NENAGH LTC - ONE OF THE OLDEST CLUBS IN THE COUNTRY

Beginninngs

Nenagh LTC has its origins back in the late 1800's. We do not have precise dates as to when they started playing tennis there, but certainly by the year 1900 there was a thriving lawn tennis club in existence.

Play in those days would have course have been on all grass courts. We are talking about real grass courts - the type one talented tennis superstar of the 1980's, also known as a superbrat, is alleged to have referred to as being suitable only for cows. Whatever, John McEnroe's alleged comments on one occasion re grass courts were, the surface certainly suited his exquisite skills.

The club probably began with 2 or 3 courts and grew from there. Apparently, there was reputedly up to 10 grass courts in operation at one time. It would be a short season of course. Play had to be during the Summer months and probably on certain club days.

Other Sports

In the early stages, Hockey was extensivesly played there. Hockey was apparently very popular up to the time of the first World War. Part of the grounds was set aside as hockey pitch. This is probably why there is such ample space at the club. The whole facility would have been catering for Tennis, Hockey and Croquet.

After the Great War, the hockey section declined and disappeared. However, Hockey returned briefly to the club in recent times. In the mid-1980's, the Nenagh ladies hockey club examined the possibility of playing hockey on the area of the old grass courts.

The Nenagh Hockey club and the local CMS hockey team trained there for a season or so, but it did'nt work out. The available area was too small and the club moved elsewhere.

Croquet would have been a regular sport played there from the early stages also and indeed the club was officially known as Nenagh Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club up to recent times.

The croquet section went out of existence at various stages and made occasional comebacks. And in fact croquet was played there briefly for a while in the 1970's and early 1980's.

Some of the members in the club at the time were interested in trying the game and the necessary equipment was purchased. The problems of keeping a manicured croquet lawn would have been similar (and perhaps more difficult) to those in maintaining the tennis courts.

The Tennis Club

In all, there is about 3 acres at the club. To-day, it's doubtful if any tennis club in Ireland exclusively owns as much ground, and indeed, it's to-day's members' great good fortune that such is the case. There are many towns and villages where people would play tennis, but obtaining a facility to put down courts is the first problem encountered.

As a tennis club, Nenagh has always had a good reputation for good players and friendliness. The senior open tournament has been running since the 1930's and probably earlier but in a different guise, possibly one day events when players from neighbouring clubs would visit. Such clubs would be Birr Ormond, Roscrea, Limerick LTC and possibly Thurles.

Of those clubs only Limerick LTC survives today as a club from that era. There is though today, an old and progressive tennis club in Birr known as Wilmer Tennis Club, the founding date of which this writer is unaware. No doubt this article will prompt someone to inform us of other clubs from the area now extinct. We would welcome such information.

Two Clubs in Nenagh

From its beginnings, Nenagh LTC was a very exclusive club and was difficult to become a member of. So, around 1930 or thereabouts, another tennis club was formed in the town.

This club was situated approximately where the current car park is, opposite the New Institute in the town. As far as this writer as aware, the new club had only one court, but that was a hardcourt and therefore offered opportunity for play in wet weather and throughout the year.

The new club prospered for a period and inter-club matches would be a common enough event. The old club declined somewhat over the next 20 years and with the need for new members and another club in the town with members and inadequate facilities, it was natural that a coming together of clubs might occur.

Fortunately, some members of both clubs saw this as a natural and sensible progression for the game and worked towards an amalgamation. At first, the town club's members had certain playing days at the Limerick Road club.

The benefits of this obviously accrued to both clubs and the impetus for full merger was given greater push. Eventually, around 1952, the clubs become one.

Decline of Grass Courts

During the late 1960's, the club put down the first 2 hardcourts which offered the chance to play in all weathers and all seasons. At this stage, the club had 6 grass and 2 hardcourts.

This was the situation until the early 1980's when the club installed 2 further hardcourts. At this stage, 2 of the existing 6 grass courts were no longer useable and in a few years the club would decide to discontinue the use of the others due to difficulties in maintaining them.

Around this time there was a general leaning to the all weather hardcourts which allowed all year round play. This was the situation in most clubs throughout the country. The grass was coming out and the hardcourts going in.

Within a short time of course, the trend, when you could afford it, was back towards grass, only now it was the artificial type and playable all year.

Floodlights

Floodlit tennis in Ireland only really started in the late 1970's. There was no need for lights as tennis was a Summer game played on natural lawn courts during the long evenings. But with the arrival of hardcourts and facility to play throughout the year, it was natural that floodlights would follow.

