Lauder Tennis Club celebrating centenary but fearful for future

Officials worry that the club are nearing the end of the road 100 years on due to falling membership and a lack of new blood stepping up to help with organisation – and if those concerns prove to be well founded, they reckon it’ll be a road to blame, namely the A68 Edinburgh-Darlington route they’re sited on.

When the club’s two outdoor courts first saw use back in 1924, the A68 wasn’t even a century old and the world’s first mass-made car, America’s Ford Model T, was still in production, so traffic is unlikely to have been much of an issue for townsfolk fancying a northward wander for a bit of sport.

Since then, though, vehicles have got bigger, faster and more numerous with each passing decade, making what would once have been a peaceful stroll a more daunting prospect.

Membership is now down to about 40 households – some of them single folk, others families with children from primary-school age upwards – so a dramatic turnaround in fortunes would be required if the club are to get much of the way towards a second centenary.

“Unfortunately, the club are dying,” said chairman Tommy Syme.

“Our numbers have been dwindling for the last few years and now we’ve got about 40 families as members, but some of those are single people and some are parents with kids.

“Covid didn’t help but it’s the position of the courts that’s the big no-no as they’re on a bend on the A68.

“Kids can actually access them by going past the town fire station and via a path through woods but some parents are not all that happy about that and you can understand why.

“Going the other way, there’s big pavement all the way along the A68 from Lauder to opposite the club but it’s on the wrong side for us so you’ve got to cross the road there.

“It’s a shame but things were very different in 1924.

“We have been really busy in the past. As recently as the early 1980s, we’d often have people waiting to get on and play.

“We really want more kids to take up tennis, get away from their mobile phones and get playing, but it’s just not worked.

“We’ve tried different things but none has worked.

“It’s the position, it really is. It’s the wrong position for nowadays.”

No new blood coming through to help with the running of the club is another potential nail in its coffin, many of their current committee members being three-quarters of the way or thereabouts towards centenaries themselves, along with a lack of toilets and the availability of better facilities nearby at Stow and Earlston, says Syme.

“Age isn’t on our side either. I’m in my 80th year and the rest of the committee are mostly in their seventies, with the odd one a bit younger,” said the 79-year-old.

“I’ve been chairman for quite a long time – for about ten years, I think – not because it’s an honour, just because nobody else wants to do it.”

Making it into treble figures despite what’s become an ever-less-convenient location because of the volume of traffic passing by is an achievement in itself, however, says Syme.

No events are lined up yet to commemorate the club’s centenary but Syme is hopeful that something will be organised later in the year.