THE tennis courts at St Briavels playing field have re-opened after a £25,000 refurbishment.

The courts were officially opened by Ursula Williams, a long-time supporter of tennis in the village.

She said the volunteer committee had done a “brilliant job” in raising the money for the refurbishment which has seen the courts resurfaced and painted as well as new nets installed.

Mrs Williams said: “The court opened in 1976, it was anybody's tennis court who wanted to play.

“And it's remained like that and I think that's absolutely marvellous.”

David Shoubridge, who was part of the fund-raising committee said the court would remain free to use and there was also equipment available.

He said it was Mark Walton who got the refurbishment project started.

“Four years ago, the court was an absolute wreck.

“The surface had all gone out to gravel, there were weeds and little treeless growing all the way around the outside.

The lines had disappeared, the net was broken, and Mark started off a project, and raised some money, and got hold of working teams to sort it all out,

“With the tennis court was reborn then, after a long period of not being used.

“He also got Rachel Ryder, who's a tennis coach on board, and she's been very helpful in getting people to play tennis.

“Between them, they've really brought tennis back into the village.

“The only problem was the court became so popular that the surface deteriorated even further.

“The gravel on the top was coming off, and every time he swept it, it left lumps and bumps and the playing got very difficult, and almost hazardous, so it's almost exactly a year ago.

“A year ago the playing field committee approved the proposal to resurface it which was going to cost about £25,000.

“That's a lot of money for a village to raise. We decided to do it by a mixture of local donations, and then also grants.

“We set a target for local donations of £3,000 and you all hit it in three weeks flat. which was fantastic.

It meant we've got a really flying start from when you started to apply for grants.

“We ended up exceeding our target of 25,000, which meant we could get on with it.

“The first job we had to do was to repair the wall.

“This wall was collapsing and it's a fantastic job that's being done byTom and Pete Adams and Pete Barnaby.

They're really built a lovely wall which means that the court is not going to drift down sideways, like we thought it might.

The court really does look great, but we nearly didn't get it done because of the weather.

“We were delayed for the tarmac, we were delayed for the painting.

“It was the last painting job of the season, everything else was moved to spring."

“The court's available for anybody to enjoy, it will still be free, it will still be unlocked, I hope we can keep it like that.”