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Hidden gem still holds court
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| Essex Senior Cup team following one of their many successes in the years immediately following the First World War |
IF Howzat?! is the cry of the cricket pitch, Wherezat?! may be the most common response to the words Westcliff Lawn Tennis Club.
The club is one of the Southend area's best-kept secrets. It lies behind a narrow gap in the London Road street-front, the sort of place that normally leads to yards or garages.
This gap, though, opens out into an amazing discovery, two acres of green open space, wholly devoted to tennis.
Any property developer setting eyes on this would have to be taken home and put to bed in tears.
Around the rim, operating as a high-value security barricade, are some of the most valuable properties in the Southend area.
No wonder club captain Steve Wynn is able to say: "We've been very lucky about theft and vandalism, touch wood."
To vandalise a place, first you have to find it. The club has had this secret space to itself for a long time.
This year it celebrates its centenary. The formation of the club was announced on November 27 1907, coinciding with the acquisition of the present site, although matchplay didn't begin until the following summer season.
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| Steve Wynn |
Subscriptions were one pound and five shillings per annum for gentlemen, and one guinea for ladies.
The original set of accounts still exists. Steve says: "It's interesting to compare the cost of laying grass courts in 1908 with today's prices." In 1908, a doubles court cost £9.10s.0d (£9.50) and a singles £9.
"These days a court costs £12,500," Steve says. Some things do not change, however.
In 1908, a dispute with the first contractor led to the club withholding £1 per tennis court from the final payment.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the club down the years has been the success of its lady players.
By the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 they had won the Essex Senior Cup 13 times.
One player, Miss DH Crichton, won the Ladies Singles Championship for ten years in unbroken succession.
The men didn't do so badly either, winning the Senior Cup four times. The other striking feature of the club has proved to be its continuity.
Across a century of convulsive change, in Southend and the outside world, the tennis balls kept on bouncing across the Westcliff nets and members, clutching their rackets, lined up in front of the nets for their annual photographs.
Yet some things have changed. The courts have slowly made the shift away from natural grass and are now wholly composed of artificial turf.
Floodlights have been installed, allowing play for 12 months a year. Dress has become markedly more casual.
One other significant change is apparent from old photographs. Weekend club tournaments attracted crowds of hundreds of spectators.
The most disruptive period of the club's history was, not surprisingly, the Second World War, when the courts and clubhouse were taken over by the military for the duration.
During the war years, the courts were hit twice by high- explosive bombs.
The club was allowed to return to its premises in 1946, but after six years of non-activity and the ravages of war, it found itself on its knees financially.
There were no assets beyond the property, and it was estimated that at least £2,000 would be needed to restore the courts to playable condition.
In 1947, Westcliff Lawn Tennis Club went into voluntary liquidation, selling its assets to local businessman CK Wyman. Happily, Mr Wyman proved something of a white knight.
Instead of trying to build all over the club site, he used his own resources to reinstate the courts to their pre-war condition, and ran the club as a business.
Under the wing of its president, the colourful millionaire and local MP Henry "Chips" Channon, the club's fortunes bounced back like a new tennis ball.
The only casualty of the original club has been a strip of land along the western edge, which originally extended to Chalkwell Avenue. This was sold and developed in the 1970s, the first club-house being demolished in the process.
The present clubhouse occupies the old toilet block.
As the club enters its second century, Steve Wynn is able to describe membership levels and finance as "comfortable".
Current club membership numbers 140 players, with a roughly 50/50 per cent mix of men and women, and "a strong social element", according to Steve.
He should know - he met his wife Hazel while playing tennis at the club. Westcliff remains part of a thriving caucus of clubs that gives south Essex the highest tennis club membership of any district in the UK.
How long, though, can it hope to continue, given the mouthwatering value of the real estate on which it sits?
"Indefinitely, we hope," says Steve.
"Nobody would profit from selling it off. There's a clause in the constitution that says if the land is sold, the proceeds go to charity."
11:10pm Thursday 26th June 2008
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