TAVISTOCK Tennis Club is reporting a record number of new members with the relaxation of Covid-19 restrictions.

The club on Plymouth Road reports that it has 68 new members and its courts are once again busy with people playing, all while maintaining a social distance from each other.

Chairman Peter Rodgers said: ‘We were shut for a while. Back in March, the Lawn Tennis Association said we couldn’t continue with the Covid-19 situation and so we had to close. Then the Government said you can do certain sports like golf and tennis so we were able to open up again, with precautions like bringing your own racquets and staying on your side of the net.

He said the club was heartened by the number of people now playing on the courts.

As part of the Covid-19 restrictions, courts need to be reserved before a game, and Peter said he thought that had encouraged people.

‘I think people want to exercise and a few families thought they’d give it a go because of the half price offer we’ve got going at the moment. We have more new people playing and oddly one of the things that has encouraged more people to turn up to play is that every court has to be booked beforehand. We’ve done that because we don’t want three groups to turn up at the same time to use the court at the same time.’

It is also possible to book a court via the club website. There is also a Facebook page, with the club being particularly grateful to secretary Liz Webb for all her hard work in fielding new membership enquiries.

With contact sports not possible at the moment, he said tennis had really come into its own.

‘The restrictions have now opened up a bit more, so you could, for instance, have a doubles game for people from different families,’ he added. ‘It is just great to see it being used.

‘I think tennis clubs can be seen as a bit snooty but we really are not snooty and we would welcome even more members, the more the better. We have a great resource in the middle of Tavistock park there and we want to see it used as much as possible.’