The outlook is brighter this winter for Sidford Tennis Club after a donation from the Sid Vale Association helped fund new LED floodlights. 

The promise of a £10,000 contribution from the Keith Owen Fund enabled the club to get the lights installed before the onset of darker winter evenings following the end of British Summer Time. 

On Friday, November 4, the cheque was officially handed over at a celebratory social evening at the tennis club, held to thank the SVA for their support. The event also saw the official switch-on of the new floodlights. 

Club chairman Daryl Bass said: ““The floodlights have been a number of years in the planning with a significant team effort to get them installed. The SVA are a big part of this team as they too pulled out the stops to help us get the lights up and running before the clocks changed. With an increase of more than 40 per cent in costs since the project was first planned - before the invasion of Ukraine and consequential global disruption- it is fair to say that we could not have achieved this without the support of the Keith Owen Fund, to whom we are eternally grateful.”  

At the party, members and guests enjoyed food and drink including a special ‘KOF cream cake’, as the coaching team worked with tennis club juniors of all ages under the new floodlights. 

Sidford Tennis club is a friendly, community-based club which welcomes players of all abilities. It offers the chance to meet other players at a similar level through regular sessions. 

These include regular, weekly cardio tennis, open to the community and members; coaching at beginner, improver and adult match level; mini, junior and teenager coaching; and regular social sessions in both the daytime and evening to suit people’s lifestyles. There are also quarterly events such as doubles or triples, tennis/rounders multi-skill summer camps, an internal club ‘triples tennis’ league, and the chance to compete in tennis league contests. 

Anyone interested in joining can email nickfish16@hotmail.com  or leave a message in the Contacts section of the club’s website.