From: The Racketeer 58, June 2005
Tennis Clubs in and Around Mapperley Park
by Andy Lusis
TODAY MAPPERLEY PARK has two flourishing tennis clubs with another not too far away in Woodthorpe. But what of the past? If we look at an area no more than one kilometre in any direction from Mapperley Hall (which excludes Woodthorpe), we find tennis club history in abundance.
Lawn tennis began in the 1870s and clubs were soon formed. Details of what was happening locally in that decade are unknown, but by the 1880s we had four clubs: Alexandra Park, Magdala, Sherwood Rise and Woodville.
Starting on the eastern side, Alexandra Park had three grass courts off Woodborough Road and ran until 1930. The origin of Magdala deserves an article of its own. The original club was founded by C. S. Wardle in 1883, but in 1889 either merged with, or was taken over by, the Notts Lacrosse club, which had started its tennis section on the Forest Recreation Ground in 1886. Indeed, the name Lacrosse was used in matches until 1901, when the name Magdala reappeared. The club became the first winner of the Notts Men's League in 1924.
When the Lacrosse club left its first home, a new club, Forest LTC, took over the ground. This club moved to Clumber Avenue in 1901 and changed its name to Clumber in 1908. In 1949 Lenton LTC, which had been evicted from its ground on Derby Road, moved to adjoining courts. Clumber LTC lasted until 1954, when the remaining members moved to Mapperley Park TC. Lenton closed the following year and the courts later became part of Clarendon College.
In Carrington there was Sherwood Rise, originally on Alexandra Road but, before the turn of the century, the club moved to Claremont Road. It closed in 1985. Nearby was the sports ground of Thos. Forman the printer; tennis was played on the courts behind the works on Hucknall Road from the 1920s to the 1970s. Also on the western side, Nottingham City Police had two tennis courts next to Mansfield Road, during the time they used the sports ground. The courts lay disused for many years until the land was used for housing in 1998.
Moving to the southern side, in 1895 University College moved its tennis club to land on Elm Avenue at the junction with Cranmer Street, possibly with as many as eleven grass courts. Some of these courts were used by the School (later College) of Art (later part of Trent Polytechnic), and may have been in use until the Second World War. The site is now occupied by the Elms Primary School and Nursery.
The final member of the 1880s quartet was Woodville, on Newstead Street in Sherwood; one of Nottingham's leading clubs until World War I. In the early 1900s an annual tournament, in aid of the Carrington and Sherwood Parish Nurse Fund, was played on the courts of various gardens in Private Road. In 1907 when these courts, on clay soil, were slow to dry after rain, W. A. Young, the Woodville secretary, offered the club's courts and saved the day. Not far from Woodville was Caledon LTC, off Compton Road, which was formed in 1911 but may not have survived the Great War.
When the northern part of Mapperley Park was developed, a piece of land on Carisbrooke Drive was set aside for use as tennis courts. The four grass courts were used for a time by Mapperley Hall Croquet Club (possibly from as early as 1907). In 1923, a group of enthusiasts, led by Charles Sanderson and Arthur Dickins, formed Mapperley Park TC on two of the courts. By the time the Clumber refugees arrived in 1954, the club had acquired all four courts. An earlier influx of members had come after World War II, when Victoria LTC in Sherwood closed. This club, entered from Rufford Road and probably formed in the early 1920s, was on or near the site of the Woodville club.
One more club to mention is Kenwood. This club was active from about 1910, played in the first season of the Notts Men's League in 1924 and then disappeared from the records. The courts may have been in Thyra Grove, at the junction with Woodborough Road, but why would the club have been named Kenwood? Could it have been in the grounds of Kenwood House on Mansfield Road, until recently used by Guide Dogs for the Blind? Does anyone know?
This article first appeared in Mapperley Park News, no. 6 (September 2004). It has been slightly revised.