Avondale Lawn Tennis Club
as remembered by Bill Archer
My first recollection of Avondale LTC was in the year 1949/50 when I was 7 years of age and my family moved to a cottage in the grounds of “High Beeches House” overlooking the tennis club. At that time the club consisted of 2 grass courts and a red/brown hard court with a loose dressing on top, this court sported a practice wall at the far end. There was a small wooden pavilion consisting of ladies’ and gents’ changing rooms, a central area for making tea and an Elsan toilet. There was no running water, no electricity and when it was time for tea, buckets of fresh water were supplied by my cottage by means of an outside tap! Lighting and cooking were by gas.
The club was reached by a grass/gravel drive from Albany Road and was surrounded by grass and bramble bushes. The 2 grass courts were mown by Saunders Nurseries of Fleet every Wednesday and Friday and were then re-lined after each mowing by club members before play could commence.
When I was 12 I made a racquet from an old piece of wood and when everyone had left the club I ventured over to the practice wall with several lost balls and spent hours knocking up. It was also around this time that the high maintenance grass courts were replaced by 3 tarmac hard courts. Most of the membership seemed to be very professional men – doctors, dentists and accountants with very few lady members. When I was 17 in 1959 I joined the club, met Carol who was 14 and spent many happy hours playing junior tennis. At this time the club changed direction with families joining and spending the whole weekend socialising, playing tennis and eating huge teas provided by the members on a rota system.
About this time the old clubhouse was replaced by an ex-army payroll hut purchased when the Military in Aldershot was undergoing change. The new clubhouse was collected, piece by piece, by several members under the leadership of Jack Coe, a local dentist, and was erected by weekend working parties. One weekend, Jack, his 2 sons and I drove to Bishops Stortford to dismantle seats from a disused cinema, these were duly transported back and installed in the new pavilion which was erected by members over several weekends. Working parties completed the final cosmetic touches.
At this time the club was involved in the Aldershot & District League with Mens, Ladies and Mixed teams with a growing Junior section. My practice on the wall helped me to reach the Men’s Singles Final on 3 occasions, winning the title one year and with my partner Graham Temple, winning the Men’s Doubles 5 years in succession – I believe still a record to this day!
The curtain finally descended on the Albany Road site in 1975 when the land was purchased by property developers for a new housing estate, now called Russets Drive . The end of an era and many happy years.
In 1975 Avondale moved to Ewshot Lane at the rear of Redfields Garden Centre, when the club purchased 2 acres of White Land and hard courts were laid and the present clubhouse was built. In the late 1970s a team from the club drove to a tennis club in Norwich to view a revolutionary new playing surface called Bioflex which slotted together like Lego and was subsequently laid by the club on some of the courts. So the new club was formed with the addition of further courts, floodlights, many more teams in the Aldershot & District and Hants & IOW Leagues and a thriving junior section, leading to the club we all know today.
My personal recollections are having the honour of representing Hampshire in several matches and probably the most memorable occasion was in 1981 when a team of 4 of us played in a National Men’s Doubles competition reaching the last 8 in the country, finally losing to Queens Club in London .
My whole family has been involved with Avondale for many years and enjoyed many happy hours socialising and making numerous friends. Congratulations to you all – enjoy the Centenary celebrations and here’s to the next hundred years!!
