Make tennis less middle-class

Andy Murray’s win at Wimbledon is not only a major sporting achievement, but is hopefully a new dawn for British sport and tennis in the UK. We should now look very closely on how we can produce more Andy Murray’s and a future women’s champion in the South-East, and look at how we can integrate tennis into the sports activities in schools.

At present schools do not have enough trained staff able or willing to work after school to show children effective sporting techniques. Therefore we need to look at ways of getting local sports clubs more closely involved with local schools.

Tennis is a sport that has been for too long associated with the middle-class. Let’s see children from less fortunate backgrounds given the same opportunities to learn to play tennis, especially in areas where there may be existing tennis clubs. Let’s get the LTA and the Lottery to invest more resources in schools and clubs in areas of South-East that would not get a chance to play tennis.

Please send me your ideas about what can be done to get more people involved in tennis by emailing me at [email protected].

Yours Faithfully

Richard Ashworth Conservative MEP for the South-East