Take up tennis in Gloucestershire

Whip-out your whites for a game, set and match of tennis in Gloucestershire.

If you’re past puberty, forget about becoming a pro. In the competitive world of tennis you’re not worth your Slazenger sweatband if you didn’t begin practicing serves and volleys for eight hours a day by the time you started school. But if it’s a bit of competitive fun and cardio-vascular fitness you’re after, look no further than your closest tennis court – and Gloucestershire has plenty of them.

As its name suggests, Oxstalls Tennis Centre in Gloucester is the premiere place to grab a court in the city. It has six indoor and four outdoor courts to choose from with prices ranging from £18.20 per hour for a peak-rate indoor court to £7.60 per hour for an outdoor court during any time of the day. Members of the public can pay and play whenever a court is available and you can borrow racquets and balls (for 50p an hour with a £5 deposit) before deciding to invest in your own equipment. If your backhand needs a bit of brushing-up or you want to know more about the basic rules of the game there are a number of coaching options available. There are four ongoing adults courses available for groups depending on your ability: beginners are taught the basic strokes, the rules, movement and positioning on the court, while the advanced course caters for experienced players who have a LTA rating of 6.3 or above. One-on-one coaching is also available from experienced coaches, as well as a calendar of social games, disability coaching and 50+ short tennis options.

A downpour won’t drown out your game at Bentham Country Club, whose indoor tennis court, housed inside an all-weather dome, costs £13 per hour to hire. There is also an outdoor court available for hire at £8 per hour, for when the sun gods are smiling. If you’re planning to make tennis a regular part of your sporting calendar there are discounts available for block booking of the courts, making it a choice venue for work and social groups. Be sure to book ahead though, as Bentham Country Club is extremely popular with five-a-side football teams, and you may turn up in your whites to find your court being trampled over by ten shin-padded footie players.

Tennis is played 365 days a year at Cheltenham’s East Glos club, which hosts a grand total of 27 courts – including 10 astroturf, four clay, three playdek and 10 grass courts (open from May to September), with 13 of the courts also offering floodlit play. While annual membership is required to play at the club (contact the club directly for full details of prices), there is also the opportunity for novices to get to grips with the game in a series of eight-week beginners’ courses which cost £65 and are open to non-members. As well as hosting social tennis matches and a singles tennis ladder for both male and female players, if you get particularly good you can also enter the competitive county-wide tournaments held here.

Five Acres Leisure Centre near Coleford offers some of the most affordable games of tennis in the county with court hire being offered at just £4.80 per hour – or £1.20 per person if you play doubles. There are a number of flood-lit outdoor courts to choose from on evenings and weekends, making it a great venue to pick for an after-work rally, and there are qualified and experienced LTA coaches available to give your game a boost. If after all this tennis talk you want to join a friendly and sociable group of like-minded players Five Acres is also home to the Forest Community Tennis Club which meets for games on Thursday evenings from 7.30-9pm.

Whether you’re a complete beginner who doesn’t know a yellow ball from a tennis elbow or your serves are faster than a fuel-injection Ferrari there’s a game to be had in Gloucestershire this summer.

Michelle Byrne