Who are we?
Flitwick & Ampthill Lawn Tennis Club have been offered a conditional grant of 5K from the Sport England Movement Fund. In order to be eligible for the grant, the club needs to raise at least £5k matched funding.
Flitwick & Ampthill LTC are based in Central Bedfordshire. We offer tennis to the local community on 8 floodlit all-weather courts. During the winter months we have 2 courts covered by a single skinned airdome. The club is proud to offer a regular Veteran's Tennis session and Walking Tennis session as well as entering Men's, Ladies and Mixed teams in both local leagues.
Why are we crowdfunding?
We are looking to resurface Courts 1 & 2 to bring them back to their former glory. These courts are the closest to the clubhouse so are used for the Club Championship Finals, Veteran's Social sessions, Walking Tennis sessions and matches. Currently the courts suffer from very poor drainage and after rain, which we have plenty of, they become unplayable with muddy patches and puddles. The club is looking to redo the underlaying asphalt layer and resurface the courts with TigerTurf. This is what the courts look like following rain:
With the upgrade gone will be the muddy slippery patches, bad ball bounce patches and puddles.
The cost of resurfacing the courts and replacing the underlying asphalt is £73,947. The club has the majority of the funds raised but was planning to resurface the courts next year, but the underlying base level issues were unexpected. Therefore, the club currently has a funding shortfall. We have received a pledge of £5k towards this target from the Sport England's Movement Fund, which is a great start, but is conditional on us raising the rest by crowdfunding from a minimum of 25 supporters.
How we’ll spend the money raised
All money raised from the fundraising will be used to repair and upgrade these courts. The underlaying surface will be cleaned, a new layer of asphalt laid and new drainage holes drilled. The courts will then have a new TigerTurf surface laid, the same surface as Courts 5-8.
Community Impact
The club not only is used by members but by the local community. County tennis matches and junior county coaching takes place at the club regularly. The club runs LTA approved Grade 4 and Grade 5 tennis tournaments. A Pickleball Membership Category is being introduced to offer pickleball opportunities.
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. 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!