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For over a hundred
years Limpsfield Lawn tennis Club has been proud of being the best family club
for miles around. In the early days we played only tennis and, for a few years,
croquet. Now, after already having
celebrated our centenary, we also enjoy squash, racketball, badminton, table
tennis and much more.
We are grateful to our former Club President, Hugh O’Neill, who has ploughed through the records and put much of the Club history down in writing.
He joined the Main Committee in 1950 and it’s thanks to him that we have got as far as we have.
The earliest records of 1899 show the Grounds were leased from the "Loosen Gore" family and at that time there were a few grass courts for Tennis & Croquet and a thatched pavilion which remained thatched until 1951.
In 1910 people were obviously looking for "year round play" and some of the grass courts were converted to "red shale" and the Badminton Hall was created as an "indoor" sporting option.
Croquet was another "sport" taken very seriously at the "Limpsfield Lawn Tennis & Badminton Club" (the Club’s official name in 1923) and it’s our best guess is it continued at Limpsfield until the 1930’s.
During World War 1 there were 4 Tennis Courts and 2 Croquet Lawns and Army Officers were made Honorary Members.
In the 1921 minutes one can see the rise of the car as money was spent to provide a "motor entrance and yard, where cars could stand".
Over next 15 years more Grass Courts were converted to Hard Courts and site was changed from 3 levels to 2.
In World War 2 the Club nearly closed and it was down to just 14 family members and 14 single people. Tournaments did not take place because of the danger of bombing raids - Biggin Hill Air Field just up the road.
In 1942 the Badminton Hall was used by Limpsfield School for their lunches and was only de-requisitioned in 1955.
In 1950 the land was bought for the princely sum of £1500 and by the mid 1950’s we had 350 members.
In 1958 we merged with "North Downs Squash Club" but by 1959, it was realised that squash was getting so popular that we started to build our own courts.
By the mid 1960’s (and in ten years) the Club had doubled it’s membership to 700. Squash was growing fast and by the mid 1970’s we were close to maximum capacity with Tennis & Squash players!
Good players were associated with the Club and in 1982, one of our members, Nicky Spurgeon, was part of the England Ladies Squash Team.
A big building project took place in 1988 to create the Sports Hall for more Badminton play and to enable a Table Tennis section to be created.
In 1991, another member, "Janet Smith" (now Janet Spicer) was playing as Scotland No 1 and we are very pleased she is still with us coaching Table Tennis to our Juniors today.
In 1992 the last of the Grass Courts finally disappeared and now we have 18 Tennis Courts all of which are "hard" playing surfaces - Tarmac, Astroturf & Porous Acrylic.
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Tennis
Squash & Racketball
Badminton
Table Tennis
