Time is running out to act on the "Murray Legacy"
- Adam Mackintosh
- Apr 1, 2019
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 25, 2019
Scottish tennis is in a golden age with some of the world’s best players in recent years coming from the country. The success of Andy and Jamie Murray and Gordon Reid has elevated the game to a new level of popularity. This popularity is evidenced in the club membership numbers released by Tennis Scotland every year.
These figures show a rise in participation throughout the years. Despite this, there have renewed calls this week for more funding in Scotland to capitalise on the success of these players.
The issue has been raised this year by Tennis Scotland CEO Blane Dodds as well as Andy, Jamie and Judy Murray.
These four, among other have called on the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and the Scottish government to provide more money to provide facilities and staff to carry forward the “Murray Legacy”.
The issue was even raised in the House of Commons this week with Labour MP for Chesterfield Toby Perkins asking the Scottish Secretary David Mundell: “Will the Secretary of State meet representatives of the LTA and the Scottish Government to see what more can be done to ensure that this huge opportunity is not missed once and for all?”
Hundreds of miles from Westminster, this view was echoed at Edinburgh’s Merchiston Tennis Club. The club has over 300 members, most of which play at least once. The club’s head coach Jimmy Wood, who coaches over 100 players a week, is sure of where the new funding should go.
He said: “Definitely, there need to be more funding. What’s lacking, for me, at club level is good facilities. This club is catered for, it has got good facilities, but a lot of clubs aren't. Their numbers are dwindling, facilities are poor so they’re in decline”.
“So, for me, the investment has to be at club level”.
Another problem for clubs, aside from poor facilities is lack of indoor courts. Without these, it is difficult for members to play in the colder months of the year. There is, however, a cheaper alternative to building new indoor courts.
“Artificial indoor structures that you can put up temporarily over facilities”, Wood explains, “there are clubs that you can put artificial canopies over the courts in the colder months, that’s what you really need and that’s what they do in other another countries like Spain and Italy”.
A major investment in the sport in Scotland is coming in the form of a £15 million National Tennis Centre, based in Stirling, this will focus on the performance side of the game and trying to find the next high-level tennis star to come from Scotland. However, this is seen as not enough.
Wood believes that more should be done to attract youngsters from all backgrounds into the sport.
He noted: “Money needs to come into tennis at grassroots level, to try and attract kids from all different backgrounds back into tennis. At the moment, it's an expensive sport, prohibitively expensive and you’ve got to try and remove those financial barriers."
"It’s easier said than done but a start would be having good facilities that are accessible.”
Investment in Scottish tennis is not solely about discovering the next Andy Murray, it is also would allow Tennis Scotland more of an opportunity to promote the sport and encourage people of all ages to take it up as hobby.
This part of the investment is of particular interest to clubs as they are ones that most benefit from casual participation in the sport.
Wood said, “At the club, we teach the kids and some of the adults, the basics and the goal is that they will go away and play on their own and with friends and for tennis to become more about social and active hobby?"
“The goal for any club is that it becomes like the social centre in the community”
Whether another golden generation for Scottish tennis will ever happen is unknown but if investment is made in the right areas, then the chances of that happening will increase.
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