Marshalling his troops - Pitchcare

“The members, directors
and chief executive all
recognise the need for
investment in, what is,
the club’s most
important asset”
hollow core aeration programme on a
five-yearly basis, which is more than
enough for grass courts.”
The onset of spring brings with it a
bulk of new work in preparation for the
Aegon event and the onset of the grass
court season. Graham starts rolling in
early spring, keeping the weight at
between 1.8 and 2 tonnes.
“We have to take care with rolling as
our lawns firm up pretty quickly, and it’s
easy to overroll and undo all the good
work that’s gone before.”
The firmness of The Queen’s Club
grass courts has been, in no small part,
due to the changes wrought by Graham
and his father under a commitment to
achieve a good bounce.
“We’ve relaid the courts using Ongar
loam on top of the original silty type fen
soil laid a century ago. When we relaid
the courts, we found there wasn’t a high
clay content, so we couldn’t get it as hard
as we wanted, so that prompted the
change. Now, there’s that extra level of
firmness, which makes the world of
difference.”
The Allett, Lloyds Paladin and Dennis
FT510 the team use are all made to a
20” cut width to suit tennis stripes. “It’s
all about presentation. You never have a
white line down the middle of a stripe.”
Whilst the grass courts take centre
stage throughout the summer season,
Queen’s offer the spectrum of playing
surfaces. The red clay courts are said to
be some of the best in the UK, if not
Europe, and visiting professionals like to
train on them.
The club’s six shale/clay courts have
been a permanent feature for fifty years,
although they are a challenge to
maintain successfully, Graham admits.
“It’s common knowledge that clay courts
are difficult to keep right, and few
people here really know how to maintain
them properly.”
“Luckily, my father was one of the best
and taught me well. Now, I make sure all
my guys know how to set them up, so we
can keep alive our tradition of quality
clay provision.”
Members prize the courts highly and
enjoy the variety they offer, despite the
affect that the weather can have on them.
As water binds the surface together, the
courts can freeze over in winter but dry
out and crack through the summer
months as lack of water creates almost
dustbowl conditions. Then, it’s a matter
of hand watering and nightly irrigation.
The courts at Queen’s are laid with the
same specification material as those at
Roland Garros, host to the French Open,
Both sites are supplied by Simeon
Sports - Graham importing the clay
annually from quarries in Paris at a cost
of £500 a tonne. Relaying of the courts
was last completed some 15 years ago. “It
was a tough job to complete, taking a
whole winter to get right,” he recalls.
“The most tricky part is the fact that you
have to keep them constantly wet, which
can be difficult when you’re still in the
construction phase. The job involved
taking the old clay off the top, overlaying
the clinker base with graded ash and
replacing with the new clay.”
The standard of the surface is
testament to the craftsmanship of both
Graham and his team and his father
before him. The courts are good enough
to draw French tennis professionals here
to practise on them.
The four artificial grass courts,
supplied by Doe Sports, laid with new
surfaces last August at a total cost of
£65,000, is also ensuring the standard of
the alternative playing surfaces stays
high. And, surprisingly, says Graham,
“we get more compliments on the
standard of the artificial courts from our
members than any other. They will often
ask where they can get hold of one for
their own garden.”
The six outdoor acrylic courts,
supplied by Plexipave, offer Graham a
far easier maintenance option, with a
straightforward resurfacing or
recolouring delivering a brand new look,
he says.
The indoor provision of six acrylic and
four carpeted courts are also heavily used
by members and for training juniors,
whilst, to boost capacity still further
during winter, the club purchased a
bubble for fixing over two outdoor
courts.
The Queen’s Club holds one of the top
positions for grass court tennis - Graham
is fortunate to be given an enviable
budget by any standards, a supportive
grounds team and a board of directors
that understands the virtues of positive
spending to achieve the highest quality
surfaces.
Yet, he knows this is a far cry from the
state of grass court tennis elsewhere in
Britain. “We are lucky here that we would
never get rid of the grass courts, as they
are the moneyspinners and what attracts
our members,” he stresses.
“Unfortunately though, most tennis
clubs are run on a shoestring, so they see
artificial courts as a more viable financial
option and end up getting rid of their
grass courts, which they can only use for
the summer.”
“If smaller clubs can make money from
teaching the whole year round then
they’ll go with that. More needs to be
done to retain our grass courts. In the
UK, we have the best courts
and the most skilled
groundsmen who know how to
look after them. We cannot
allow such a quality provision
to die out.”