Each year, the LTA Tennis Awards highlight the incredible achievements and contributions of people across Britain.
Launched in 2015 with the help of former LTA president Cathie Sabin OBE, the awards recognise the many thousands of inspirational individuals involved in tennis, dedicating their precious time and energy; 25,000 volunteers, 4,672 coaches and 975 officials. They also highlight the incredible achievements of some 22,000 schools, 2,768 clubs and over 9,276 LTA approved tournaments. The contribution of these individuals and venues helps to bring fans and players closer to the game we all love.
Winners are judged from over 2,000 public nominations and are first judged by 38 County Associations, resulting in 380 County award winners who are then put forward for Regional awards. Finally, the Regional winners are put forward for the National LTA Tennis Awards alongside winners from Tennis Wales and Tennis Scotland.
In addition to the LTA Awards Wiltshire Tennis also awards for contributions and efforts in additional categories.
This years awards was hosted by Bechtle in Chippenham our thanks to James Napp and his colleagues for putting on a fantastic evening.
LTA Awards
Club of the Year
RAMSBURY TENNIS CLUB
This East Wiltshire Club has a Club Membership that has almost doubled over last 5 years and now stands at 469 with over 177 players on the Coaching programme. The Club also have 7 LTA Accredited Coaches.
The Club have recently upgraded 2 courts to Artificial Clay, installed 2 new McAdam Courts and converting Lights to LED’s.
They offer many Competitive opportunities to its members and have 2 licensed competition officials. As well as entering teams in the Adult District League and Junior National League they run a Mixed Singles Ladder which has 13 divisions and run LTA Sanctioned competitions. The Club Tournament attracted a record 83 entries across 5 categories and ran more ‘plate’ events to maintain interest.
The club have a very good ‘Club to School’ link with their local primary school and the facilities are used to host the District year 3/4 school games
A yearly ‘Open Day’ allows the local community to ‘give tennis a try’ .
Club Sessions are well attended and run by a committee member who ensures that all abilities are catered for and the thriving social play draws new members from the local community and beyond.
Their fantastic website, provides members and the wider community with all they need to know about the club
The Club has opened up its coaching programme this year so that other performance players can access the performance coaching at the Club and they have hosted several County training sessions during the year.
Development Coach of the Year
MICHAEL BARRY
RIVERSIDE TC
This coach has built up an excellent programme at his club and has created a fantastic and welcoming atmosphere at all his squads helping the club attract many new members
He has been a member of the main committee at his club for 6 years and is currently the Mens Captain as well the Marketing lead for the club.
He has helped the club devise a 6 year development plan for the club as well as a 10 year facilities plan.
He often uses our new Go Pro camera for video analysis and made a promotional video using this technology which gives a great flavour of the excellent environment he has created.
He has displayed great creativity in his role as Marketing Lead for the club. He has designed and built a fantastic website which reflects the vibrant nature of the club and makes is very easy for players to join or book coaching online
He has also used his creative skills to design and distribute club clothing which has helped with marketing the club and with creating a great sense of belonging.
He is an excellent Men’s Captain. Having benefited tremendously from being included in the Men’s A team from a very early age, he is committed to ensuring that our juniors are given ample opportunity to develop their doubles skills in adult matches as early as possible.
He has also helped train over 20 tennis leaders in the last couple of years; devising “lesson plans” for each buddy hitting session that the leaders deliver as well as giving them feedback on their skills with assisting in our mini tennis squads.
TENNIS FOR ALL AWARD
CALDER HOUSE & MARSHFIELD TC
This year this award is jointly presented to a school and a club for their fantastic partnership.
The Club has been working with the school for a numbers of years and throughout 2022, supporting their PE provision by delivering weekly tennis sessions at the school.
Prior to the club getting involved, tennis and PE in general had not been a priority at the school but now a coach delivers tennis lessons to all the students throughout the year in small groups, enabling them to learn new physical skills, gain confidence in using their bodies and have fun playing tennis.
The school is a small school of just under 50 children with dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia and language difficulties. There is a wide range of sporting abilities throughout the school but by using modified equipment suitable for each child’s stage of development, great results have been seen in improved confidence and competence.
The coaches also invited the whole school back to the Tennis Club for a tennis festival. This gave every child the opportunity to play on the courts, participating in some fun activities and games as well as the chance to play some friendly matches. By using a variety of simple activities, differentiated for each child’s ability, the children were able to have lots of fun and achieve plenty of success in what was for many their first experience playing in a tennis club setting.
Volunteer of the Year
WILL KNIGHT
TROWBRIDGE WESTBOURNE TC
Will has contributed a massive amount to the ongoing transformation of the club, into an inclusive club with something for everyone.
He’s been a member of the club since he was a junior, and at 23, he’s the youngest committee member the club has ever had bringing an energy and enthusiasm into all of the projects he’s been involved with.
He has co-run the Club Closed, captained both the club’s A & B teams, up-skilled himself by taking the Safeguarding & Protection in Tennis course, lead a project to totally refresh the club notice board, helped with the club’s Social Media activities, attended the County Venue Forums to share best practice and volunteers to have buddy hits.
He is one of the strongest male players in the club, but he decided to enter less categories in the club closed this year, so that he could more easily commit to his role on Finals Day as co-organiser.
One of this person’s main aims when joining the committee was to represent a younger age group at the club. He has helped guide their social media activities which has helped bond the existing members and attract new younger members too.
He goes out of his way to connect with everyone, he knows most people in the club by name, and he is always prepared to have singles hits with players.
Wiltshire Tennis Awards
OUTSTANDING COMMITMENT TO JUNIOR TENNIS
William Burridge and Sebastian Pasmore
SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Giles Hussey and William Bissett
TEAM OF THE YEAR AWARD
WILTSHIRE 10U BOYS COUNTY TEAM
WILTSHIRE TENNIS OUTSTANDING PLAYER
Jaydan Mitchell
COUNTY JUNIOR SQUADS
MOST IMPROVED PLAYERS
8U Squad
Chris Charley and Gabrielle Busuttil
9U Squad
Jasper Herbert and Daisy Bryant
10U Squad
Adhrit Praveen Kumar and Una Anicic
12U Squad
Joshua Bennett and Mia Hughes
14U Squad
Andrew Luo and Tillie Woods
Image Gallery
HISTORY OF WINNERS
A history of award winners in Wiltshire including Wiltshire winners of the prestigious LTA Meritorious Service Award can be found here.