St Ann’s Tennis is thrilled to announce that Club Secretary Claire Anderson and Head Coach Jimmy Smith were both recognised at last night’s 2022 Tennis Sussex Awards.
Claire Anderson was Highly Commended in the Volunteer of The Year category after helping to grow membership at St Ann’s Tennis from zero to more than 300 members in just 16 months.
Jimmy Smith, a co-founder of St Ann’s Tennis as well as Head Coach, won Development Coach of The Year in recognition of his huge success with juniors’ programmes, tennis outreach projects and disability classes at several clubs around the city.
St Ann’s Tennis co-founder Conrad Brunner said: “Claire and Jimmy have both played a vital role in promoting community tennis in Brighton and Hove and in making St Ann’s Tennis such a massive success. They both work tirelessly to support and engage players at St Ann’s and get as many people as possible on to court and involved in playing this great game.
“St Ann’s Tennis has only been fully operational since September 2020 but is now a thriving community tennis facility with well-kept courts, an efficient online booking system and enthusiastic participation from players of all kinds. We are really delighted that Claire and Jimmy have received this recognition from Tennis Sussex – their Awards are very well deserved.”
Claire has been involved in community tennis in Brighton and Hove for many years and has been an invaluable team member at St Ann’s Tennis where she keeps a rigorous eye on pretty much everything – from court maintenance and security to player engagement. Claire is the main point of contact for both Club members and the general public – and runs all the Club’s Whatsapp communication groups. Before joining St Ann’s, Claire Anderson was at Dyke Park where she helped turn the club into one of the most popular and successful parks tennis facilities in the city. She also ran the annual Parks Cup competition for the Brighton and Hove Parks League.
Jimmy started the busy juniors programme at Queens Park Tennis Club, and also manages tennis outreach projects in Whitehawk and Buckingham Park. He runs popular weekly disability classes at QPTC (with Amaze Sussex) and St Ann’s Tennis (with Grace Eyre).
There were more than 250 nominations in 13 categories for this year’s Tennis Sussex Awards which took place online – via Zoom – on the evening of February 6.
