NANTWICH Tennis Club members are in raptures after receiving a grant of £25,000 from The Foundation for Sport and the Arts.
It caps off a great season for the club as the teams enjoyed success in the South and Mid Cheshire Leagues.
The Ladies 'A' team managed the remarkable feat of going undefeated throughout their Division One games - retaining their title in the process as well as winning the knockout competition.
The 'B' team won Division Four and the Men's 'A' came runners up in Division One. Treasurer for the club, Colin Laughlin, applied for the grant after seeing a huge growth in the junior section of the club.
He said: 'This really is quite unexpected to be awarded the grant because we had to fight off competition from various other tennis clubs.
'There has been an eight fold increase since 2000 from junior members and non-members. The facilities of the clubhouse drastically needed improving as there is only one toilet in the existing wooden structure.'
The sum will go towards existing savings to build a new, brick-built clubhouse to accommodate the huge increase in the popularity of the sport in Nantwich.
Mr Laughlin added: 'There is still so much hard work to be done for the building to be in place for the start of next season. Now the planning can go ahead which we could not have done without the grant.
'Once it is in place then we can start celebrating. This is by far the biggest project we've undertaken but I hope progress will continue in building for the future.'
The club hopes to erect floodlights for the junior courts once the clubhouse has been constructed.
