Archive - Wednesday, 29 October 2003


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Tennis coach receives due recognition for all his endeavours

HILL and Valley Lawn Tennis Club coach John Robson recently received the Gloucestershire Award from the British Tennis Coaches' Association for 2003 for developing tennis in the county.

He will now go forward and attend the association's annual conference and be a candidate for their national award.

During the summer term, John coached 8-11 year olds at St Andrew's Primary School, Andoversford Primary and North Cerney Primary part of the PE curriculum and he is now also coaching at Bibury Primary.

He has also organised Play Tennis workshops with Gloucestershire LTA for young people from Chedworth and local villages for the past three years.

John took up coaching in 2002 because he believes that tennis is the ideal sport to promote PE skills in primary age children and achieved his Development Coaching award earlier this year.

He said, "I am really grateful for the help and support I have received from established coaches in the county, and in particular Penny Allberry at Cirencester TC and Chris Rivers, the County Development Officer."

Sarah Payne, mother of five-year-old Patrick who attends John's Sunday morning coaching sessions for 5-8 year olds at Chedworth Village Hall, said:

"Patrick absolutely loves his tennis and it is all credit to John for helping to generate that enthusiasm. I hope it is the start of a life-long interest in the game."

Stephen Scott-Smith, chairman of Hill and Valley Lawn Tennis Club, said: "John has done a tremendous amount to encourage juniors, young people and adults to take up tennis, through coaching and running annual tennis factories with the Gloucestershire Lawn Tennis Association.

"It is largely due to his efforts that Hill & Valley was runner- up in the 2002 'Club of the Year' competition which recognised the club's contribution to developing youth tennis in the area, so we are immensely proud of his achievement."