– RYDE MEAD LAWN TENNIS CLUB OPEN AFTERNOON – PLAY TENNIS FOR FREE

Ryde Mead Lawn Tennis Club is holding an Open Afternoon on SUNDAY 11TH JUNE 2023 to celebrate its 115th year and its first as a charity aiming to promote community participation in tennis. The Club is opening its doors and is inviting the community to view the Club facilities, meet the members and maybe take advantage of the free taster coaching sessions that will be available for people of all ages and abilities throughout the afternoon from 2 – 5pm.  All equipment will be provided.

There will also be music and a raffle with some fantastic prizes to be won:

A climbing experience for 2 people with Goodleaf Tree Climbing

A one-hour coaching session with our coach Nick Searles

Two Wight Karting standard memberships plus two 15 minute ‘arrive and drive’ sessions.

 A Cream Tea for Two at the Courtside Café

A Pickle & Dill Hamper

The Courtside Café will be offering a range of food and drinks and there will be discounted membership packages available to sign up to on the day.

About Ryde Mead Lawn Tennis Club

Ryde Mead Lawn Tennis Club is a friendly community tennis club open to all, located at Church Lane, Ryde PO33 2NB since 1907. There are 5 hard courts, 3 of which are floodlit, and a clubhouse that hosts the Courtside Café. Group and private coaching sessions are available for members and non-members and the courts are available to hire by all.

In 2022 the Club incorporated as a charity (Charity No:1199560) to promote community participation in healthy recreation by providing facilities for playing, learning and teaching tennis and other racquet sports such as pickleball which was introduced in 2022 with 2 courts available for this new activity. Last year the Club began regular tennis sessions for the Haylands Farm community with learning difficulties and has now received funding from the Dan Maskell Tennis Trust enabling the Club to provide professional coaching for this group.

The Club is also supporting the training of teachers across the Island to help them supervise tennis sessions with pupils and is working with “Bright ideas for tennis” who support disability tennis across the UK. Bright Ideas for Tennis are providing the Club with funding for equipment and have provided training for our coach and volunteers to enable the Club to investigate ways to make tennis more accessible to the visually impaired on the Island.

About Haylands Farm

The Farm opened in 1976, and as an Agricultural Unit provided training and work experience for people with learning difficulties living on the Isle of Wight. Haylands Farm was opened by Isle Of Wight Mencap as a small Day Centre Unit for a group of Young Schools Leavers with learning difficulties, whose parents were concerned about the occupational future of their children.  At the start we only had agricultural and horticultural sections, and now we have woodwork/ craft and lifeskills as well.  In 2013 we opened a classic car section which is run by volunteers. 2016 we opened a Charity Shop in Ryde High street. Haylands Farm is important to the IW Community. It offers people a real working environment tailored to meet their individual needs, supports families and siblings giving respite and enabling parents to work.  Items produced at the farm are sold to the local community.   

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