Lisburn Tennis Club

Aim

Help us deploy coaches for 'Lisburn Tennis Club' to provide coaching, practice & play opportunities to attract new members.

Who are we?

Lisburn Tennis Club was established on courts we renovated at Wallace High School, during the Covid pandemic, to provide the players at ‘Wallace Park Indoor Tennis Centre’ with an outdoor facility where they could practice and play league matches.  (Indoor sport being banned at the time)

We cater to all abilities, from our ‘A’ team (who won Division 2 of the B&D Leagues) to players completely new to tennis competing for the first time in the lower leagues.   

Our ethos is that the level isn’t important as long as players bring positivity to the club and work hard to improve.

Our ‘A’ Team after winning Division 2

Our ‘C’ Team after winning a match in Division 8.

Community Impact

Becoming a tennis club has helped our players to bond and support each other, rather than simply playing as individuals.  This has made it much more likely that players attending classes, especially those trying tennis for the first time, have gone on to become regular players participating more than once a week.

Several of our best players have qualified as coaches and now help with the juniors and we were able to host a junior tournament for the first time, which will now become an annual event every February.  (See www.PreviousWinners.com/WPJTC)

Saturday morning tennis class last winter.

Why are we crowdfunding?

Next year we will be getting a clubhouse and mini tennis zone added to our facilities at Wallace Park.  This will be provided by Lisburn CCC, we will be contributing a new kitchen and appliances costing around £9,000.  The new facility will allow us to add a social element to our club where players can relax and have a cup of tea/coffee together after play.

To make the best use of our new facilities we would like to deploy coaches from Christmas 2022 to June 2023 to run the following events aimed at building our club – 

• A Veteran’s Tournament, from Christmas to New Year for older players.  This will be a completely new event on the annual tournament calendar.  
• Children’s birthday parties are a new and innovative way to use our new mini-tennis facility every Saturday to allow our young players to bring their friends to the facility to try tennis.
• A tennis and coffee morning for retired people (Over 50s) with coaching for beginners and doubles play for more experienced players.  We are excited to add this new event to our weekly schedule.
• After school coaching, January to Easter, in local primary schools.
• After schools coaching for secondary school children, aged 12 – 18 years old, outdoors at their school in May and June.  This is something we haven’t done before but hope to do annually from now on.
• Tennis coaching for adult beginners in blocks of six weeks so that anyone wanting to start tennis gets a great start.
• Four weeks of squad training for players selected to play in four mixed league teams next spring

Our coaching programmes in schools came to a complete stop due to covid.  This not only considerably reduced our income but also meant we had no work for part-time coaches.  The programme will add to the work available and help us build back our coaching team to the level it was at prior to the pandemic. 

New clubhouse is being built at Wallace Park.

How we’ll spend the money raised

We aim to raise £5,000 ourselves, which will then be matched by £5,000 from Sport NI.  This £10,000 will contribute towards the following project costs - 

• 18 perpetual singles and 12 perpetual doubles trophies for a new annual Veteran’s Tournament, annually from Christmas to New Year.  Men’s & ladies singles at over 30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65, 70 + men’s, ladies and mixed doubles at over 35 & 50
• Tennis balls and plaques for winners to keep for a new annual Veteran’s Tournament
• Coaches to take children’s birthday parties at the new mini-tennis facility every Saturday, from January to June.
• Printed plastic bags, balloons, and treats for party bags for children attending birthday parties
• A tennis and coffee morning for retired people (Over 50s) with coaching for beginners and doubles play for more experienced players.
• After-school coaching, January to Easter, in local primary schools.
• Halloween Totally Tennis Camp
• After-school coaching for secondary school children, aged 12 – 18 years old, outdoors at their school in May and June.
• Tennis coaching for adult beginners in blocks of six weeks so that anyone wanting to start tennis gets a great start.
• Four weeks of squad training for players selected to play in four mixed league teams next spring
• Qualifying new tennis coaches to strengthen our coaching team
• Coffee machine for the new clubhouse
• Kitchen and appliances for a new clubhouse

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. If you want to run your own fundraiser to support us, 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!

This project successfully funded on 19th November 2022