Gary Italiaander, Club Secretary of Harrow Weald Lawn Tennis Club, who won Club of the Year at the Middlesex LTA Awards, reflects on work completed six months since winning the Award.
What does winning the award mean to Harrow Weald six months on?
Winning the award has been very important to Harrow Weald Lawn Tennis Club because it shows that much of what we’re doing makes sense within the tennis world. As a small club celebrating our 125th anniversary this year, it’s particularly pleasing to have received this recognition.
The last few years have been difficult for many clubs, particularly since COVID. We’ve had to rebuild a lot of things from the beginning, which has taken considerable work. However, we’ve also developed initiatives that, I believe, go above and beyond what many other clubs are doing.
Has winning the award opened up any new opportunities for the club?
At the awards ceremony, Roger Taylor was our guest and very kindly agreed to become a patron. That’s significant for a small club like ours.
We previously had Elena Baltacha (former British Women’s Number 1) as a patron, which was also very important to us. Having Roger involved has been wonderful, and he subsequently visited the club to give a talk about his book. That evening was one of the highlights of the club’s recent history, and people really appreciated it.
Mark Bullock has also become a patron and is helping us develop disability tennis, which we hope to introduce this year.
We have another patron who is an actor and a long-standing friend of mine. Before the club became a tennis club in 1901, it was an amateur dramatic society. One of its former members was George Arliss, who went on to become the first British Oscar winner.
I’d like to do something at the club to recognise that theatrical heritage and celebrate our historical connections.
What have been your proudest moments since receiving the award?
Roger’s visit to the club was certainly a highlight. His talk about his book was a fantastic evening, and it meant a great deal to our members.
I’m also proud of the progress we’ve made in developing the club. We’ve introduced new activities, attracted sponsorship and invested in the facilities. A number of initiatives that we’ve been working on are now beginning to take off.
How has the club developed its sustainability programme?
We’ve been actively looking for sponsorship and have raised approximately £20,000 this year. A significant proportion has gone towards expanding our solar energy provision.
The company that installed the system has also invested around £18,000 worth of additional equipment into the club, including batteries to support the solar installation.
This has significantly reduced our running costs. We can also sell surplus electricity back, and we hope that during the winter we’ll be able to run our LED court lighting for much of the evening at little or no additional cost.
Last year, we spent a lot of time discussing whether investing in solar energy was the right decision. It unquestionably was, because it began reducing our outgoings almost immediately.
We’ve also received £1,000 worth of timber from a local timber supplier for building work at the club.
These investments are helping us become more efficient and financially sustainable, while allowing us to improve the facilities available to our members and the wider community.
How important is it to diversify the club’s activities?
It’s essential. When I spoke about sustainability at the Middlesex AGM at Queen’s last year, I said that clubs have to find ways to keep themselves going. If a club fails, another tennis venue disappears.
Whatever it takes to generate income and keep the club running, we need to consider it. However, the money we generate ultimately goes back into the club and the community.
We introduced pickleball about a year ago, and it has taken off remarkably quickly. It’s bringing new people into the club and generating additional income.
We’ve recently added another two pickleball courts, giving us six in total. That means up to 24 people can play pickleball at the same time without taking away space from our tennis courts.
We’re attracting people from other clubs because we’re currently the only local venue offering this opportunity.
We also have different membership options. Full members can access both tennis and pickleball, while separate pickleball membership is available.
Our aim is to offer activities that appeal to different people while ensuring tennis remains our priority.
How has the club become more connected to its local community?
We’ve increasingly opened the club up to the wider community. Although we remain primarily a tennis club, we’re also becoming a community centre.
One example is our friendship club, which we established around 18 months ago. Through my involvement with the local surgery’s patients’ association, I was aware that loneliness was a significant issue for some older people.
We started the friendship club to give people somewhere to meet. We don’t charge for attendance, and tea, coffee and biscuits are provided, sponsored by the local surgery. It has been extremely successful.
We also allow a charity to use our kitchens to prepare food for approximately 150 homeless people each week in central London.
There are lots of different things happening at the club now. We might have tennis taking place alongside a friendship group, a business meeting or another community activity. These activities complement one another.
When I joined nearly 40 years ago, the attitude at many members’ clubs was that if you weren’t a member, you weren’t particularly welcome. Our approach is very different now. We still have a membership structure, but we want local people to benefit from our facilities in a variety of ways.
What difference have these changes made?
The response from people visiting the club has been remarkable. Visitors are often surprised by what we offer and how much the facilities have improved.
We’ve even started providing toasted sandwiches and cake on Monday evenings. We don’t charge for them because the cost is relatively small, but the reaction has been fantastic.
