Sue Barker Hits Moffat

Sue Barker only by name 

Yes it`s me Sue Barker  well by marriage anyway, it`s been a delight to follow the current event this week at  Moffats very own Tennis Club.
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Moffat has hosted the The South of Scotland Tennis Championships here on their newly refurbished courts, and with the help of Colin Hanbidge as one of the referees, a well known coach and player on the tennis scene, its been a very successful week. 

 The tennis club in Moffat was one of the founding members of the Scottish Lawn Tennis Association (now Tennis Scotland) in 1895. The Scottish Tennis Championships were held in Moffat from 1895 to 1907.

In 1904 the championships included a mixed doubles event; another 9 years passed before the first mixed doubles event was played at Wimbledon!

Moffat is of course still home to the historic South of Scotland Tennis Championships. The grounds at Beechgrove were laid out in 1870 at a cost of £600 and comprised of bowling, croquet and lawn - tennis grounds and an ‘excellent’ pavilion.

Unfortunately the original Beechgrove Tennis club disbanded in the late 1990s. As a direct result the courts became badly maintained and were rarely used.

In 2007 a group of enthusiastic volunteers banded together to try to re establish a tennis club at Beechgrove and Beechgrove LTC was formed.

​Since 2007 Beechgrove LTC has gone from strength to strength.

So here I am talking to Colin, enjoy our little interview.

It was a great pleasure having Colin stay here with us at Dell-Mar, I sincerely hope he will return for future tournaments, even if each day he tested out my culinary skills, from tattie scones to the Full English, Thank you Colin!

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