- The Tennis Club is one of the largest sports clubs at the University, with over 300 active members
- The LTA Tennis Awards highlight the incredible achievements of clubs across Britain, as well as the volunteers who dedicate their time and energy to make tennis accessible to all
- The club is now shortlisted for the regional award for the North in April, if it wins, it will then be considered for the national award
The University of Sheffield Tennis Club has been awarded the Yorkshire University of the Year award at the LTA Tennis Awards 2022.
The awards highlight the incredible achievements and contributions of people and their tennis clubs across Britain who dedicate time and energy to making tennis accessible for all. The club beat seven other universities in Yorkshire to the award, and is now shortlisted for the regional award for the North in April. If it wins that, then it will be considered for the national award.
The Tennis Club is one of the largest sports clubs at the University, with over 300 active members and in the last year, has more than doubled its membership. It now has two mens teams and two women's teams, and was crowned Club Of The Year at the University of Sheffield Sports Awards 2021.
In recent years, the club has strived to become as inclusive as possible so that anyone who wants to play tennis at the university, no matter their ability level, can feel comfortable joining the club. To help with this, it has introduced coaching sessions which are available to all members.
The club also participates in numerous charity events throughout the year - most notably, it holds a ‘rallyathon’ each year, where members hold a continuous rally for 12 hours to raise money for charity. This year, the chosen charity is FoodCycle Sheffield, who combat food waste, food poverty and loneliness within the local community.
Jacob Bates and Oliver Carruthers, 2021/22 Club Captains of the University of Sheffield Tennis Club, said: “'To carry on from such a difficult time for everyone in the sporting community and still have a thriving club with over double the members of previous years has been amazing and certainly challenging.
“We've been able to provide more sessions and court time for our members and increase our capacity to match the huge demand. We're really pleased to see the hard work both this year and last year's committee put into the club and we look forward to seeing what the future of tennis at Sheffield will look like.”
Ryan Betts and Nikolay Irmanov, 2020/21 Club Captains, said: “We’re really proud that the tennis club has won this award because it recognises the hard work of lots of students behind the scenes which often goes unnoticed.
“Last year was difficult with the pandemic but we still managed to drive the club forward and make big improvements for members. It was a pleasure to lead the club and we’d like to thank everyone that was a part of it.”
The club is entirely led by student volunteers, and in partnership with the University, offers members financial assistance in obtaining LTA coaching qualifications; paying up to two thirds of the cost.
Last year, the club worked with the University of Sheffield to restore two tennis courts at Endcliffe, which are free for all students to use and will be regularly maintained.
Contact
For further information please contact:
