by outstanding volunteers, coaches, officials, venues and players, who are all vital in helping us to grow the game.

“The past year has been challenging for everyone, but to see the tremendous positive contributions the nominees have made to the sport and to their communities has been tremendously uplifting.”