The Tennis Club

The Lacey Green & Loosley Row Tennis Club is a section of the Lacey Green and Loosley Row Sports Club.

1962 Lease for Extra Land to enable a tennis court to be built in the southeast corner of the Sports Club grounds.

10th January 1962.

Lease between Richard Montague West and Hilda Elsie West both of Stocken Farm Lacey Green in the County of Buckingham, "the landlords", of the one part and Edwin Leonard Biggs of "Wayside Cottage", Lacey Green and Herbert Steven Tong of "Woodfield Cottage", Lacey Green "the Trustees"

Schedule. The Landlords leased to the Trustees - All that piece of land situate at Lacey Green having a frontage of 15 feet against Slad Lane and a depth therefrom of 140 feet (upon which to build a tennis court) to hold for the term of 86 years from the 1st January 1962 for the yearly rent of one peppercorn on the first day of each year. For the full terms and conditions click The Sports Club leases

The Official Opening. The club started with just one hard court which was completed in August 1962 at a cost of just under £900. It was officially opened by the Bateman family on 1 September and was in use most weekends until Christmas, when snow prevented play until late March!

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Hallmark April 1981. Bob Barton reporting. The Club is on an upbeat at the moment. Interminable plans to build a second court of our own are hardening up. We hope to build most of it ourselves over the next 12 months. Advice, here, or labour, would earn not a lot, except much gratitude, and a few drinks.

We have had a rush of blood to the head and joined a men's league. So a few new, or even not so new, men would be handy. Then there's a veritable social whirl of extra-mural activities. Watch for the monster jumble sale next month. (Well what did you expect, a May Ball?)

We have fixed an LTA coach for the juniors this year. It may be we can get him to take some of us in hand as well, if enough want it. All secured for an inflation-beating basic £10 a year, with concessions for families, which means your on key and virtually unlimited access to the court (and use of another).

Go on - gives us a try. I'm on 5824; Match Secretary on 3037, and secretary Diane Bradley on 4512. Or just turn up at our corner of the sports field any Wednesday evening about 7pm if it is fine. You never know, you may enjoy yourself.

June 27th 1986. Tennis Club Mid-Summer Ball, 8pm.

Hallmark February 2022 reporting Nigel Glenister.

This year, it has been relatively mild (so far), and the Sunday morning club sessions have generally been sunny. We normally experience a drop in attendance during the winter period, but these club sessions have had record numbers. Perhaps it’s the weather or New Year’s resolutions, but whatever, it’s great to see so many.

On Sunday 9th January we took the opportunity to show members our new trophy for Club Of The Year which we received at the Bucks Lawn Tennis AGM in November. The award was for the progress that the club has made over the last few years and the substantial upgrade in facilities. The Japanese have a great word “kaizen”, meaning continuous improvement and certainly the club cannot afford to rest on its laurels.

This year, our focus is on building a clubhouse by the courts which has toilet facilities and an open plan kitchen with plenty of glass facing the courts. We have just appointed a local architect and we are looking forward to seeing his ideas.

This is going to be an expensive project and will require a lot of effort from members in terms of fund raising and will be reliant on us being successful with grant applications. It’s not going to be easy, but we hope to complete the building in 2023 or early 2024.

A clubhouse will obviously have numerous benefits, not least allowing us to host our own events by the courts. Social events are an important part of the club, and we try to do as many as possible throughout the year.

In late November, 41 members had a very enjoyable Christmas dinner at the Pink and Lily. It’s not easy catering for hungry tennis players, but the Pink and Lily produced excellent food with good service too. It was a lovely evening and the club managed to raise some £300 via a raffle kindly organised by Jackie Coles.

I was also delighted to be invited to Dan’s beginners’ class Christmas dinner at the Black Horse. The word “beginners” does them a disservice, they have improved massively over the past year or so. Anyway AJ, the new Black Horse chef produced a fantastic Christmas menu which we all enjoyed.

Looking forward, we would hope to host our annual gin and fizz night (dependant on Covid), we have our men’s trip to La Manga in June to look forward to and a very special celebration in July.

It’s our 60^th anniversary this year. Look out for a big event and fund-raiser in early July. Meanwhile, if you’re interested in playing tennis, our website and Facebook page have all the information you'll need. Come and join us, we have something for 3-year-olds to older players in their seventies.