Split Second Sport community tennis club was the first club in Middlesex to achieve Tennis Clubmark accreditation...and only the 4th Tennis club in the whole of the country.

Middlesex Tennis Development Officer John Love asked Julia and Sally how difficult it was to do the work to achieve Tennis Clubmark, and they both answered in unison "It wasn't!"

Tennis Clubmark is the LTA's quality accreditation endorsement for clubs. It has been built on the national Clubmark criteria but customised to ensure that it is relevant to tennis and will support clubs to deliver for British Tennis.

Coaches, Julia Searle and Sally Bentley run their community tennis club in Barnet parks and schools. They started it three years ago and became a Mini Tennis accredited centre within 7 months. When they heard about Tennis Clubmark, they just decided that it was one of those things that had to be done!

"The manual and the guidance notes from Tennis Clubmark looked frightening, but they turned out to be the most user friendly notes I'd ever seen" says Sally "You get a cd rom and a step by step guide. If you are genuinely doing everything that you should be, it's a walk in the park!"
"Tennis Clubmark underpins everything that our club values" said Sally. .

• We deliver appropriate tennis opportunities to all players whatever their ability. 
• We provide regular competitive opportunities for members, especially juniors. 
• We ensure the well-being of young tennis players whilst in the care of adults other than their legal parents and carers. 
• We enthuse tennis players to enjoy tennis and perform to the best of their ability. 
•  We enable tennis players to optimise their talents and personal ability. We identify and support the development of the most talented tennis players"

The coaching duo reckon that it took about 10 - 12 hours to complete the evidence folder. So about one and a half days in total, perhaps with a little more to reference all the evidence. "Providing the evidence demonstrates the fact that you are working safely, communicating well with players and parents and that you are delivering a quality on court programme. It ensures that you are using best practice for your whole programme, and it was actually fun seeing how many pieces of evidence we could provide for each section" says Sally.

"We are really proud to have achieved Tennis Clubmark accreditation and wear the honour with pride. Our only problem now is that we have been awarded a lovely plaque and certificate and just need a clubhouse wall on which to hang them!" added Julia.

Split Second Tennis Club is working closely with the Tennis Foundation and Barnet Council and hope that it will not be too long before they have their very own clubhouse and floodlit City Tennis Club and somewhere to call ‘home'. Watch this space.