Welcome to season 2023
Welcome to the website of Ridgeway Tennis Club (established in 1922)
In the First World War 1914-18, 23 young men from Ridgeway lost their lives fighting for their country. In 1919 the village residents decided that there should be a War Memorial together with gardens to commemorate the loss. This would stand on the grounds of Kent House (the large old building next to where the memorial garden is now). The house and land was left in trust to the villaage. By 1922 plans were well advanced but in April 1922 a group of people met to form a tennis club to play on the site. Although the club had no courts to play on they worked hard to raise some money for the necessary works and the first actual play, and the first tennis tournament, took place in 1923. The courts were grass. A silver trophy was donated to the Tennis Club for the Mixed Doubles, known as The Else Cup. That trophy is still played for today, some 99 years later. So 2022 marks an historic landmark for the village and the club. At the same time a Bowls Club was being formed and they too play for an identical trophy. The use of the land, the sports facilities and the objectives of how the land should be managed were contained in a trust deed dated 1923 simply titled Ridgeway War Memorial. Ridgeway Sports and Social Club became the working title when the club formally became a Registered Charity in 1992. The wording of the original trust deed forms the basis of the constitution of the club to this day.
How sad it is that as we celebrate the formation of this club, established to commemorate those who lost their lives in that awful war, that war is threatening Europe once again.
A fuller history appears on the History page
This website
This site brings a fresh, modern look to all the club’s information and news. It is the aim to keep this site regularly update with all the latest news affecting the club.
The site itself offers the following amongst its many features:
Sidebar: The sidebar has three features – Upcoming events, Recent News and BBC Tennis news (just click on any item for more information about the individual event or news). By clicking on the words ‘BBC Tennis News‘ you will be taken to the Home page of BBC Sport page. The sidebar is there on every page apart from the calendar.
Fixtures: A dedicated Fixtures page lists all the fixtures for our competitive teams and you will see that the different leagues are colour coded.
Calendar: All our main organised activities through the summer can be found on the Calendar page – matches, social tennis and coaching etc. Simple to use and if you put the cursor over a calendar entry you will get some more information e.g. where there is a match, it will tell you where the match is and who the opponents are and start and approximate finish times.
Tournaments: There is a dedicated Tournaments page and all the draws will be accessible from this page once the draws have been made.
Links: There are various links through the site – on the Home page there is a link to the club’s Facebook page, and to Ridgeway Sports and Social Club. On the Sidebar there is a link to the BBC Sport page by clicking on BBC Tennis News and links to the four most recent tennis news item from the BBC Sport pages. a link to the S & D LTA site on the Fixtures page and a link to the LTA site on the LTA page. There is also a link to Club Rackets on the Open Morning information in Upcoming events once you open the item up.
I would like to thank two people for their help in developing this. Firstly, to Peter Mason, who has done all the work on the background structure, the setting up of the site and transferring some of the basic information about the club and its history from the old site. Secondly to Lindy Payling who works for Purplefish Creative Artwork who has kindly done the design of the club logo at the top of the site and the creative design on the various posters etc you will see on this site, on the club’s Facebook page and club noticeboards. I hope you like all these smart and eye-catching designs too.
Mick Mason
Chair