From: The Racketeer 17, February 1996
Mapperley Park Tennis Club: The Concise History
by Andy Lusis
TAKE a look at Mapperley Park today and you will see a thriving modern tennis club. The old wooden clubhouse was replaced in 1994 by an imposing brick-built structure, to stand alongside the four all-weather courts which were laid in the eighties. There are plans to add floodlighting in the near future. Junior coaching is booming, thanks to club coach, Liz May. The league teams are making steady progress, particularly the men, who return to Division l this summer for the first time in 43 years. But how did the club reach its present position?
In 1903 a syndicate, including distinguished local architect, William Beedham Starr, acquired the parkland which had formed the northern section of the estate centred on Mapperley Hall. The fact that the land which became the corner of Carisbrooke Drive and Mapperley Hall Drive included a pond may well be the only thing that prevented the development of housing and left the site free for other uses. By the 1920s it seems that the site had been drained and a bowls and croquet club established, though it is possible that there were tennis courts on the site before 1914.
According to an account published in the 1961 Notts LTA Handbook, the switch to tennis was made in 1923. However, a conveyance held by the club shows that in 1925 John Dane Player, the owner, sold the land to James H. Shipstone, who in turn leased the land to a group representing Mapperley Park Tennis Club. Originally there were only two grass courts, but a piece of land used as a private court was soon added. About 1937 one of these courts was replaced by a good quality hard court at a cost of £500 - no mean sum in those days.
Despite numerous difficulties, the club continued to function throughout the Second World War, providing some relaxation for Forces personnel stationed in the area. About this time two of the club's long-serving current members first came to prominence: Jack Britton, whose dedicated service to club and county is well known, and Robert Pullman, who became secretary in 1948 and distinguished himself in that capacity until 1972.
No teams were entered in the League before the war; in fact the first recorded matches took place in 1946 in the post-war 'temporary' leagues. The impetus to competitive play came from an influx of members from the Victoria Tennis Club (on Rufford Road in Sherwood), which had closed during the war. For a few years both men's and ladies' teams played in the higher divisions, the men becoming Division 1 runners-up in 1952. But success did not last and both teams spent many years languishing in the lower reaches of the leagues before a revival in the eighties and nineties.
In the fifties the ownership of the club was secured for its members. When J. H. Shipstone, who had been charging little, and sometimes no rent, decided to sell the land, successive committees made great efforts to raise enough money to buy it. This was finally achieved when the President, Mr. S. J. Browne, arranged for two loans, one an interest-free loan of his own. It was Mr. Browne who bought the land that became the fourth court in 1954. Eventually this land too was purchased for the club.
A further boost to membership came in 1955 when the Clumber Tennis Club (on Clumber Avenue, Sherwood Rise) closed and 28 of its members accepted an invitation to join Mapperley Park. The club now had 91 members, a total which grew steadily, though with some fluctuation, in the following years, reaching an all-time high of 247 in 1984, before settling down to the current level around 200, including juniors.
As well as tennis, members enjoy various social events throughout the year, organised by our hard-working committee. Indeed it would be appropriate to pay a tribute to the efforts of the relatively small group of people who, down the years, have done so much to bring the club to its present status.