The legacy of a tennis coach who left £20k to his local club moved a step closer to being realised after new clubhouse plans received a funding boost.

Oswestry Team Tennis (OTT) was awarded a grant of £5,000 to help install a modular clubhouse on the site of a former workshop building in Cae Glas Park following a meeting of Oswestry Town Council last night (September 11).

The project represents the legacy of the club’s former head coach Mike Markham, who left £20,000 in his will to help the club build new facilities when he died in 2018.

The funding award comes a fortnight after a planning application for the scheme had been approved by Shropshire Council.

The club still needs to find at least £24,000 to complete the project, but said in a statement that once completed, the new building will provide the “glue” that brings its near-180 members together.

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“In 2018, Mike Markham our Head Tennis Coach and well known in the Oswestry community sadly passed away having fought cancer for a long time,” said a supporting statement issued with the club’s planning application earlier this year.

“In his will, he very kindly left £20,000 to OTT to go towards achieving our dream for provision of a clubhouse. The importance of his legacy has therefore only served to heighten the need to achieve this project for the club, its members and Mike’s legacy.”

The club relocated to its current home at Cae Glas in 2004 with the help of a £100,000 grant from the Barclays Spaces for Sport scheme, which allowed them to build several junior tennis courts with floodlights alongside a full sized court for adult members.

Since then the club, which says it focuses on its junior sections, has grown from 50 members to nearly 200 and has seen members go on to play at representative levels.

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In its grant application to Oswestry Town Council the club added that a proposed 25-year tenure agreement for the land in Cae Glas Park would allow them to apply for external funding needed to complete the project.

“We have worked closely with the town council on this project since around 2017, so to see our clubhouse project coming to the finishing line will be an outstanding achievement for us all,” it said.

“We are a small but motivated club, so to have got this stage without any significant external support so far, I think is an amazing achievement.”

Oswestry Town Council, who have worked with the tennis club on the project for several years, said they would assist however they could in order to see the clubhouse reach completion.

“We were pleased to hear the news that Oswestry Team Tennis have been successful with their planning application and we look forward to working with them to see this longstanding project delivered,” said a spokesperson for the town council.