Keeping local people active for more than 140 years, Cheltenham's East Glos Club is serving the community in more ways than ever before in 2026 – providing a whole host of opportunities for people of all ages and abilities to play racket sports, from rising stars, to retired ex-players.
Now offering six sports, including the latest trends like padel and pickleball, many hands make light work when it comes to running the club, from its management, coaches, grounds and bar staff, to the members who volunteer to organise leagues, matches and events.
SoGlos sits down with the current chair of the club's board of directors, Andrea Butland, to find out how its sense of community is central to the variety of ways it serves local people.
Andrea – tell us a bit about yourself and how you became chair of East Glos Club.
I've lived in Cheltenham since 1987. In my working life, I was a consultant physician at
Cheltenham General Hospital. I was a member of East Glos Club initially as a squash
player when I was a bit younger, now as a
When I retired from the NHS in 2014, I had a bit more time to do a variety of voluntary jobs, including starting to volunteer at the club on the tennis committee; and later the board of directors. I've been the elected chair for just over six years, coming to an end this May, when I will have completed my statutory term.
In my time at the club, I've been responsible for running our internal box leagues; and I've been captain of the mighty ladies D team
The club has been keeping local people active for more than 140 years now – how does it serve the community in the modern era?
Since 2004, East Glos has operated as what's called a CASC – a Community Amateur Sports Club. That means that we have to be open to everybody, all ages and abilities; and that we can't just be an elite sports club – not that we ever were!
In 2016, we became a limited company, having previously just been a members-only club. So this century and in particular post-Covid, we've put a lot of emphasis on trying to attract not only members, but to be open to the community as much as we can.
We now have six sports – tennis, squash, racquetball, padel, pickleball and table tennis.
We have a massive coaching programme, which is open to anyone – almost 1,000 people a week take part in courses for any of those sports, adults and juniors. We also run community coaching in the tennis courts in Montpellier and Pittville parks, for around about 100 people who aren't members.
People can also pay and play – particularly popular for padel and pickleball – and can book onto things like walking and disability tennis, which is open to everybody.
Every half term and school holiday, we run kids holiday camps; we have a schools outreach programme; and we also run an annual schools tournament at the club.
People are welcome to attend our events, too. For example, over the May half term, we host the national under 14s grass court tennis tournament, with the winners going on to play at Wimbledon – so you can come along and see the future of tennis! Those who are keen on tennis might know of a chap called Henry Searle, who actually won the Wimbledon junior tournament. I first met him about four years ago when he was a junior – so that's worth watching.
We work with a couple of local charities, too. Cass and Friends, which supports young and aspiring athletes aged from 12 to 18, hold all their meetings at the club – we give them the use of the facilities and they also hold charity and fundraising events, which our members support.
We also have social members, either people who are a bit too old for sports or are injured – there are quite a lot of people who play bridge on a regular afternoon at the club, for example.
We even had a play recently. One of our coaches is an active member at the Cheltenham Playhouse and he directed a play over the February half term weekend, which was good fun!
How is the club governed in 2026?
We have an elected board of directors, of which I'm the chair; and then we have professional staff who run the club. Our club manager, Darren Morris and his team run the club extremely well.
We also have various committees for things like HR and finance et cetera; along with a committee for each sport, which run all the matches, tournaments and events.
How would you describe the sense of community at the club?
A lot of our members have been with us for a long time and their families are also members. My children were both members when they were growing up. My son has now moved back to the area, so he's re-joined and I now watch my grandson play squash. That will be the case for a lot of members.
The senior and full-time staff are also members of the club, so a lot of them play sports and may play in teams. Darren and his colleagues always have an open door policy – they literally sit there with their office doors open – and they all pitch in with whatever needs doing.
A great example of that came when we built some new padel courts, which opened about a year ago. To reduce the noise for our neighbours, we used the soil that had been excavated to make a little mound between us and them. In order to save the club some money, Darren and about a dozen of the other staff spent a weekend doing all the turfing themselves and sowing grass seed – that's their attitude.
And if the tables need clearing or somebody hasn't turned up for a bar shift, for example, one of the other staff will just go and do it.
Tell us a bit more about the role of volunteers.
We did a count one year and there were 70 plus members who were actually volunteers, ranging from watering some of the planters or helping to sow wildflowers in our open ground, to being elected directors.
So there are a large number of people involved. We have about 40 team captains, if you take the various age groups, men and women. That's quite hard work in terms of organising matches and getting everybody there.
There are loads of roles for volunteers. The most obvious ones are serving on the committees – they're very valuable for things like running the leagues, or indeed getting new sports going. A couple of volunteers over the last 18 months have introduced table tennis, which gets played in our squash courts in the mornings when they're not busy. That was just a spontaneous thing from a couple of members who said, 'we ought to have table tennis'. And now we have!
What is the best way that local people can support East Glos Club to continue thriving?
Through a combination of things – obviously we'd like people to join as members, but anyone is very welcome to join any of the coaching programmes or activities. We do try and advertise our biggest events – everyone is welcome to come to those.
People are welcome to come to the social events and particularly the charity events, such as our Macmillan coffee mornings. Or if you just want to try something out through our pay and play sessions, we'd be more than happy to welcome you along and show you around.
What does the future hold for East Glos Club?
The club has a long history. We started in 1883 as a cricket club, before the wives got bored with making cricket teas and so marked out a tennis court. But we've always been multi-sports – we had hockey for over a century. We're now primarily racket sports, but things may change in the future.
Things are always evolving, particularly with new sports like padel that's relatively new in the UK; and pickleball, which is just beginning to take off. So we try to adapt, most of us view it as a legacy for the community for the future. Part of our job is to make sure that the club is viable in 20 years time; and has got the facilities and the activities that people want.
