Press Release

ACE’ PARTY FOR TENNIS CLUB’S 75th BIRTHDAY

Wollaston Lawn Tennis Club celebrated its 75th anniversary with a gala dinner, dance and fireworks.

More than 80 members, past and present, attended the event, held at the club and organised by a group led by former chairman John Cutler.

Bob Wooldridge, who was its secretary during the 1960s, spoke of how the club had developed since the days when tennis was played on two courts at the end of the old vicarage garden in Wollaston.

The vicar, the Rev H C Wanstall, a keen player himself, was the president, a role later taken on by his successor, the Rev J R Bamber.

The club moved to its present premises in the mid-1960s, when Bill Homer, a member and architect, designed the existing clubhouse and courts.

It now has eight, artificial grass courts with floodlights to allow year-round play.

“Sadly, Bill Homer, who did so much to create the splendid facilities we have now, died just a few weeks before our big anniversary celebration,” said chairman Lou Cornell.

“But we drank a toast to Bill’s memory and were very pleased that his wife, Jean, and another long-standing member, Sheila Dukes, who both joined in 1946, cut our anniversary cake at the party.

“It was an ace night, with dancing to The Lady and the Sax and a firework display, and adds another chapter to the history of our club.”