'Desire to find the next Andy Murray' is the secret to Chesterfield Lawn Tennis Club's LTA recognition

Tori Head, from Alton, has been chair of Chesterfield LTC since 2018 and recently celebrated her club being named Midlands Club of the Year by the sport’s national governing body after their pioneering work both on and off the court.The award was the culmination of the club’s progressive and innovative outlook, boasting both indoor facilities and floodlit courts where the likes of tennis service managers Charlie Pick, Andy Bell and Jonny Brooke all ply their coaching trade.

That wasn’t the end of their success either, with coach Pick taking individual honours as Development Coach of the Year for the Midlands region.

And for chair Head, it was their commitment to nurturing young talent that engineered the recognition.

“It’s brilliant for all of us – we have an amazing team here who all back each other, and there’s very much a desire to push tennis further and widen it as far as possible,” said the 57-year-old.

“More people will now see where we are and who we are, but more importantly than anything, it will generate more kids coming through.

“We all want to find the next big thing, and we’ve got some really good ones coming through at the moment.

“It’s really exciting and I’d be lying if I said anything else, and if this increases the profile of tennis in our region then that’s got to be the best thing about it.

“Of course nurturing youth and trying to find the next big talent is one of the most enjoyable parts of my role – a club is dead in the wood if they rely on my age group and if you do that you’ll have no future.

“The club has just gone from strength to strength and has a real buzz about it at the moment – everybody works together here as a team and we’ve really created a strong atmosphere around the whole club, so there’s a real community spirit.”

Successful regional winners will now progress through to the LTA’s National finals in each of their respective categories, with Chesterfield’s accomplishments to be judged alongside the best in the country.

LTA Chief Executive Scott Lloyd said: “These awards acknowledge the extraordinary contribution of the individuals and venues that help us open tennis up, bringing new fans and players to our sport.

“Now more than ever, it is important we celebrate their contributions and hope that tennis can rally together to get through this very challenging time.”

Launched in 2015, the LTA Tennis Awards serve to acknowledge the many thousands of individuals involved in tennis – from the 25,000 volunteers, to the 4,400 coaches and 940 officials, as well as the 20,000 schools, 2,700 clubs and over 9,700 LTA approved tournaments across the country.

Now in their fifth year, a record number of 2,100 nominations were received nationally for this year’s awards.

For more information about the work the LTA is doing to grow tennis in Britain, log onto www.LTA.org.uk.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper when you do your weekly shop.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you