Judy Murray's Tennis on the Road was back in East Lothian for a 2 day visit to some of the newly developed facilities...
It was with great delight that East Lothian was able to welcome back Judy Murray and her 'Tennis on the Road' programme for the second time in a year, this time to visit some of the newly developed sites in East Linton, Haddington, Musselburgh and Tranent.
East Linton kicked off the activity on Thursday 20th on their newly refurbished courts with a 'workforce' session followed by a session with the P5s from East Linton Primary School on a typically scorching day in East Lothian. The idea of the workforce session is to engage as many adults, coaches, parents and volunteers as ultimately it is these people that can drive tennis forward and get their kids involved. It was a huge success in East Linton with over 20 adults taking part, including some gentleman from the sporting memories network.
Tennis on the Road isn't called Tennis on the Road for nothing. No sooner had the equipment been packed up in East Linton the tour continued with Haddington the afternoon destination. It was a fantastic afternoon in Haddington with about 100 people involved in the 3 sessions run by Judy and Kris. Pupils from Knox Academy, club members, coaches, parents and kids were all involved in the sessions which was capped off with Judy Murray officially cutting the ribbon to Haddington's new courts.
The following day it was an early start as the TOTR van headead for Musselburgh Tennis Club and their fantastic new artificial clay courts at Lewisvale Park. It was another action packed morning of activity with pupils and teachers from Musselburgh Grammar along with club coaches getting involved in the first two sessions. The final session of the morning was an open session which was full of children and parents giving Judy's fantastic games a go. It was a great morning, especially for local Secondary Sports and Activity Co-ordinator, Paul Huish who used his previous modelling experience to good use as he posed alongside Judy and the MGS girls in a photo which set Twitter alight and had #mrhuish trending on twitter for hours.
The final leg of the roadshow was in Tranent on Friday afternoon - thankfully the rain stayed away and the 3 sessions went ahead outside on the brand new courts at Polson Park. Again, the sessions were packed with over 100 people involved in the 3 sessions including staff and pupils from Ross High, coaches, parents and kids. It really was a fantastic way to end the summer season.
“This is our second visit to East Lothian. Our main goal is to help build a workforce in the area that will help Stuart Brown, the tennis development officer, to grow the game. You need adults to drive the activity. You have a wonderful opportunity here just now because so many of the towns have tennis courts that have been resurfaced and brought back to life, so there is a lot of buzz.” (Judy Murray, East Lothian News, Aug 2015)
Stuart Brown, East Lothian Tennis Development Officer remarked "Tennis on the Road encourages not only children and young adults but also parents and grandparents to get involved in the sport. Judy and Kris Soutar (Head Coach) have been absolutely fantastic supporters of the recent development work here in East Lothian and it was a great boost for the areas involved to be a part of the visit. Tennis is a sport for all and we had a great age range on court during the visit with the youngest just 3 and the oldest 88. East Lothian Council, Tennis Scotland and the local clubs have worked extremely hard over a number of years to get to this point of having these magnificent facilities in East Lothian. We have to take this opportunity now to grow our game through clubs, schools and through initiatives like Judy’s Tennis on the Road – it ticks all the boxes.”
