An update from Ed Nieburg, Director at National Tennis Association

Tennis at St Marks Recreation Ground was transformed in 2016 from significant investement from the local authroity and the LTA (tennis' governing body). The tennis facility boasts 10x tennis courts and 4x touchtennis courts, alongside a coffee shop and retail shop with ample on site parking. 

Since 2016 the facility has been managed by Swindon Community Tennis, a charitable Trust lead by three dedicated volunteers Neil, Paul and Tim. The Trust laid down the foundations for what we have to date and I would like to personally thank them for their hard work and dedication to tennis in Swindon. The community would not have had this amazing and unquie facility if it wasn't for them. 

In April the facility was transferred over to North Swindon Central Parish Council, and National Tennis Association were appointed to operate the facility moving forward. 

We have made the decision to rebrand the facility to Swindon Tennis Centre, and you will see we have a new website too. We are also working on redressing the centre branding too, so watch this space. Although the name has changed, the ethos of the centre remains the same - to provide low cost accessible tennis to the community of Swindon - something which we wll continue to champion. 

Since taking on the operational responsibility at the Centre our team have been busy implementing a number of changes to further enhance the offering: 

• During lockdown we installed new SmartAccess gate tecnology that links to our online booking system, allowing you to easily book a court online and access them via a unquie pin code. You can also book a floodlit court and the lights will now automatically turn on too - no more purchasing light cards from the coffee shop!
• It is now super easy to book a court as a non member and pay as you go - you can now book online and pay the £5 court hire. You'll then get emailed a pin code to access the courts for your booking. 
• Swindon Tennis Club is now fully integrated within the centre, and we have significantly driven down the cost to join the tennis club to supercharge your tennis. You can now join the club via our website for just £50 per year (40% OFF special price) for your household, by taking out our new Club Pass membership. A Club Pass comes with an extended two-week booking window, access to our weekly coach-led social sessions (launching in August), option to represent in league matches, entry into our Wimbledon ballot and the club's singles ladder. Check out our membership page and tennis club page for more information. If you have an active Annual Pass and would like to upgrade to a Club Pass please contact us. 
• As part of the new Club Pass, we are launching two new coach-led sessions on Wednesday 7-9pm (led by Craig) and Sunday 10-12pm (led by Josh). The sessions are included free of charge to Club Pass members, and we are even keeping the coffee shop open late on Wednesday to make it an amazing enviornment to play social tennis. All Club Pass members will need to book online via the tennis club section of our website. 

As you will hopefully agree, we are building on the foundations that we have inherited and are already offering more value to players. We plan to continue enhancing the centre and our next priority is extending and upgrading the floodlighting to LED floodlit courts on 1-7 and 1-4 on the touchtennis zone. Watch this space. 

Finally, I am pleased to say that the pavilion opening hours are now back to normal and we are back open 7 days per week. If you have any questions my team is always on hand to help. Our new phone number is: 

01793 200118

Happy Hitting 

Ed