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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.

      Sutton qualified with a play off win against Winchester at STSC

   
   
Congratulations to Sutton Tennis & Squash Club for becoming our Tennis Facility of the Month for September 2015.

 

 

 
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