Any Brits here? Am bamboozled by your tennis clubs!!

[HellsBells]

I relocated to Britain last month due to a work project that's likely to last around 12 months, maybe slightly more, maybe slightly less. I am largely based in London though may have to travel occasionally to the Reading suburb and also one of our offices in the North of the country as well.

Given, the length of time of time I'm likely to be here, I've been looking around for suitable tennis clubs to join.

I'm absolutely amazed by how different each club can be in terms of the playing surface that they offer.

Grass Courts clubs - never played on grass courts before but it's quite nice. Very comfortable to run on but very few clubs seem to have grass courts. Aren't most clubs supposed to have grass courts? The limited ones that do say that you have to be nominated by existing members before you can even join. Is this normal?

Compressed shale? Quite a few clubs and the public facilities seem to have a compressed shale type surface. Not bad, but it seems pretty slow. Again, is this normal or is it simply due to the bad quality of the particular court?

Carpet - there seem to be a few commercial clubs with indoor facilities but they have carpet on the courts! Not only is it nothing like hardcourts but it's fast with no bounce and the surface doesn't produce much court depth. You can almost constantly stand on the baseline without having to move backwards!

Sandy Artificial Grass - this stuff is just plain weird. Unless you hit the ball with a lot of topspin, the ball seems to just dig into the surface and sit up perfectly for your opponent to hit. Hit the ball with a lot of spin and the ball shoots off the surface! It also seems to have an inconsistent bounce. I found that I was hitting everything into the top of the tape or 1ft long!

Hardcourts - I don't see any normal hardcourts anywhere?

Artificial red clay - I've seen a couple of places with artificial red clay. I didn't have a chance to play on it but did watch a few players having a game and interestingly, the balls / their shoes etc, don't get covered with the red stuff. Is this surface any good?

London Lawn Tennis Center - this was actually the first place I went down to but they won't even let you hire a court. So much for encouraging people to play!

Pricing - the range of pricing for clubs seems to be extreme. One club charges £150 for the year and they have 7 or 8 sandy artificial grass type courts. The indoor carpet places are over £1500. The compressed shale court clubs charge about £300-350. Are the membership charges based on the surface that they provide, and what would be typical membership price to pay?

Also what do people do during the winter? I'm guessing it usually rains a lot. Do you have to join an outdoor place AND an indoor place for the winter?

Would welcome any advice from any Brits on here.

 

[Bad_Knee]

I relocated to Britain last month due to a work project that's likely to last around 12 months, maybe slightly more, maybe slightly less. I am largely based in London though may have to travel occasionally to the Reading suburb and also one of our offices in the North of the country as well.

Given, the length of time of time I'm likely to be here, I've been looking around for suitable tennis clubs to join.

I'm absolutely amazed by how different each club can be in terms of the playing surface that they offer.

Grass Courts clubs - never played on grass courts before but it's quite nice. Very comfortable to run on but very few clubs seem to have grass courts. Aren't most clubs supposed to have grass courts? The limited ones that do say that you have to be nominated by existing members before you can even join. Is this normal?

Compressed shale? Quite a few clubs and the public facilities seem to have a compressed shale type surface. Not bad, but it seems pretty slow. Again, is this normal or is it simply due to the bad quality of the particular court?

Carpet - there seem to be a few commercial clubs with indoor facilities but they have carpet on the courts! Not only is it nothing like hardcourts but it's fast with no bounce and the surface doesn't produce much court depth. You can almost constantly stand on the baseline without having to move backwards!

Sandy Artificial Grass - this stuff is just plain weird. Unless you hit the ball with a lot of topspin, the ball seems to just dig into the surface and sit up perfectly for your opponent to hit. Hit the ball with a lot of spin and the ball shoots off the surface! It also seems to have an inconsistent bounce. I found that I was hitting everything into the top of the tape or 1ft long!

Hardcourts - I don't see any normal hardcourts anywhere?

Artificial red clay - I've seen a couple of places with artificial red clay. I didn't have a chance to play on it but did watch a few players having a game and interestingly, the balls / their shoes etc, don't get covered with the red stuff. Is this surface any good?

London Lawn Tennis Center - this was actually the first place I went down to but they won't even let you hire a court. So much for encouraging people to play!

