The club was formed in 1919, with the intention of providing soldiers who had returned back to the village from the 1914-1918 Great War a means of having some recreation and relaxation
Four grass courts were originally laid, and later on in 1927 the land was purchased from Barron's Nurseries.
One of the first improvements was in the early 1930's when a wooden pavilion was built.
The club continued to flourish and continue as before until 1958 when a further strip of land was purchased.This then enabled the club to eventually alter the number of courts and layout by creating a further grass court and converting two of the original grass courts into hard courts (macadam), the courts then being 3 grass and 2 hard.These alterations were completed in 1963, the result of which had a big effect on the club bringing an increased membership, and more importantly, the means to play tennis shortly after rain and also throughout the winter months. Previously the tennis season lasted from May 'til the end of September but of course now tennis could be played the whole year round - a huge bonus!
The problem with grass courts is that a groundsman is needed to maintain and keep them in good condition and it became increasingly difficult to do this so therefore he decision was taken in 1976 to alter the 3 remaining courts to porous tarmac hard courts.These were laid in 1977 by En Tout Cas.This type of court was called "Playdeck" and ockbrook and borrowash were the 1st club in the area to have them.
Following this it was decided that we needed larger and better changing facilities complete with showers and we eventually managed to arrange enough funds to add a brick extension onto the pavilion incorporating these facilities. At the same time the clubhouse was opened up where the changing rooms had been to give much more space in the kitchen area and clubroom.
This situation continued for the next few years (mid 1980's) when the club upgraded the surface of the original hard courts to porous tarmac, and later in the decade much of the surround netting was replaced.
Tennis surfaces do not last forever, and around the millenium the 2 original hard courts were replaced with carpet via a Lottery Grant. More recently another of the hard courts has been upgraded to carpet
Last Revised: 20.11.2006.
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DrKeys-2006