INNERLEITHEN Tennis Club’s efforts to raise funds for much-needed court resurfacing stepped up a gear during the recent Great British Tennis Weekend – a free, UK-wide open day campaign designed to encourage more people to take up the game.

As part of its involvement in the weekend, the club put on a day of exciting sessions for all ages, with coaches Jonny Lea, Stuart Brown and Robbie Gordon putting a host of youngsters through their paces, before adults were tested with a fast and furious cardio-tennis session.

In all, almost 60 people attended the day, which also saw plenty of free family play time, a few sets of competitive doubles, plus an excellent BBQ cooked up by Guy & Lesley Wotherspoon from the nearby Glede Knowe Guest House.

“It was wonderful to see our two courts occupied from morning to early evening,” said club chair Gillian Steele.

“We saw a lot of existing members take part but also welcomed plenty of visitors including one family who popped down from Edinburgh after finding us on the LTA website.”

Currently riding high in the Tennis Borders Leagues, the club has seen a significant influx of players in recent years, not least at junior level with an 80 per cent increase in membership over the past two seasons.

Every Wednesday afternoon, more than 40 youngsters from St Ronan’s Primary School take part in coaching sessions across different age groups – something that bodes well for the future of tennis locally.

However, the club is in urgent need of funds to repair its two hard courts which are now slippery when wet, badly rutted and pock-marked, leading to uneven bounces and more than a few falls.

The club, which is purely membership funded, has set aside money for resurfacing the courts over the past decade but still needs to find a further £8,000 to meet the £25,000 cost of the work.

As well as raising funds and attracting new members as part of the Great British Tennis Weekend, the club will host a coffee morning at the Vale Club, Innerleithen on 10 June, plus a 12-hour tennis-athon on Saturday, June 17.

Open to all, whether members or not, the tennis-athon will see eight players across both courts from 8am to 8pm, with each pairing playing for at least an hour.

And with each participant tasked with raising the minimum amount of £10, the hope is to raise a further £1,500 towards the resurfacing of the courts, plus a second project to build a dedicated mini-tennis zone in 2018.

For more on Innerleithen Tennis Club, visit https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/InnerleithenLTC