Pricing - the range of pricing for clubs seems to be extreme. One club charges £150 for the year and they have 7 or 8 sandy artificial grass type courts. The indoor carpet places are over £1500. The compressed shale court clubs charge about £300-350. Are the membership charges based on the surface that they provide, and what would be typical membership price to pay?

Also what do people do during the winter? I'm guessing it usually rains a lot. Do you have to join an outdoor place AND an indoor place for the winter?

Would welcome any advice from any Brits on here.

Yes, there are not many grasscourts around, very difficult to maintain, and as you say most are at posh snooty clubs...Seems to be a mis-conception that England is full of them (probably due to Wimbledon)

Shale, pretty poor surface, I haven't come across too many though.

Carpet - My favorite surface, and yes you'll find it is the preferred choice by a lot of indoor clubs in the country, and chains such as David Lloyd. I don't see the problem with it, much easier on the joints, and a nice fast pace of play!

The artificial grass- Yeah it's crap, and yeah you'll see a lot of places have them outdoors simply because they're incredibly easy to maintain, and are the easiest and cheapest alternative to a hardcourt.

Artificial Clay - I have a few near me, actually a fun surface to play on, but you don't see them around as much, I'd recommend you try it if you can!

Hard courts? I don't think you're looking hard enough, they're absolutely everywhere, every town has a local tennis club, and 9 out of 10 times they'll have hard courts, sometimes exclusively hard courts....There are even public hard courts sprinkled around the place.

Where abouts in London do you live?

In terms of price, you can join a local club for next to nothing (plus you'll get entered into the Wimbledon Ballot!)....Or you can go for something like David Lloyd, which will also have a gym, restaurant, sauna, pool etc....for about £2000 per year. The advantage there is the indoor courts for the rainy days. Certain clubs also have "bubbles" or artificial domes that they erect in winter to enable pay on outdoor hard courts.

I'm a David Lloyd member and love it, tennis leagues and ladders, good standard of players, and a mixture of hard and carpet courts, indoor and outdoor.

By the way, you'll find we get plenty of rain in the summer too

 

[Jonboy]

Yes, what this chap said. Just go to a decent David lloyd, they have both indoor and out door. My club has some indoor hard court too , you fuzzy bugger

 

[MatsPhilander]

Flotex is the surface of the future.

 

[stringertom]

Good to see David Lloyd has done quite well for himself in his post-playing career.

 

[mmk]

...

Artificial red clay - I've seen a couple of places with artificial red clay. I didn't have a chance to play on it but did watch a few players having a game and interestingly, the balls / their shoes etc, don't get covered with the red stuff. Is this surface any good?

....

What do you mean by artificial red clay? Red-colored (or coloured for our British members) Har-Tru?

 

[spaceman_spiff]

What do you mean by artificial red clay? Red-colored (or coloured for our British members) Har-Tru?

It's basically a carpet court with lots of little rubber bits rather than sand. It's supposed to play like clay, but it's very different.

 

[accidental]

It seems its impossible to just book a court somewhere say a week in advance and just turn up and play. Everywhere that takes bookings is a club that you need to join, or pay for a number of hours in advance.

Or theres the free courts everywhere where its first in first serve

I also moved to London a year ago. I joined a local tennis league and now I just piggyback off others memberships to play them

 

[penguin]

It seems its impossible to just book a court somewhere say a week in advance and just turn up and play. Everywhere that takes bookings is a club that you need to join, or pay for a number of hours in advance.

Or theres the free courts everywhere where its first in first serve

I also moved to London a year ago. I joined a local tennis league and now I just piggyback off others memberships to play them

you clearly haven't looked very hard. There are loads of public hard courts in parks that you can sometimes book even at quite short notice for very little money, say £10 an hour, or £7 with a £15 pound yearly membership. A lot of them have been recently resurfaced. People say there aren't available courts to play on in London are just wrong.

if you type "london tennis courts" into google this is the first entry:

http://www.londontennis.co.uk/findcourt/findcourt.php

 

[HellsBells]

Yes, there are not many grasscourts around, very difficult to maintain, and as you say most are at posh snooty clubs...Seems to be a mis-conception that England is full of them (probably due to Wimbledon)

Shale, pretty poor surface, I haven't come across too many though.

