URMSTON Tennis Club welcomed around 150 members of the community to a special open day to celebrate the opening of its long awaited all-weather courts.

The club, on Moorside Road, raised in excess of £65,000 thanks to grants from Trafford Housing Trust via the Urmston Community Panel and SITA Trust along with other self-generated fundraising monies which enabled them to carry out long awaited upgrading of its three all-weather courts, nets and surrounding fencing.

Work took place over the summer holidays with the courts finally finished and playable in time for the grand opening.

Club chairman, Chris Ryan said: “The new courts are an amazing facility for the members of the club and are long overdue.

"It’s been a long road for all of us at the club to raise the funds in order to carry out the work but we are really pleased with the result which is even better than we had hoped. We hope that the courts might inspire others to join us and take advantage of having such a fabulous tennis facility on their doorstep.”

The courts were officially opened by Urmston resident Geoff Thompson MBE , five times karate world champion and founder of The Youth Charter.

Other guests at the launch day included Mike McBrien and Pauline Oliver from Lancashire LTA; Ann Day, Joanne Harding, John Jones and Kevin Procter from the Urmston Community Panel and Riffatt Wall, principal of Urmston Grammar School.

Geoff Thompson praised the club for the hard work in securing the funding to ensure that the club remains very much a community facility and continues to go from strength to strength and gave an inspiring speech stating that this must just be the beginning.

The club was a hive of activity as tots, juniors and seniors demonstrated their skills and people enjoyed free tennis for all.

For more information on joining the club, contact Chris Ryan on chris.ryan90@ntlworld.com or call/text 07885412801.