2022 was a fabulous year for Bradfield Tennis. The College boys won the Youll Cup for the first time ever and the Springthorpe Cup and the Loveband Shield was won by a girls team during the 2022 tennis season.

On Saturday 17 June 2023, we held a celebration at Bradfield marking this success and recognising donors, Bradfieldians and Friends of Bradfield, including former and current parents who have all helped make the tennis facilities at Bradfield what they are today. OB Tony Billington (H 59-63) was guest of honour and recognised for the important part that he played in getting the funding for the Indoor Tennis Centre project which started 30 years ago and his nephew Tim Henman who opened them on 21 May 2000. Tony and others such as Chris Gorringe (E 59-64) were also instrumental in helping the Clay Courts project come to fruition which were opened on 26 June 2017.

The day started with Reception Drinks at Crossways in the Headmaster’s garden where the Headmaster and Tony reflected on the sequence of events and key individuals which brought about the building of the Indoor Tennis Centre.

Looking back, the school had been encouraged by Bradfieldian Tony Billington’s vision (H 59-63) to pre-empt a scheme to build an indoor tennis facility as a Centre of Excellence for Berkshire at a neighbouring school and apply to the National Lottery Fund for a grant. At the time this was not an urgent priority, but the College’s tennis facilities were poor and insufficient for the increasing number of pupils, particularly girls, attending the College. Tony gave credit to the Bursar at the time, Brigadier Michael Lord who took the plans forward when further investigation revealed that while the Lottery Fund would provide a sizeable proportion of the funding and the LTA would provide an interest free loan, there still might be a gap originally estimated to be £50,000, but which grew to c.£250,000 as planning requirements increased. A dinner at White’s club in London in July 2000 led to a quick ‘whip round’ of the Trustees attending and the gap was closed. The auctioneering skills of Michael Stone’s successor, Anthony ‘Jumbo’ Fuller (H 51-56), who had taken on the mantle of Chairman of the Bradfield Foundation in January 1999, were clearly in evidence on that occasion and we were thrilled that Jumbo was able to join us on Saturday.

The Headmaster spoke of Tony being the “lightening rod” for the whole project. Tony also credited four outstanding Headmasters during the time of the whole project – Peter Smith, Peter Roberts, Simon Henderson and Chris Stevens and also the Masters of Tennis from Basil Johnson, Paul Murtagh, Andrew Hunter who remembers Tony’s “commitment, inspiration and example” and the current Director of Tennis Damian Fuller.  Tony said the project had been all about people and he complimented Chris Stevens and James Wyatt (G 58-63) who was Director of Development at the College at the time. It is Tony’s belief that clay facilities really stretch the most talented pupil players and have given the school pupils the edge and he also praised Damian Fuller for the wonderful team of 8 coaches who now work at Bradfield.

Damian had arranged a fantastic display of all the trophies won by the College on the new terrace beside the Indoor Centre Reception when the plaque was unveiled by Tony. The plaque reads: "This plaque recognises those alumni, parents and other donors who contributed to the construction of this building in particular Tony Billington (OB) whose leadership enabled the successful completion of the Indoor Tennis Centre and Clay Court facilities.” Photographs of the day are included in the gallery below.

The afternoon finished with guests watching the pupils play on the Clay Courts while enjoying afternoon tea - the boys playing Marlborough College and the girls’ fixture against Charterhouse.

2023 continues to be similarly successful with Bradfield earning double recognition at this year’s LTA National Awards being nominated on a shortlist of three for the LTA School of the Year and one of our tennis coaches Selena Coburn being shortlisted for the LTA Official of the Year award. Both nominations followed on from the school’s success at the LTA Regional Awards where Bradfield was named Regional School of the Year and Selena won the Official of the Year award for the Central and East Region. We now await the decision which is due on 4 July 2023.