Jesmond Lawn Tennis Club held an open evening on Tuesday October 14th to encourage new and returning students to pick up their racquets and start playing tennis.

Founded in 1883, the club, based on Osborne Road, is one of the oldest tennis clubs in Great Britain and boasts a Wimbledon champion in the form of Muriel Robb, the 1902 Ladies Singles champion. The small but welcoming club also has three all-weather courts as well as a cosy clubhouse complete with a fully licensed bar and kitchen.

Every year the club invites student tennis players of all abilities to join its ranks, with a number of social and competitive opportunities available for members. Angela Appleby, the ladies captain, who has been a member at the club for 50 years, explained how current members are keen to reach out to all Newcastle based students to join their “friendly little club”.

The club has three men’s teams and three ladies’ teams who compete with other club teams, as well as providing more social and informal activities at the weekends.

According to Jill Foster, the club’s honorary secretary, Jesmond Lawn Tennis Club currently has more than 150 members, 88 active playing members, 16 of whom are students. Foster bemoans the lack of club activity for tennis-loving youngsters and is hoping the student offer – £75 per year – will encourage students from Newcastle’s two universities and local colleges to be more active on the tennis court.

Foster believes there is a “need for a variety of initiatives each year to involve students in the club.” The Northumberland Club, also located in Jesmond, which benefitted from student-based promotions last year, helped inspire the open evening.

However, students haven’t yet been gripped by tennis fever as only one student – Dan, a Newcastle University student – turned up to the event. The cold and wet Tuesday evening may have put prospective members off turning up to the open evening but the club remain hopeful. The membership secretary, Phil Saul, expects an extra 20-25 students from Northumbria University alone.

Ellie Stamer, a fourth year Chemistry student at Durham University, believes the club’s biggest selling point to students is the friendly atmosphere and the possibility of meeting fellow students. A member since August, Ellie, who is also a Jesmond resident, argues that the club offers her a sense of “freedom” where she can meet people from a whole range of ages and who share her love for the sport.

Clubs like the Jesmond Tennis Club are vital to the local community, offering affordable tennis opportunities with the aim of increasing local participation in the sport. Though the open evening was a disappointment, the commitment of the members highlights their determination to take the club to the next level by embracing members of all ages and abilities.