LTA Presidents Visit

On Friday 29^th April, we welcomed LTA President David Rawlinson on a visit to showcase the work of both Middlesex Tennis and a few of our many amazing venues. To avoid spending the day battling London traffic, we worked with 3-venues in the Northeast of the county as a small taster of the inspirational tennis that takes place.

Our first stop was our 2022 Middlesex Club of the Year-Conway LTC. We were welcomed to coaches Corina, Toby and Luke challenging players in their weekly Friday morning cardio session. David started off joining the coffee and play group which was well attended by a range of Conway LTC members from first team players to promising juniors.

We were joined by Deputy Mayor Joanne McCartney and Local Enfield MP Bambos Charalambous for a tour of the grounds and recent history of the club. Both of whom are interested in the local community and opening up opportunities through Sport and recreational activities for their constituents. And great to see Local MP Bambos take to the court and have a go.

We visited inclusive club Highgate Tennis next. Highgate have previously been awarded the LTA Disability Award and they have made strides for inclusion through tennis in their work. We went on a tour exploring the Club history, Brookside development and tennis and inclusion plans.

Currently Highgate offers a Saturday inclusive session, this started as a result of an outreach  with Ignite programme, supporting community sports clubs in disadvantaged areas to engage disabled young people into sport. Through this programme they reached 300 disabled pupils and introduced them to tennis. Another pillar of their inclusion work is providing volunteers for metro blind tennis sessions held at Islington Tennis Centre. So far 135 volunteers have been recruited to assist in those sessions including 35 teenagers as part of their Duke of Edinburgh Award.

The club have made numerous strides and changes to become more accessible including a wheelchair wet room, changes to grounds and have funding and stores for equipment to run inclusive sessions.

LTA President David, LTA Councillor Louise Hutchinson and Middlesex Chair Phil Veasey also got the opportunity to try out wheelchair tennis in a session led by Kate Chesser, a Highgate tennis player and wheelchair user.

Finally, to stage our Performance programme we visited New River Tennis Centre, the home of our mid-week training hub. In a joint bid with Georgians Tennis Club in 2021, we acquired tenure of the courts at New River to provide access to indoor tennis sessions for local players. David Dempsey and Claire Taylor led our 16U squad training.

We used this opportunity to present Claire Taylor with her 2022 Captain of the Year Award due to her efforts with the 14U girls’ team and her undefeated record since joining Middlesex.

Thank you, David, for visiting Middlesex and giving us the opportunity to showcase how tennis is thriving across Middlesex and our clubs, and what support is needed.

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