Nenagh installed the first lights on 2 courts (Courts 3 and 4 opposite the clubhouse) in 1990. During the 1990's, all courts would have floodlights installed.

Artificial Grass

Artificial Grass tennis courts arrived in Ireland during the late 1980's. The artifical grass surface is a synthetic carpet with sand brushed in between the carpet piles to keep them upright.

There are different artificial grass types, depending on which company you buy the court from. Artificial grass courts are laid down on existing good tarmacadam hardcourts.

In 1990, when Nenagh installed the first floodlights, the club was operating on 4 hardcourts, During the early 1990's, 2 further hardcourts were laid. Shortly afterwards, the club put down 4 omni-court surface artificial grass courts on top of 4 of the existing hardcourts. In the late 1990's, the remaining 2 hardcourts were replaced with 2 more floodlit omni courts.

Short Tennis Court

A short tennis court suitable for children was also built. This court is dedicated to the memory of Declan Purcell who died tragically in road accident aged 4 1/2.

Clubhouse

Today, visitors to Nenagh LTC will immediately notice the magnificent new clubhouse. This was opened in 1999. The clubhouse is built on the same part of the club grounds upon which the club's old and much loved clubhouse existed.

The old clubhouse, in some form or other probably went back to early days of the club. Over the years, it had been modernised, added to, improved and generally well maintained. It was also the venue for numerous happy nights …..and early mornings.

All the facilities, changing rooms, showers, toilets, bar, function room, etc were there. However, it was mainly a timber structure, and it's lifespan was limited.

That factor, among others, prompted the club committee in the late 1990's to examine the possibility to building a new clubhouse. The club was going very well and the committee decided to act when the 'iron was hot' as the saying goes.

So, the new clubhouse was built and officially opened in 1999.

Playing Tennis

Nenagh LTC has official Senior Open and Junior Tournaments in the Tennis Ireland calendar. These events regularly attract many outside players from clubs within a radius of 50 miles and are highly regarded.

The club competes in Munster Branch organised inter-club tennis. Up to the mid-1980's, success at Munster level eluded the club, although it has to be said that the club did not enter many teams in Munster competition due to various reasons.

No doubt, the fact that travel to Cork would have been likely requirement of competing was a significant factor. In addition, there was not then anything like the amount of inter-club competitions which are available today.

However, over the last 15 to 20 years, the club has made a significant impact in Munster and it has been very successful. The Guinness Plate won in the early 1980's represent's the club's first Munster success. Then in 1986, the club won Division III of the Munster Winter League.

However, it was not until 1990 that it managed to win a big Summer event, namely the ladies Michel (now Keane) Cup. The equivalent mens' Nationalist Cup event followed in 1991.

Since then, the club has regularly featured as winners or runners-up on Munster inter-club finals days.

The club also play in the Midland Tennis League during the Summer months. This league opens opportunities for the club to play clubs in Leinster and East Galway.

The Midland Tennis League has been running since 1986 and Nenagh has enjoyed considerable success in each of the 4 divisions of the league since its inception. Division I, II, III and IV titles have been won at various times.

Nenagh juniors have also done well in Munster circles, particularly in the schools tennis arena, in which Nenagh CMS and Nenagh CBS regularly feature in Munster schools finals and we are proud to say have won on many occasions.

Almost all the players on these schools teams would be members of Nenagh LTC. Likewise at Nenagh Gaelscoil which has also featured in Munster, winning the Girls Primary School title one year.

Munster and Irish Community Games titles have also been won by teams representing Nenagh parish, those players mostly being members of Nenagh LTC.

Significant Items for Nenagh LTC

Big occasions for the club over the years have included the staging of the senior interprovincial championships on the grass courts in 1975 and the staging of the junior interprovincial championships there in 1997, this time on grass again, but on artificial grass.

Gail Maloney (now O'Meara) and Karl Purcell played junior interprovincial tennis for Munster in the 1970's.

Gail has also been selected and played U.21 interprovincial, veteran interprovincial, and International veteran tennis.

Anne Fitzpatrick has been selected and played veteran tennis for Munster for the past 10 years. Anne was also selected and played international veteran tennis in 2002.

Margaret Quinn is also a veteran interprovincial player, being selected in 2002. She was also selected in 2003, but was unavailable.

The club has also had people involved administratively in the game at Munster and Irish level. In the last 30 years or so, Seamus Cleary RIP, Ailbe Purcell, Denis Hanly, Tim Conway and Michael Lovett have all contributed at this level. Seamus was President of Munster 1975 and Tim was President in 1997.