|
Tennis
Facility Of The Month September
2015
|
Sutton
Tennis & Squash Club
(Sutton, UK)
Our thanks to Club member and
tennis friend Steve Tiddy who provided us with great information
about ST&SC. |
 |
|
Founded in 1926, Sutton Tennis
& Squash Club (ST&SC), located in Surrey, south of London,
is one of the oldest clubs in the UK and is one of Surrey’s
top tennis and squash members clubs. Originally, known as “Sutton
Hard Courts”, the club’s 9 clay courts attracted international
tennis stars throughout the decades as it was seen as a good warm up for
the French Open. names such as Angela Mortimer (Wimbledon, French
& Australian Grand Slam Champion ), Margaret Court (multiple
Grand Slam winner), Ann Haydon-Jones (Wimbledon & French
Champion), Yvonne Goolagong (multiple Grand slam winner). All
of these ladies played and won the Sutton tournament.
In 1990s the club converted to
all-weather hard courts with floodlights, 6 porous acrylic courts and 3 tarmacadam
courts. The 3 tarmacadam are due to be upgraded to 3 artificial
clay courts in the fall of 2015.
ST&SC is a LTA Club Mark
approved private members club, which is run by volunteers, has
a vibrant family and social scene and plays an important role
in the wider Sutton community through its junior engagement programs
with local schools and its support of local charities including
Princess Alice Hospice, Cardiac Risk in the Young, The Royal
Marsden Hospital and other good causes.
Member Steve
Tiddy says, "What stands out about ST&SC is its ambience
and ability to make players of any standard feel welcome. We
enjoy a wonderful mix of players who can compete at Davis Cup
level to the person who has never picked up a racket before.
We also enjoy a healthy junior membership and provide membership
for free to boys and girls under the age of 8. It is a simple
way of introducing them to tennis."
The facility
includes the aformentioned 9 all-weather floodlit tennis courts,
2 squash courts, sociable bar with food menu and a variety of
social events.
|
Squash has been
awarded the Squash Club Charter and offers club nights, tournaments,
seasonal leagues and opportunities to play in teams, with junior
and mini squash coaching for children. |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
The Head Coach
In addition to about 15 full and part time coaches, ST&SC
employs Head Coach Karl Stowell.
 |
|
Karl Stowell is a level 4, licensed,
LTA qualified tennis coach with 20 years coaching experience.
Stowell is the former Head Coach at Oxshott Village Sports Club
and tennis coach at Danes Hill & St Johns schools. He is
also founding member of Surrey Tennis Coaching – offering
coaching around the area of Surrey, together with Paul Marshall,
Daniel Henderson and Jack Carpenter. |
Playing background
Karl started playing tennis on the park courts behind his house
at about 8 years old and later became a member at Oxshott Village
Sports Club where he won the junior tournament. He also played
at the Walton-On-Thames tennis club and David Lloyd Heston and
played most days of the week.
He won the mens’ singles
and doubles at Oxshott several times, reached the final of the
mens’ Surreys, more recently the final of the mens’
Surrey over 35s, and won the Surrey mixed doubles with fellow
coach, Tanya Williams.
Coaching philosophy
Karl believes in making tennis fun, simple and making it a good
experience for the person learning, whether they are 3 years
old or 70 years old. He spend lots of time with the team of coaches
to ensure that they are all teaching similar things in a safe
and positive environment.
Outside of
tennis
Karl's other passion is music. He has played sax & piano
for even longer than he's been playing tennis, and has played
gigs "in every weird and wonderful location ranging from
The Vic pub in Oxshott to ski resorts to a castle in Bordeaux." |
|
|
The Thomas International
Open 2015
According to Club Chairman Stuart Duthie, the Thomas International
Open 2015, which ran Aug 16-22, was a great success. The event,
underwritten by lead sponsor Thomas International, a "global
provider of objective management systems and work-based assessment
tools," included
 |
- Thomas International Networking
Dinner
The sold out dinner attracted companies such as Pfizer, Vodafone
and HSBC, and was used to promote business opportunities. The
evening was also used to raise money for the Royal Marsden and
Derek Redmond, former Olympic athlete from Thomas.
- Charity Mixed Doubles
Included players from several clubs, companies and organisations
and raised over £4,500 pounds for the Royal Marsden.
- The Thomas International
Open Week 2015
Started on Sunday 16th and the Grade 3 junior event on Monday
17th. Entries in all categories were strong and numerically exceeded
450 persons. The winners of the singles event were given £2000
in prize money each and awarded a wild card into the end of seasons
Masters. This is because ST&SC enjoy Premier status on the
British tour.
- Tim Henman Clinic With Miles
Maclagan
During the week Tim Henman and Miles Maclagan ran a junior clinic
which was attended by junior members of ST&SC and Cheam LTC
who provide much support for this tournament. Some 80 juniors
attended including some boys and girls who are receiving treatment
at the Marsden.
After this fantastic week (LTA
Tournament Director Richard Joyner) members are now looking forward
to their Club being represented in the AEGON Team Tennis National
Finals at Bournemouth over the weekend of the 4th, 5th &
6th of September. ST&SC has won the tournament on two previous
occasions in 2008 and 2013 and were Runners-up four times in
2004, 2005, 2012 and 2014.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Congratulations to Sutton Tennis
& Squash Club for becoming our Tennis Facility of the Month
for September 2015. |
|
|
