Always on
This project successfully funded on 25th October 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Tennis and pickleball in the Hope Valley
Hope Valley, Derbyshire, United Kingdom
First target reached!
Thanks to our friends and supporters, Bamford Tennis Club has actually done it: we'v...
Aim
We’re raising money to revive our 4th court so current players, young women and older folk can all benefit from playing tennis or pickleball
This fundraising project is about reviving a much loved but ageing tennis court.
It is an opportunity to save this court and set it up to work better for young women and older folk.
Our goal is to give more of the local community access to the health and wellbeing benefits that come from playing racket sports.
Sport England share and back our ambition.
But we need your help to make it happen. Are you in?
Who we are
Bamford Tennis Club (BTC) is a friendly club half-way along the Hope Valley where players enjoy both tennis and pickleball.
- Currently there are 120 regular adult players, and 60 juniors.
- We’re run by volunteers who try to coordinate different ways of joining in so there’s something to suit all ages, abilities and motivation.
- Everyone who plays on the courts pays to do so because this is our only source of income. There are options to pay by the hour, month or year.
- Our players describe why they play in terms of having fun, socialising, keeping fit and feeling good :)
Our focus: the 4th court
We have 3 good tennis courts that are used by our social and competitive tennis players. But then there's the ‘4th court’.
- What's good is it's self-contained:
- Newer players prefer it, because if they mis-hit a ball it doesn’t disturb other players.
- It is ideal for pickleball, which we've piloted on it since 2024. But currently the set up is temporary, requiring players to position throwdown lines and lower the tennis net when they want to play, not the best experience for players.
- What's bad is it's 22 years old and has an uneven surface with weeds poking through. It's no longer fit for purpose.
It is this 4th court that provides us with an opportunity to get two specific groups of people benefitting from playing racket sports at this great local facility...
The opportunity: to create a space that works for young women and older folk
For the past five years the club has worked hard to get more people locally to benefit from using this great facility on their doorstep. And we’ve had good success with adult women and junior boys.
But we’re aware that two groups haven’t found it so easy to join in: young women and older people. And these are two groups that we know stand to benefit from getting more active locally.
Having talked with both communities we have a good idea of some of the barriers that stop them taking part and so we have planned this project around them:
- A self-contained tennis court, that also offers pickleball, meets both groups’ needs.
- Further, we’ll coordinate different ways to introduce young women to playing tennis at BTC, and older folk to pickleball, drawing on our great resource of active current players, many of whom are keen to support these initiatives.
The impact: more of the local community will have access to the health and wellbeing benefits that come from playing racket sports
The benefits for young women
- By making our self-contained 4th court playable again, it will provide the distance from other players some young women require to continue playing sport.
- And, through addressing this barrier, we’re hopeful the project will have a positive impact on the mental and physical health of more of the Hope Valley’s young women and girls.
The 18 young women who took part in our pilot at Hope Valley College in the summer term loved it…
The benefits of pickleball for older folk
Pickleball is an age-friendly sport, and it's different groups of older folk in the valley who know this who've asked us to provide an outdoor facility.
- Some of our older current tennis players are looking for an alternative to tennis “where we don’t have to move quite so far and quite so fast!”
- The indoor pickleball club in Hathersage, mainly retirees, has more people interested that it can accommodate, with 27 of them having expressed an interest in playing outside at Bamford
- And we haven’t yet approached older folk elsewhere up and down the Hope Valley’s villages!
Cost and timeline for this project
With the money we raise we will:
- Resurface the 4th court: £20,028
- Paint lines for one tennis court and two pickleball courts: £300
- Buy 2 pickleball nets: £300
- Total cost: £20,628
Promoting and delivering activities for young women and older folk does not have a financial cost to us. Both build on connections we already have locally with these communities and will be led by volunteers who already play at BTC.
The timing of this work is as follows:
- Aug, Sept, Oct: Club will promote the project up and down Hope Valley
- 6 Sep to 25 Oct: Our 7-week window to raise £10,314 during which the club can receive donations, and offer rewards to our supporters in return for donations
- Spring 2026 (if fundraising successful): do the works to upgrade court 4
- Summer 2026: actively support young women and older folk to start using our repurposed court
We have an award from Sport England of £10,314, half of our target amount, which is conditional on us raising the same amount from you, our community.
How you can help us out
There are five simple ways to help us reach our target, and make this project a reality.
**Please note however: though when donating or pledging money you can add a tip for Crowdfunder, this platform. If you do not want to offer a tip, go to the checkout summary, press 'Enter custom amount' under the sliding tip bar and type 0. This will remove any tip.**
1. Make a donation. Use the 'donate' button on this page (note advice above about tipping).
2. Make a pledge for one of the rewards offered. Have a look at the range of rewards listed at the bottom of this page. Select the one that appeals to you, and the cost of it will go towards our fundraising. These rewards have all been generously donated by supporters of our project. Please note advice above re tipping as you purchase any rewards.Vouchers for rewards will be available to you when the fundraising campaign has ended, unless stated otherwise, and will be available for you to collect between 1 and 2pm on either Saturday 15th or Sunday 16th November 2025, from Bamford Tennis Club. (note advice above about tipping)
3. Buy on-court advertising for your business. See the last two rewards listed at the bottom of this fundraising page (note advice above re tipping when purchasing them). (note advice above about tipping)
4. Offer rewards. There's still time to get involved if you are a local business by donating things we can offer to our supporters. We will give you a shout out! We're going to release a second wave of rewards on Saturday 27th September. If you'd like to offer a reward, please contact us via [email protected] to let us know and we'll follow up to work out the details.
5. 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.
Don’t delay if you’re going to support us because momentum is key to our success!
Thank you, and hope to see you on court before too long!
Artwork by pupils at Bamford Primary School who took part in Friday afternoon sessions at the club.
Sport England - Movement Fund has provided £10,314 of match funding
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made