Club History

Up until the summer of 1949 very few people used the tennis courts at ” The Park”, but then a group of Banbridge Academy pupils decided to form a club in order to play matches and so Banbridge Tennis club was re-born - the previous club had gone out of existence a few years earlier. Among the first members were Kenneth Mercer, Jim Bell, Robert Kelly, Mark Nelson, Pat McCully, Liz Holden, Eileen Craig, Ruth Hanlon and Dora Grafton.

The first match was played against Scarva in the Demense on a Saturday afternoon and it was probably the only time in the Club’s history that the team was chaffeur driver. A local undertaker who was attending a burial in the area that day agreed to transport the team in one of the funeral cars and to avoid the cost of a double journey some of the Scarva players provided cards for the return journey to Banbridge that evening.

The arrival of Alan and Marie Abercrombie as new members in the early fifties was a turning point in the playing fortunes of the Club. As a result of their influence standards improved and they widened the Club’s horizons by arranging matches in distant places such as Dungannon, Portadown, Ballywalter, Muckamore and even Belfast.

The most popular tournaments in the fifties were the East Down Championships played on grass courts at Downpatrick and the South Down at Newcastle, each taking a week to complete. In both of these events several members were successful but none more so than Agnes McClean who won the Ladies Singles title at Newcastle every year for 10 years.

Two members (who shall remain nameless) even ventured to the Ulster U21 Championships at the Falls Club in Belfast travelling to the event on a B.S.A. 125cc motorcycle, only to lose in the first round of the Men’s Doubles. Thankfully owing to the age limit, they were ineligible the following year preventing the good name of Banbridge Tennis Club from further embarassment.

The social side of the Club in the early days was somewhat limited by the lack of facilities at “The Park”. However Tanvally Orange Hall hosted occassional dances while visting teams were entertained to tea in the Majestic Cafe or the Imperial Hotel.