Many more for tennis!

By David Lamont

The West End now has new, all-weather tennis courts which are floodlit.  Broomhill Tennis and Squash Club President, Claire McKelvie said at the official opening: ‘It is fantastic to see such a huge project come to fruition. It provides excellent tennis playing opportunities all year round. This will enhance the Club’s ability to offer excellent facilities with low fees and no waiting list.’

Located in Crow road close to the Clyde Tunnel, the Club is easily accessible to all parts of the city.

Recently, the long-established club received the Lawn Tennis Association’s Clubmark award. This shows that a club’s coaches have appropriate qualifications and that child protection, equality and health and safety issues are properly addressed.

The new squash season has started with two gents and ladies teams playing in the West of Scotland leagues. There is a range of squash activities for all standards.

A junior tennis coaching programme is available to members and non-members throughout the winter. The Club has special discounts and promotions for new members and it has a bar and social events.

See their website for further details: www.broomhill-tennis-squash.co.uk

Clouston Street – the past 70 years

CLOUSTON STREET TIME LINE

by Erik Geddes

Pre-1939 - Records show there were never any buildings on this land.  Clouston Street was then called Montgomerie Street.

1939 (1st March) – Glasgow City Council buys both pieces of land using the powers of the Education Act for £4,800.

For decades the football pitches and a tennis court are used and enjoyed by schools, boys clubs, local students and Scouts.

1990s - Changing rooms vandalised and pitches fall into state of decay.
1996   - Clouston Street pitches offered for sale for housing development.
1997   – Miller Homes proposal is refused planning permission.
1998   - North Kelvin Community Council (NKCC) holds a workshop sponsored by 1999 Year of Architecture. Attended by Maria Fyffe MP, councillors, planners and architects. Decided that 20% set aside for housing 80% for community use.
1999    - Decision is taken by NKCC to pursue sports and housing development for Clouston Street site.
2000/1 – NKCC produces 12,000 copies of 3 issues of INK newspaper. Leases shop in Queen Margaret Drive. Published local survey.
2002 - Compendium Trust is formed as a registered charity to facilitate sports development.
2003 - Partnership agreed between The Compendium Trust, Glasgow City Council and Queens Cross Housing. SportsScotland decides any loss of the site to sport would require a compensation payment of, allegedly, £650,000.
2005 - Agreement reached with SportsScotland which grants the Trust £195,000 towards sports development on site.
2006 - Public meeting in Scout Hall. Planning Application for 81 flats and the mixed sports field proposals. Trust is promised £1.2 million towards the development.
2007 - Development proposals fail planning criteria and the application is withdrawn.
2008 - Compendium Trust is abandoned.

2008 (March) Glasgow City Council organised a competition to appoint a developer to design and build housing on the site at Clouston Street. Winning designs come from New City Vision (NCV).

2008 (October) North Kelvin Meadow Campaign was formed to lobby for the land to become a community green space. Local residents started by clearing the land of litter, installing a litter bin, planting flowers, bulbs and installing raised beds.

2009 – Local resident Luca Lazzaroni is inspired by Clouston Street and writes song which becomes YouTube sensation . Love it or loath it http://tinyurl.com/n3e7mp you can’t ignore it.

2009 (July) Two residents taken to court by the Council in order to prevent them putting up communal raised beds and bat boxes.

2009 (Dec) New City Vision Ltd signs the missives with the Council for the sale of land. Sale will be completed if planning permission is granted.

Broomhill tennis kids a great success

The competition was split into two age groups: under 9s and 9s and over. After 2 hours of competition, the budding Nadals and Sharaprova’s of the future emerged victorious. The under 9s champion was Sean Croll, and the over 9s victor Lauren Routledge- who won an epic encounter, pipping Martin Edgar by a point.

The afternoon was deemed a great success by all the players and spectators, played in glorious winter sunshine. Junior Convenor, David Irving, was delighted with the day’s play and served special praise for the organisers.

