THIS year Salts Tennis Club celebrates a very special milestone - its 100th anniversary.
The club began as Salts Mills Tennis Club in 1923, becoming Salts Tennis Club the following year. At the same time a league was set up to enable local tennis clubs associated with commercial and industrial businesses to play against each other - this continued for a few years.
At this time the club also played in the Yorkshire League, in various divisions, right up until the early 2000s.
In the early 1970s the club entered men's, ladies’ and mixed teams in the Bradford Parks Tennis Leagues - it continues to play a major role in the leagues to this day.
The land on which the club now stands was purchased by the owners of Salts Mill from the council in 1922 to provide recreational facilities for employees.
The courts were originally grass, built we believe in 1923/4, and stayed the same until the outbreak of the Second World War when they were dug up and used to grow vegetables.
Shortly after the end of 1945 the courts were rebuilt using clinker from the furnaces at Salts Mill as a base and this was then overlaid with Tarmac forming the base of the courts as we now know them.
For more than 55 years tennis was played at Salts with little investment in the infrastructure. By the mid-1990s the courts were wearing out. A new committee was formed so the club could try to obtain grants to rebuild the existing three courts to Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) specifications in 2008.
In 2009 the club decided to build a fourth court, with floodlights provided by the LTA added to courts one and two. Grants were found to pay for the court and a loan of £28,000 was given by the LTA to enable the club to run the floodlights, which brings us to where we are today.
The club has gone through some turbulent times since 1997: the clubhouse was set on fire after a car was deliberately driven into it. All that was left was the shell of the building and the chimney stack. It was rebuilt to the same details with a new kitchen and updated clubroom.
Years later, the clubhouse and changing rooms were broken into and damage caused to the interiors twice within a few weeks. On the second visit all the pipework was ripped out including showers, toilets, kitchen sinks, which caused substantial flood damage to both buildings.
In 2015 floods caused extensive damage to the facilities - what a sight met our eyes on Boxing Day when we saw what had happened. The courts suffered minimal damage, but the fencing, tennis nets and posts were completely decimated. Luckily, with support and help from the Yorkshire Lawn Tennis Association (YLTA), LTA, Sport England and other agencies, clubs and individual donations, we had the club back up and running by the beginning of the playing season. The club owes them all a massive thank you as without all the support we were given we would not be here today.
In 2009 Salts Tennis Club became a Community Amateur Sports Club with a view to becoming a leading supplier of Affordable For All tennis coaching in the surrounding area.
Junior co-ordinator John Bretherick and our coach Richard Senior were the driving force of these initiatives. We approached various firms and societies to ask them to subsidise our programmes which consisted of free Tennis in the Parks followed by subsidised coaching, free junior tennis tournaments, free and heavily subsidised junior coaching programmes and holiday camps.
This was so successful that within a year the club’s efforts were rewarded with the YLTA and LTA club of the year award. At the same time our coach forged links with Titus Salt School which included all their satellite primary schools.
He went further afield to form links with schools in Wilsden, Harden and Eldwick, forming breakfast and after school clubs to meet each school’s requirements.
The club’s ethos has stood the test of time and we are still offering the same /similar programmes. The club also instigated a new, novel, approach in 2012 by offering reduced first year and second year membership for adults which includes five group coaching sessions: this initiative has been very successful. It is quite heavily subscribed every season.
We have numerous teams in the Bradford Parks Saturday Ladies’ and Mens’ Doubles league and one team in each of the Friendly and Wharfedale Mixed Doubles teams.
The club runs quite a few internal tournaments, notably two mixed doubles and one ladies' doubles. We also organise open days and hold barbecues.
Coaching is available at the club most days and we have dedicated and organised ladies’ and men’s practice and also social tennis nights and other social events.
We think it is a very special club that encourages and forms great friendships through the game of tennis.
The club and its members look forward to welcoming new members of all ages and abilities.
More information can be found on our website saltstennisclub.co.uk
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