Carpet - My favorite surface, and yes you'll find it is the preferred choice by a lot of indoor clubs in the country, and chains such as David Lloyd. I don't see the problem with it, much easier on the joints, and a nice fast pace of play!

The artificial grass- Yeah it's crap, and yeah you'll see a lot of places have them outdoors simply because they're incredibly easy to maintain, and are the easiest and cheapest alternative to a hardcourt.

Artificial Clay - I have a few near me, actually a fun surface to play on, but you don't see them around as much, I'd recommend you try it if you can!

Hard courts? I don't think you're looking hard enough, they're absolutely everywhere, every town has a local tennis club, and 9 out of 10 times they'll have hard courts, sometimes exclusively hard courts....There are even public hard courts sprinkled around the place.

Where abouts in London do you live?

In terms of price, you can join a local club for next to nothing (plus you'll get entered into the Wimbledon Ballot!)....Or you can go for something like David Lloyd, which will also have a gym, restaurant, sauna, pool etc....for about £2000 per year. The advantage there is the indoor courts for the rainy days. Certain clubs also have "bubbles" or artificial domes that they erect in winter to enable pay on outdoor hard courts.

I'm a David Lloyd member and love it, tennis leagues and ladders, good standard of players, and a mixture of hard and carpet courts, indoor and outdoor.

By the way, you'll find we get plenty of rain in the summer too

We're based in the Pitshanger district overlooking the park. Do you know it?

There are actually some public courts down the road from me, but at £9/hour it soon adds if you play several times a week and I don't think much of their court surface either! Seems better to join a club.

 

[HellsBells]

for very little money, say £10 an hour, or £7 with a £15 pound yearly membership. A lot of them have been recently resurfaced. People say there aren't available courts to play on in London are just wrong.

if you type "london tennis courts" into google this is the first entry:

http://www.londontennis.co.uk/findcourt/findcourt.php

That actually works out pretty expensive. Lets say 3 or 4 sessions a week, a couple of hours each time, at £10/hour. That's over £1,500 / $2,300 a year....

Even at £7/hour, that's over £1,000 / $1500 a year.

The surfaces of the public courts also seem pretty bad.

 

[MatsPhilander]

Good to see David Lloyd has done quite well for himself in his post-playing career.

Prefer the other one,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7kkS13_X0M

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzMyI6jdojI

 

[GBplayer]

You get as much rain in the summer, just warmer. Often end up playing in the drizzle. How to hit a heavy ball

 

[accidental]

you clearly haven't looked very hard. There are loads of public hard courts in parks that you can sometimes book even at quite short notice for very little money, say £10 an hour, or £7 with a £15 pound yearly membership. A lot of them have been recently resurfaced. People say there aren't available courts to play on in London are just wrong.

if you type "london tennis courts" into google this is the first entry:

http://www.londontennis.co.uk/findcourt/findcourt.php

Are you even familiar with that website? Its very inaccurate. Its just run by some guy and is totally out of date

Also most places (in west london at least) you need to buy a certain amount of credits as well as the memebership fee before you are able to book time in advance, which is exactly what i'm talking about, if you bothered to take reading comprehension as a school kid, buddy

do me a favour and try and find a court in west london for this saturday, without having to buy a memebership and pay for about 10 hours in advance, then come back to me and tell me how easy it was.

 

[GBplayer]

If you go on the LTA website you should be able to find a club listing near your area or postcode. I don't live in London so am not aware of availability, bound to be more expensive than the surrounding counties though. You should have an easier time in Reading Berkshire . Have you tried sports centres or local council websites?

 

[penguin]

Are you even familiar with that website? Its very inaccurate. Its just run by some guy and is totally out of date

Also most places (in west london at least) you need to buy a certain amount of credits as well as the memebership fee before you are able to book time in advance, which is exactly what i'm talking about, if you bothered to take reading comprehension as a school kid, buddy

do me a favour and try and find a court in west london for this saturday, without having to buy a memebership and pay for about 10 hours in advance, then come back to me and tell me how easy it was.

sorry but it is not hard. there are plenty of publicly funded places in west London. I'm not going to phone around for you but the telephone numbers to do so are easily available. Usually not having online booking means that you can get courts at short notice. The public parks near me you don't have to buy any "credits" in addition to the membership, I've never heard of that before. They have all been resurfaced this year, and some of them weren't even that bad before.