Sometimes people joke that they only come for the sandwiches! However, these little things help create a welcoming atmosphere and encourage people to return. Hopefully, they’ll eventually become members or take part in our activities.
One lady who lives locally told us she wasn’t particularly fit or sporty when she first came to try pickleball. She thought she would only attend once, but she now comes every week and has even signed up for tennis.
That’s exactly what we want to achieve: introducing people to the club in a relaxed and welcoming way, then helping them discover activities they enjoy.
What other facilities are you planning to develop?
We have several projects in the pipeline.
We’re planning to build a room around our outdoor table tennis table so that we can use it throughout the year and potentially establish a table tennis club.
We also hope to create a large, covered outdoor barbecue area. We already have people interested in booking it for events, including corporate functions.
We’ve recently replaced the clubhouse veranda with a much larger covered area, effectively doubling the usable space available around the clubhouse. This has already made a real difference.
We recently hosted a business meeting inside the clubhouse while a match and lunch took place outside under cover. Previously, we wouldn’t have been able to accommodate both activities so comfortably.
We’re now looking at ways to make the outdoor area more weatherproof for the winter, creating additional space for functions and other activities.
Having covered outdoor areas has become increasingly important, and the new space will also provide shade during warmer weather.
What advice would you give to another club hoping to win an award?
If you’re putting a club forward for an award, you need to demonstrate what makes it special and why its work deserves recognition.
For us, that’s about much more than tennis alone. We’re developing a facility that supports sport, sustainability and the wider community.
We want the club to be used as much as possible. An empty facility isn’t benefiting anyone, so we’re continually looking for ways to bring people in and make the most of what we have.
We’ve introduced a monthly coffee morning alongside pickleball, which is already proving popular. We’ve also hosted a warm hub in the past and continue to explore ways to make the facilities available to local people.
The key is to think creatively about what your club can offer. Tennis must remain central to what we do, but there are many ways to make a club more sustainable and valuable to its community.
How important is it to recognise other people’s contributions?
It’s extremely important. This year, Heather (Bickerton) received the Lifetime Achievement Award, which was thoroughly deserved.
Heather & Middlesex Chairman Phil
Heather has been a member of the club for 74 years. She is 97 and will turn 98 next month, yet she still visits regularly, participates in club activities and helps with charitable work, including paperwork for the charity using our facilities.
She has given so much to the club over many decades, and I was delighted that she received the recognition.
What’s next for the club?
I’ve been driving improvements at the club for many years, including introducing a lockable gate, CCTV and reliable Wi-Fi. In the past, it was sometimes difficult to persuade the committee to invest in new facilities, but we now have a very supportive committee that is committed to developing the club.
Sometimes people need to see an idea become reality before they understand its potential. The new veranda is a perfect example: the reaction from visitors has been fantastic.
My main aim is to ensure the club is used as much as possible throughout the year. Tennis remains our priority, but we also want local people to benefit from the facilities.
We’re continuing to develop our pickleball provision, improve the outdoor spaces and explore additional community activities. We’re also investing in energy-efficient technology.
For example, we installed a new infrared heating system last year. It heats people and objects rather than simply heating the building, making it more efficient. We can even control and monitor it remotely through an app.
These investments cost money initially, but in the long term they can make the club more efficient and reduce running costs.
Ultimately, we’re creating a facility that is useful and welcoming throughout the year, offering much more than traditional tennis alone.
What does the future look like for Harrow Weald Lawn Tennis Club?
We’ve made tremendous progress, and I believe we’ve established ourselves as an outstanding community facility.
We may not be a centre of excellence for tennis in the traditional sense, but we’re becoming a centre of excellence for everything we’re doing around the sport and the community.
We want to continue building on that success, welcoming more people through our doors and ensuring the club remains sustainable for future generations.
We’re proud of the award, but we’re equally proud of what it represents: a club that is evolving, investing in its future and making a positive difference to the people around it.
Snapshots
Gary & Middlesex Chairman Phil
What are the LTA Awards?
Celebrating excellence in British tennis and padel.
The LTA Awards, presented by Lexus, shine a spotlight on the outstanding achievements and contributions of individuals and organisations across Great Britain.
First launched in 2015 by former LTA president Cathie Sabin OBE, these awards celebrate the passion, dedication, and hard work of some of the 20,000 volunteers, coaches, clubs, parks and officials who give their time to support and grow tennis and padel across the country.
The awards recognise the people who are making a real difference in their communities and offer an opportunity to say thank you to those inspiring others to get involved, supporting their local clubs, and helping create welcoming, accessible opportunities for everyone to play.
Deadline for Nominations for 2026 Awards
Who’s Your Tennis or Padel Hero? Now is the time to nominate.
Deadline is 30th November.
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