Bussage mum and club chair wins volunteer of the year

A MUM of two from Bussage was awarded the volunteer of the year by former player turned broadcaster and commentator Andrew Castle.

Nicola Keller who is chair of Chalford Tennis Club was crowned the winner of volunteer of the year at the annual Gloucestershire LTA Award ceremony.

The ceremony was hosted this year by former tennis player turned broadcaster Andrew Castle at the Leonardo Hotel in Cheltenham on Friday, April 12.

Ms Keller, also known as Nic, was nominated by a fellow member and parent at Chalford Tennis Club for all of her efforts in running competitions, social tournaments and encouraging juniors and adults of all abilities to play and take part in tennis events.

Recently appointed as the new chair of the tennis club Nic has been instrumental in introducing the new Pickleball courts as a bid to get more people active with the lower impact of this new popular sport.

She has set up free taster sessions as an introduction to Pickleball as well as a potential Pickleball membership.

Tennis and Pickleball coach Bjorn Merrett has also volunteered a lot of his time and expertise into this new venture for the benefit of the members and local community.

This will be launching to the wider community on Sunday, June 2 with the Gloucestershire Pickleball rep coming to deliver some coaching sessions at Chalford Tennis Club from 12pm.

Nic organises multiple box leagues for club members, junior tournaments both within the club and against other local tennis clubs as friendly competition.

She also ran all of the club’s social media, organised numerous league teams throughout the year as well as being the junior representative.

As well as being a mother to two, working as a Secondary School PE teacher and all of the work behind the scenes at Chalford Tennis Club, Nic also coaches some of the mini red, orange and yellow ball tennis group lessons for children starting out in Tennis and involved in delivering the camps throughout the school holidays.

Her next big initiative will be a fundraising mission to improve the surrounding tennis hut facilities.

Chalford Tennis Club has five floodlit courts consisting of two synthetic clay and three all weather.

There’s a range of social sessions for all ages and abilities throughout the week.

The club has recently introduced walking tennis for those with reduced mobility.

Ten teams play in league matches against other clubs across the county including the Ladies A team being in Premier Division, internal box leagues and ‘Play your way to Wimbledon’ pairs - with the ladies making it to the finals at Wimbledon in 2024!

There’s a strong team of qualified tennis coaches offering weekly group lessons, 1-1’s and popular holiday camps for children of all ages