Tennis Clubs In Nottingham (Tennis Clubs in Nottingham)

Member Name: theanarchistkid

Product:	Tennis Clubs in Nottingham
Date:	02/03/01 (2263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A prosperous area for tennis.

Disadvantages: A little bit elitist still.

In this review I intend to give a fair representation of most of the tennis clubs in the Nottingham area. Obviously, I can't include them all because there's hundreds of them, but I will try and include the bigger ones and the most successful ones.

Keyworth Lawn Tennis Club

Keyworth Lawn Tennis Club is a medium sized tennis club located in Nottingham. It is also the tennis club of which I am a member so I might be mildly biased on this part. We have 4 'Macadam' Courts. Basically these are just hard courts. They are very good quality and have recently undergone some minor repair work. This took place because they were very slippery when they got wet. Eventually after lots of umming and ahhing the committee decided to sort them out and they are now better than ever.

Keyworth has a fairly impressive junior programme for a club of its size. We currently have around 170 members which is quite impressive. Out of these 170, about 80 are under 18 and we offer a wide range of coaching sessions for them. We have 3 club coaches; myself, my brother and also a CCA Coach. Our CCA qualified coach is of the very highest standard and runs the County Squads at the Nottingham Tennis Centre.

Keyworth isn't like most other clubs, primarily because of the way in which it is funded. In Keyworth there is something called the Keyworth Playing Fields Association which basically owns all of the sporting facilities (bowls green, cricket pitch, football pitch etc). The Tennis Club has a long term lease on the land, a condition of which was that the tennis club must bring tennis into the community. This means that membership fees are the lowest in Nottingham, in order to allow anybody to play. Also, you don't have to be a member to play on the courts and there is always a court available for a non-member to play on.

Keyworth's Adult teams have had a few problems over the years, but now, with a lot of upcoming youngsters br
eaking into the teams, their position is looking much stronger. We have 3 Men's teams, 2 Ladies' Teams and 3 Mixed teams. This means that there is a team that you can play in, whatever your ability and standard of tennis. Last year, all of the Men's teams got promoted and the Men's first is now in the heady heights of Division 4! However, it looks like we're going to get promoted again so things are certainly improving.

We have a variety of club nights at Keyworth. For example, Monday evening is Match Practise Evening, Tuesday is Free Play, Wednesday and Thursday are evening specifically for Juniors and Intermediates and Friday is for any standard of adult to come down and have a hit. Saturday nights are Social Nights, which mix tennis, alcohol and generally having a good time.

To find out more about Keyworth Tennis Club, head over to http://www.keyworth-tennis.co.uk and take a look around. We are one of the first clubs in the region to have embraced the internet so it looks like the club is certainly going forwards.

That's all I'll write about Keyworth because I don't want to appear too biased. ;)

West Bridgford Tennis Club

This club is one of the major clubs in the area which brings with it its own advantages and disadvantages. The club has 3 indoor courts and several outdoor courts so you can normally play even when it's raining. The problem with a large club like this is that the membership is very large. This means that at peak times you may struggle to find any court to play on, particularly an indoor one. Having said this though, the large membership also means that there's always someone available to play against.

West Bridgford has a variety of coaches and all of them are very well qualified. The Junior setup there is excellent and they have raised some of the best juniors in the county. This club also has some very strong adult teams. The reason that this club is
so strong is that it is located right in the middle of Nottingham so it's a very popular place. Membership fees are quite high here and you also have to pay extra if you want to play indoors.

West Bridgford Tennis Club has a very plush club house and is truly massive. I've been to a party there before and it's a very nice place. I would reccommend this club only if you're a very good player because otherwise you will struggle to get very much team play because the standard is so high.

Caunton Lawn Tennis Club

Caunton is located towards Newark which is a long journey from where I live. They have five macadam courts, three of which are floodlit. These courts have undergone similar repair to the Keyworth ones so currently they are in excellent condition. Caunton looks like it will soon be expanding and building new courts, so this is possibl a good club to join if you're planning on staying a member for a while. The club itself, is situated out in the sticks, basically in a field. This means that it is very open and therefore prone to getting very windy. I have only played there 4 times and each time it's been almost unplayable due to the strong winds. This isn't always a problem though and I'm assured that the wind isn't normally as strong.

Caunton has a very good junior setup and has managed to raise one of the best 18 year olds in the UK. I'm not entirely sure how they've achieved this because they are a fairly small club, but they do seem to produce consistently excellent players. I'm sure that this is a testament to the coaching staff there, so if you're a junior and looking for a good club, you can't do much better than Caunton. They have lots of teams in the adult leagues and from when I've played against them, I can tell you that they are normally very strong. If you can put up with the wind, Caunton makes an ideal club for a decent player, although if you're a
beginner you might not be accepted into the Caunton teams.

Nottingham Tennis Centre

Not so much a club, as a facility this one and it's a very worth while facility at that. The specs are as follows:

"8 indoor tennis courts made of high-quality recognised tournament surface
19 outdoor tennis courts
9 individual grass courts
Air-conditioned gym
Air-conditioned aerobics studio
Sunbeds
Health suite comprising sauna and steam room
Pro Shop - Edge
Coffee Shop
Creche - run by fully-qualified staff for children under five years"

Getting an idea of the sheer size of this thing is quite hard to do, but if you've ever seen shots of Wimbledon from helicopters you'll get the idea. This is where the Nottingham Open is played so obviously the courts are of an excellent standard. Having this huge number of courts means that there are always courts available for play and there's normally an indoor court free as well. It's a very nice facility but the problem is that you can't 'join' it. The only part of it that you can join is the gym, otherwise it's a pay and play system. The prices for the outdoor courts are very reasonable but if you wan't to play indoors at a peak time, you'll end up paying around £10 for an hour. This may not seem like a lot but if you're wanting indoor coaching (Coach's fee of £17/hour) you're going to be paying £27 and hour, which would alienate most people.

Because this isn't a real tennis club, they don't have any adult teams. They do run indoor leagues though on a Sunday and Monday night so if you're club has an indoor team, you will probably play here quite often. County squads are also run here as are countless other coaching groups. The costs are fairly high though so unless you're really into improving your tennis, you may benefit from joining a smaller club and having coaching ther
e.

In Nottingham we are very fortunate to have a very strong tennis setup. We have so many small clubs that you're certain to find one that you would like to join. Also, if you are a kid and have lots of potential, there are plenty of County squads available and there is even a Lawn Tennis Association Centre of Excellence for those players that look like they are good enough to make it a professional.

My advice for choosing which club to join would just be to go to a few of the social nights and match practice nights and see if you find it interesting. If you don't fit in too well, don't worry; either persevere or try another club. What I wouldn't reccommend doing however is joining a club before you've had a chance to play on the courts and meet some of the members.

So, that's it for now. As you can see there is a wide range of options as far as clubs go and I have only discussed the few major clubs in the area. If you want more information, take a look at the 'Clubs' section at http://www.notts-tennis.co.uk and there you will find contact details, club specifications and more useful information.
If you have any other questions regarding tennis in Nottingham, write a commentary on this opinion and I will respond as soon as a I can.

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