Colwyn Bay tennis centre gets award

Nov 11 2010 by Richard Evans, North Wales Weekly News

A TENNIS centre has proved to be a centre of excellence after being accredited with a prestigious national sports award.

The James Alexander Barr Tennis Centre at Eirias Park in Colwyn Bay has achieved the Tennis Club Mark after being singled out by the Lawn Tennis Association for best practice.Š

Peter Drew is the executive director of Tennis Wales and presented the award to staff at the centre this week.

Suzanne Evanson is a assistant at the tennis centre and said everyone at the Conwy County Council-run centre was delighted with the award.

“It is really hard to achieve the award, a lot of hard work goes into the club by everyone associated with it and this brings us to a more professional level,” she said.

“It also proves we offer a wide range of different training for different abilities. Everyone at the club is really pleased to get this award after all our hard work.

“We have players here as young as four and our eldest player here is 90, so we cater for everyone, and we also hold disabled sessions.

“It is an important community facility, we’ve got a few children who train here who are at a really good standard so the future looks really bright.”

The award follows an announcement by first minister Carwyn Jones that Parc Eirias is set to receive £4.8 million of Assembly funds to develop a new £6.5 million sports complex.

The development will see Eirias Park becoming the home of North Wales rugby as the facility is set to include an upgraded pitch to WRU International Standard, a 2,500-seat covered grandstand, floodlights and team changing facilities.

There will also be a large multi-purpose indoor centre for use by the community, including conference and classroom facilities for business and commerce events, an indoor pitch, a gym and high performance sports analysis facilities.

A pitch protection system will be installed to allow spectator standing on the sports pitch for outdoor concerts.