Grimsby Tennis Centre

Grimsby Tennis Centre is a tennis club in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England. It was founded by members of the Welholme Methodist Church on grass courts in Welholme Road, Grimsby. In order to protect the membership from personal liability the club was formed into a Limited Company (Company number 00179077) on 16 January 1922. The land in Weelsby Avenue was purchased in April 1922 and so the tennis facility on this site predates the surrounding houses that were built in about 1930. Although the Tennis Centre is a Limited Company, its constitution requires that any profits are used to improve the facility. Elected Directors serve for a period as defined in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.

The former pavilion was of timber; electricity was only installed in 1960 to replace gas lighting. The former bar, towards the right-hand side of the photograph, was erected and opened in 1959 as an addition to the pavilion and it was enlarged a mere 4 years later. Some land at the rear of the former pavilion was purchased in 1961 and land adjacent to the drive was bought as a turf nursery in 1955.

A tennis practice wall was built in 1972 and the squash court was built in 1973. It was the second Squash (sport) court in the town and was erected to meet the rising need. Now the boom in squash has subsided the court is used for mini tennis and racquetball.

Two hard courts were built in 1984 after the former red shale courts had given good service. In fact they had given more than good service. Each time they were used they had to be dragged and sifting out the large pieces of 'clinker' became a regular occupation. After all of this work it was inevitable that you would travel home with red socks and red legs caused by the fine dust.

Major development involving erection of a new clubhouse, floodlights, construction of the car park and replacing the grass courts with Tennisweave synthetic grass carpet took place in 1989 after months of careful planning. This high specification artificial grass surface, unlike many synthetic carpet courts, uses very little sand, which therefore provides a good foothold. To finance the £100,000 project, two grass courts nearest to Weelsby Avenue were sold for housing.

The success of the development produced results on the court and in 1991/92 the Men's teams were particularly successful. The First Team won the Lincolnshire Men's First Division for the first time in the Club's history and the Men's Third Team were promoted to the Third Division. Players in the squad were: Trevor Kelly, Tim Smith, Andrew Lashbrook, Allan Thompson, Jamie Thompson (15), Duncan Proctor.

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