Doncaster Lawn Tennis Club coach Liz Beaton wins prestigious award

Although delighted to have won the prestigious award the long-serving joint club coach wasted no time in playing down her role in the club’s success.

“We have had a good year at the club from a coaching point of view but everything we have delivered and achieved is very much a team effort,” she said at the Bessacarr club’s Saxton Avenue base.

“Mick Hague and I plan our targets for the year and we have a number of young coaches and Tennis Leaders, who have come through our programme, who help us deliver.

“One of the reasons this award was presented (to me) was because we enter teams in leagues from age eight to 16 years. We always fulfil our fixtures and we always deliver well-staffed and organised events at the club.

“This has much to do with our fantastic young people who volunteer their time to help both with the coaching and at events.”

Liz, who recently took great pride in watching eight-year-old Emily Cheetham represent the North of England against Wales at Bolton Arena, said the club were not about to rest on their laurels over the next 12 months.

“We have plans to expand our involvement with disability tennis after a really rewarding year working with the Mencap group,” she said.

“Last week I attended a course which I hope will help me promote tennis to girls between 5-8 years. We have had some success with girls’ groups at the club and we work very hard to create a fun, social and friendly environment for them to feel comfortable learning new skills.”

Any youngsters wishing to try out tennis should come along to the club’s Friday ‘pay and play’ session which runs throughout the year starting at 4.30pm (under 8s). The 9-12 years session starts at 5.30pm. Older, more experienced players, are catered for in the 6.30pm session.

Visit www.dltc.co.uk for more information.