A team from Chatteris Tennis Club will compete against a team of past and present GB Tennis Players in a 24-hour sponsored tennisathon at the National Tennis Centre in London.

The event, on February 17 and 18, is organised by ‘Bright Ideas for Tennis’, a charity set up to assist clubs to raise funds to provide modern facilities to for their communities.

Chatteris is one of just eight teams invited to take part, from over 4000 tennis clubs in the UK.

Their opponents at the event will be: Danny Sapsford, GB Davis Cup Player 1990-95 and Jocelyn Rae, GB Federation Cup Player 2011-17, winner of the Mixed Doubles Commonwealth Gold Medal 2010.

Every four hours they will be partnered by a different past or present GB player including current World No 9; Johanna Konta.

The Chatteris team of eight includes Lucy Thompson, 10, and Judith Grounds, who in her mid 70’s, continues to play all year round twice a week, together with club team players and members Shona Kent, Simon Grainger, Tony Finch, Angela Whitehead, Andrew Fox and John Freeman.

The Chatteris Team has been challenged to raise £10,000 in sponsorship from the event towards the club’s target of raising £25,000 by Easter 2018 to expand the facilities at their St Peter’s Drive location.

Chatteris is currently ‘the Cambridgeshire Tennis Club of the year’ and has in the last two years doubled its membership and local league team participation and trebled it’s provisional of coaching for all ages and abilities from 5 upwards. Achieving its target will enable the club to gain match funding from Cambs LTA to convert its limited seasonal use grass courts to all year around hard courts, doubling its provision to the community.

The club has members from Chatteris, but also from March, Manea, Doddington, Wimblington, Ramsey, Whittlesey, Witchford and Wilburton.

For more information call 01354 695014 or visit www.chatteristennis.com