To mark the recent successes for both tennis pupils and the LTA affiliated Bradfield Tennis Club, The Bradfield Society held a celebration event at the College. It was the perfect opportunity to recognise donors, Bradfieldians and Friends of Bradfield, including former and current parents, who have all helped to lay the foundations for these successes which include a first ever Youll Cup victory and LTA recognition with the Tennis Club shortlisted for National Club of the Year 2023 and officiator and coach Selena Coburn shortlisted for National Official of the Year 2023.
Old Bradfieldian Tony Billington (H 59-63) was guest of honour, recognising the integral part he played in getting the funding for the Indoor Tennis Centre project which began thirty years ago and was opened by his nephew Tim Henman in May 2000. Tony and others, including Chris Gorringe (E 59-64), former Chief Executive of the All England Club, were also instrumental in helping the clay courts project come to fruition; the courts were opened by 22-time Wheelchair Tennis Doubles Grand Slam Champion, Gordon Reid MBE, in June 2017.
The celebration began with Reception drinks in the Headmaster’s garden at Crossways. There the Headmaster and Tony reflected on the key individuals and sequence of events which brought about the building of the Indoor Tennis Centre.
Looking back, the school had been encouraged by Tony’s vision to pre- empt a scheme to build an indoor tennis facility as a Centre of Excellence for Berkshire at a neighbouring school and applied to the National Lottery Fund for a grant. At the time this was not an urgent priority, but the College’s tennis facilities were not sufficient to cater for the increasing number of pupils. Tony gave credit to Brigadier Michael Lord, then Bursar, who took the plans forward following further investigation which revealed that the Lottery Fund would provide a sizeable proportion of the funding and the LTA would also provide an interest free loan. There looked to be an initial funding gap, estimated to be £50,000, however that quickly grew five-fold as planning requirements increased. A dinner at White’s club in London in July 2000 led to a quick ‘whip round’ of the Trustees attending and the gap was closed. The auctioneering skills of Anthony ‘Jumbo’ Fuller (H 51-56), who had taken on the mantle of Chairman of the Bradfield Foundation in January 1999 from Michael Stone, were clearly in evidence on that occasion and the Society was thrilled that Jumbo was able to attend the celebratory event this summer.
The Headmaster spoke of Tony being the “lightning rod” for the project while Tony credited four outstanding Headmasters, Peter Smith, Peter Roberts, Simon Henderson and Chris Stevens, for their part in the growth of Bradfield tennis, as well as the Masters in Charge of Tennis from Basil Johnson, Paul Murtagh and Andrew Hunter, who remembers Tony’s “commitment, inspiration and example”, to the current Director of Tennis Damian Fuller and his team of eight coaches. Tony said the project had been all about people and he complimented Chris Stevens and James Wyatt (G 58-63) who was Director of Development at the College at the time. It is Tony’s belief that the more recent introduction of the College’s clay facilities really stretch the most talented pupils and have given the school players the edge in competitions, evidenced by the Senior Boys’ victory in the Independent Schools Tennis Association Youll Cup in 2022.
That trophy, along with a host of others won in recent years, was on display at the Indoor Tennis Centre’s new terrace where a plaque was also unveiled by Tony which reads: “This plaque recognises those alumni, parents and other donors who contributed to the construction of this building, in particular Tony Billington (OB) whose leadership enabled the successful completion of the Indoor Tennis Centre and Clay Court facilities.” There was an opportunity in the afternoon to watch a College fixture on the clay while enjoying afternoon tea.
