Please either click 'Donate' to donate outright or purchase one of the 'Rewards', such as 2 or 5 year Tennis Club Memberships, plus many other exiting offers that have been donated to the Tennis Club by local businesses and volunteers by clicking 'Rewards'.
Who are we?
Blagdon Tennis Club is a friendly club with a building membership of enthusiastic and social players of all standards and ages, who enjoy playing in the regular weekly sessions. Based in the centre of Blagdon Village the 2 tennis courts and clubhouse boast a stunning view of the beautiful church and rolling hills down to Blagdon lake. Please click the link below to see us in action.
Why are we crowdfunding?
The money raised from crowdfunding will go towards the £15,000 remaining money required for the 2 court resurface so the village can continue to play tennis, and other sports, on the courts without it being unsafe. Any money raised over this can be spent on refurbishing the netting and clubhouse area.
Sport England have generously granted us £7,500 on condition that we raise at least £7,500 from this community fundraiser, via their Movement Fund, whereby they match every pound contributed up to our £15,000 target. We therefore need to raise £7,500 to achieve our goal and book the resurface contractors. Please therefore either donate outright or purchase one of the 'Rewards' that have been donated to the club by local businesses and volunteers. We thank all these businesses and volunteers for their very generous donations!
We are a rural community, with poor public transport links, so we are isolated from the sports facilities available to larger towns. The refurbishment of our tennis club will therefore have a large positive impact on our community as people can walk to club rather than driving 20-30 minutes to the nearest refurbished courts.
Volunteers are holding weekly tennis sessions to improve community engagement in physical activity for their physical and mental wellbeing. We have attracted many mothers of young babies who were struggling to find a group activity they can do while their baby is in a pram. The babies seem to love watching tennis balls flying around!
Seniors benefit from the club as many are members and use the facilities for social and physical enjoyment.
Juniors and students are being given free membership from April 2025, and the schools will benefit from the continuation of the After School Club. Free junior membership will tackle inequalities in sport and physical activity, providing opportunities for young people in our community who face barriers to being physically active.
How we’ll spend the money raised
The club has c.£20,000 in reserves and the average quote for the resurface is £35,000, so we have at least £15,000 to raise plus some for contingency. Anything raised over this that is not required for the resurface can be spent on refurbishing the netting and the clubhouse area.
Community impact
We support our local community by providing tennis sessions to children and adults of all abilities and ages, and support the local schools by providing After School Club provision. We have communicated with the parents to find out what provision is needed. As a result, we are going to offer free membership to all U18s and full-time students from April to improve accessibility to those groups, providing them with free physical activity to improve their physical and mental well-being.We offer a discounted rate for seniors to improve their sense of being part of the community, and improve their physical and mental health.
The members’ major current concern is the quality of the surface of the tennis courts which is now slippy with moss and disintegrating so requires a full resurface.
How you can play your part
There are four simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
1. Make a pledge or purchase a reward. Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
2. Spread the word. Share our project on your social media pages and tell the world to get behind us! The more people we reach, the more support we will get.
3. Offer rewards. Get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out!
4. Fundraise for us. If you want to run your own fundraiser – maybe a sponsored activity or similar – use the 'contact project' button at the top of our page to let us know. Setting up your own page only takes a few minutes and you won’t need any bank details. Just a fun idea!