He said: ‘I would like to thank the organisers, Gail and Simon Allbutt, and their son Rory, who did a magnificent job in running the whole competition.’ In addition, he also stressed that the junior coaching competition sessions at Broomhill are inexpensive at only £42 for an annual tennis and squash junior membership, fun and a great opportunity for children to experience the fantastic benefits of exercise.

 

Broomhill Tournament Success

The Broomhill summer tennis Ratings Tournament, in its 20th year, attracted  fifty competitors from as far afield as Nairn, Edinburgh and Kilmarnock, as well as Glasgow and district clubs.
The format of the tournament gives players of equal rating the opportunity to play one another. If they win, they proceed to compete against better players, with the chance to improve their rating if they win three matches.
The ladies Draw One final saw Elise McCaig (Milngavie) win 5-7, 6-2, 6-4 against Karen Crawford (Lenzie). In the ladies Tableau final Sophie O’Neil (Kilmarnock) beat Jamie Smith (Lenzie) in another exciting three set match 6-4, 6-7, 6-4.
In gents Draw One, Stuart George (Giffnock) beat fellow club player James Singh 6-1, 6-3. In Draw Two, John Jellema (Hamilton) beat Ross Taylor (Drumchapel) 7-6, 7-5 in a tightly contested final. The gents Tableau final saw last year’s finalist Chris Evans (David Lloyd)  beating Ian Cannon (Hamilton) 6-3, 6-2.
Player of the Tournament was awarded to seventeen year old Ross Taylor. Ross’s rating meant that he had to start off in Draw One, where he reached the semi final. By reaching that far he was then entered into Draw Two for better players where he played magnificently to reach the final. The wins in this draw automatically then put him into the Tableau Draw for top players, where he reached the quarter finals. He was the only player to have started from the lower draw and reach the top draw, the endeavour for which gained him the award.
For juniors, the tennis coaching Summer Camps have been very successful with both the July and August camps fully booked.
Information about tennis and squash at the club can be obtained from the web site at www.broomhill-tennis-squash.co.uk or by contacting the club at 399 Crow Road, Broomhill, Glasgow, G11 7DZ – tel. 0141 334 2519.

Maryhill Tennis plays first ball before Wimbledon

Tennis courts that normally sit empty in a deprived area of Maryhill will be brought into use on Sunday 20 June – the day before Wimbledon starts.
A free, community, tennis competition for young people aged from 14 to 18 will be played at Maryhill Park, off Spence Street, G20 starting at 2pm.
Sports charity ASAP (After Schools Activities Programme) supported by tennis playing MSP Bob Doris and volunteers, have lobbed new life into the courts which have lain neglected and run-down for several years.
Young people from Glasgow, Barrhead and Giffnock will play in a friendly tournament on the courts which have been transformed with volunteer effort and will provide the culmination of five weeks’ free tennis coaching sessions that ASAP offered young people.
The event will be the first time that all five tennis courts have been in a playable state for more than a decade. SNP MSP Bob Doris contacted Culture and Sport Glasgow and local tennis clubs to encourage them to work in partnership in the future with the charity ASAP, which uses volunteer coaches, to develop a strategy which will see the courts maintained and get more young people involved in the game. ASAP are also hoping that any publicity generated from the competition will help encourage volunteer coaches to come forward and wider participation by young people in tennis. Anyone wishing to get involved in ASAP’s sports activities whether as a volunteer coach or as a participant should contact ASAP on 07766 70 8363.
Speaking ahead of the G20 tennis competition, Stephen Koepplinger of ASAP said:’This is a perfect way to round off our Tennis Programme. It will be a fun day for all involved, as well as an excellent way to celebrate the five courts being brought back into a usable state. I hope the interest generated from our competition will be a springboard to get more youngsters involved not just in tennis but in wider community activities in general.’
Added Bob Doris: ‘It is crazy that as Scotland’s Andy Murray inspires our youngsters to swing a racket, five tennis courts in Maryhill would be sitting empty if it was not for this charity. Wimbledon is a world away from G20 but the youngsters of Maryhill deserve the same opportunities as everyone else. I am hopeful that both local tennis clubs and the City Council will work with us to promote the scheme and to support the roll-out of further tennis provision.’

