Tennis: New courts open at Craighelen Tennis Club

Nov 23 2012 by Lorraine Waddell, Lennox Herald

Craighelen Tennis Clubunveiled its new courts last week – as it dug out a piece of Scottish tennis history.

An extract from the programme for the club’s 1994 Easter junior tournament shows that Andy, who won the US Open andOlympic gold this year, and his brother Jamie competed in it.

Colin Fleming, of Linlithgow, another promising tennis talent of the era, also played at the junior event, which took place the same year the old courts were laid.

Although they have now been replaced, thiscompetition will go down inthe Helensburgh club’s history, having hosted the Murrays as well as Fleming 18 years ago.

Thanks to the generosity of members who donated funds to the club for court refurbishment, as well as a contribution from Helensburgh Round Table, courts one, two and three were reopened last week.

The club waited until October to lay the new courts to enable play to continue to the end of the summer season.

Work started on October 2 when the 18-year-old courts were lifted and the relaying was completed on November 6, just in time for the Tuesday night club to grace the new surfaces.

A Craighelen spokeswoman said: “There is still snagging jobs and much play is needed on the courts to help get the sand bedded in, but Craighelen is delighted the new courts are up and running.

“We would like to thank our neighbours for their patience during the work on the courts and to Helensburgh Tennis Club for allowing us to use their facilities to support coaching, ladiesmornings and match play whilst the new courts were being laid.”

The club is also planning aformal court opening early next year.

More details will be in the Lennox Herald nearer the time.