More than £1,000 raised during rain-soaked Tennis-a-thon

But ​Horncastle and District Tennis Club have beaten that with a fundraising Tennis-a-thon, where members of the club played tennis for 24 hours between them!

The club are currently fundraising to resurface their courts and upgrade the court lights to LED ones, which the club have applied for a number of grants to fund, but will need to raise £28,000 themselves as well.

While they have money in their savings, they will need to fundraise for the money to ensure they do not drain their funds, and the club is set to hold a number of fundraising events throughout the season.

The first of these – a 24hour Tennis-a-thon – was held from 2pm on Friday (July 14) through the night to 2pm on Saturday.

The weekend saw torrential rain and strong winds batter the Tennis-a-thon, and spokesman Sue Turner said the wind was so strong that their gazebo ended up blown across the court, and their barbecue was blown over and broke – luckily the barbecue was out and no-one was hurt.

"Some of our players were absolutely drenched and I think the weather put some people off coming to play in the team challenge, and some people played, got soaked, and went home to shower before coming back to play again, and got drenched again!” Sue said.

"But we still had people playing the whole time so we did really well, and some of the best weather came during the night and we had great support from youngsters waving glowsticks during the night.”

Overall, the event has raised more than £1,000 towards the club’s plans, and Sue has thanked everyone who came and supported them during their gruelling challenge.

"We’re all a bit tired now which is understandable, but it went really well and we had people saying how nice and friendly our club is when they joined us for a coffee which is lovely.”

To find out more about Horncastle & District Tennis Club, visit https://www.horncastletennis.co.uk/