Hit the ground running and win a copy of Played In Glasgow

Football grounds, bowling greens, dog tracks, ‘doocots’, racecourses, blaes pitches, athletics tracks and swimming clubs; our city has had them all. Ged O’Brien’s book, Played in Glasgow, is a modestly-sized but mighty anthology that covers every sporting nook and cranny since Victorian times.
This is part of the superb Played In Britain series,  backed by Historic Scotland and English Heritage. The volume is subtitled ‘charting the heritage of a city at play’, and is a store of information for those of us who choose to look beyond the elegant stone facades, towering steel skeletons and pretty, manicured lawns.
Beyond Hampden Park, the home of Queen’s Park and Scotland’s international team, there are retrospectives on the homes of Rangers, Celtic, Partick Thistle, Clyde and the bullish ranks of Glasgow Junior football.
O’Brien also looks at the homes of the city’s many rugby teams and enjoys our rich bowling heritage, all recorded with excellent photography and detailed with the care of a first-class reference work.
Played In Glasgow has a section on swimming baths and clubs, from the elegant but forgotten municipal pools of the late 1800s to their 21st century heirs and the architectural wonders of the Western and the Arlington Baths clubs.
The book also strikes a nostalgic tone with a look at the city’s remaining red ash ‘blaes’ pitches and takes a flight into the world of the Glasgow pigeon fancier and their home-built doocots. Neither does it neglect cricketing heritage nor pass by the huge achievements of our many athletes over the years.
With one eye on Glasgow’s place as host for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, this book is a roadmap that shows us how far we have come, what we have won, what we have lost and hints at what could yet be.
A blend of social and cultural history and a treat with archive and modern photography, sometimes evocative and occasionally controversial, Played In Glasgow is an essential addition to the book collection of anyone who has an eye for their city’s sporting heritage.

LOCAL NEWS GLASGOW has three copies of Played in Glasgow to give away.
For a chance to win your own copy, just write and tell us which football teams play their home games at Hampden Park.

Send your answers by email to competitions@localnewsglasgow.co.uk. Please put ‘PLAYED IN GLASGOW COMPETITION’ in the header field and remember your name, address and a daytime telephone number. You can also enter by snail mail, please write with your answer to Played In Glasgow Competition, Local News Glasgow, YAM Publications, Third Floor, 142 West Nile Street G1 2RQ. Don’t forget all your contact details.

This competition closed at 9am on Monday, May 24.

Murraymania in Broomhill

Broomhill Primary School had a visit from a very special guest which had all the children in smashing form.
Super-Scot and world number four tennis seed Andy Murray might well be the shy-and-retiring type when he’s not on court, but the youngsters at this West End school think he’s just ace.
Prior to the official opening of their RBS Supergrounds funded eco-garden (aptly named Broomchill), the tennis star took a Q&A session from the whole school.
Andy, 22, said he was delighted to be back in Scotland and explained how important he thinks the Supergrounds project is.
He said: ‘I don’t get back to Scotland as much as I’d like to but this project is fantastic.
‘It’s important that kids get to do more activity.’
Andy took dozens of questions from all ages in the school including Primary 3 pupil Euan Duffy, who asked him who was his best opponent.
‘Rafael Nadal is my favourite, he’s a great player and very difficult to play against.’
Questions came thick and fast, at times Murray looked more at ease returning Nadal’s serve, but he made everyone laugh and cheer when Primary 1 pupil Dara Wood asked him what he hoped Santa would bring him for Christmas.
‘A Wimbledon Trophy would be nice – but my coach can be a bit of a Scrooge!’  he replied.
Murray was in Glasgow to mark the official opening of the eco-garden within the school grounds.
The £4,000 Supergrounds project that saw waste ground turned into an eco-garden will be used to help kids appreciate green ideas as well as have fun.