Bandon Tennis Club makes a night of it with centenary celebration weekend

BANDON Tennis Club’s  all-nighter to celebrate its 100th anniversary proved a fantastic success, raising more than €4,000 for a local charity.

The 24-hour tennis spectacular saw 116 club members taking part, with matches starting at 2pm on Saturday September 9th, and continuing until 3pm on Sunday, September 10th. 

‘We picked the right weekend in terms of weather, it was ideal and mild during the night,’ said club chairman Steven Roycroft, who himself played from 12.30am until 3.30am.

The list of participants in the tennis marathon at Bandon Tennis Club last month.

Matches were played in doubles format and players ranged in age from eight years old to around 75 years old. The recent upgrades to the club’s LED floodlighting ensured the night-time matches weren’t a problem.

‘In the middle of the night we  had a couple of  family members coming to watch at 2am, so it was a bit of craic. We had one person who had a night out and got up for the 6am game so fair play to her.

‘We had a barbecue on the Sunday, and there were a lot of older member from committees of the past at that and they were delighted.’ 

So far Bandon Tennis Club has  raised more than €4,000 for the St Michaels’ Centre from a gofundme online fundraiser and from collections over the weekend and the barbecue. St Michael’s Centre is a community support service for older people in Bandon, helping them to live independently. 

Some of the services provided by St Michael’s include Meals on Wheels, a volunteer ‘care ring’ service, fingerposting for older people to reach other services, digital learning and educational services. The centre also provides a social outlet with popular musical events with visiting musicians, recreational meet-ups, card games, and other activities. The centre carries out outreach work in the community, and works hand in hand with organisations like Age Action, Age Friendly, Citizen Information, Cork ETB, and the HSE.

Bandon Tennis Club is the largest all-weather tennis club in West Cork and is celebrating 100 years in existence. 

The club has 188 active members, made up of 55 juniors, 124 seniors, and nine over 70s. 

The gofundme fundraiser is still open and anyone interested in contributing can click on:
https://gofund.me/0c2601ae