A Year of Friendly Faces: Looking Back on Coylton Tennis in 2026

The clocks have gone back, the floodlights are earning their keep again, and the winter league is in full swing. Which means it is that point in the calendar when we all start nattering about the year that has nearly gone. So put the kettle on, pull up a chair by the radiator, and let us take a wander back through 2026 on the Coylton courts.

January: flasks, floodlights and first serves

Let us be honest, the year did not start with glamour. It started with gritting the path, retrieving the net from under a layer of frost and a hardy handful of members who turned up anyway because a cold Saturday morning is better than no Saturday morning at all.

The box leagues staggered back into life somewhere around the middle of the month, and the first proper three-setter of 2026 was played in conditions that would make a penguin think twice. Credit to everyone who turned out. Those early matches set the tone for a year in which people simply kept turning up.

Spring: the courts woke up

The evenings stretched, and so did the queue for a court. The handicap tournament drew a lovely mixed entry this year, with a couple of newer members going further than anyone expected and one final that finished in near darkness with a small but vocal crowd leaning on the fence.

Spring was also when a good number of fresh faces arrived, many of them through the beginner sessions and a few through nothing more scientific than a neighbour saying 'come along, it is good fun'. They have stayed, which is the bit that matters.

A summer that belonged to the juniors

If 2026 had a theme, it was the junior section. The Saturday morning sessions filled up quickly and stayed full, even through the school holidays when the temptation to do absolutely nothing is strong.

We saw players move up from mini red to orange, from orange to green, and a few take their first steps onto a full court with proper scoring. There were first match wins, first proper tantrums after a loss, and first handshakes at the net afterwards, which is the part we secretly care about most.

The highlight was watching a group of juniors who started the year barely able to sustain a rally finish it playing doubles alongside the adults at a Sunday social. Nobody kept score. Nobody needed to.

Club championships weekend

Come the summer, the club championships delivered as they always do. Wall-to-wall sunshine on the Saturday, a downpour on the Sunday morning that had three people sweeping the courts with brooms borrowed from the pavilion, and then play resumed as though nothing had happened.

The mixed doubles final went to a deciding tie-break and had the best crowd of the year hanging over the railing. The tea table did a brisk trade. There was cake. It was, in the truest sense, a club weekend.

The people nobody claps for

Every year we say it, and every year it needs saying again. The tennis does not happen on its own.

Behind every fixture there is somebody doing the fixtures. Behind every junior session there is a coach sorting a group, a parent doing a lift to an away match, somebody chasing a WhatsApp message that has gone unanswered for four days. There is the person who sweeps the courts without being asked, the person who always brings the extra flask, the person who quietly fixes the net winder in the rain.

None of that appears in a results column. All of it is the reason there are results to report in the first place. Thank you, all of you.

Autumn: back to the leagues

The nights drew in, but the tennis did not stop. The winter league got underway with a strong turnout, and the Saturday social has carried on in that cheerful, slightly chaotic way it always does, with regulars, returners and a few people who have not played since school discovering that the racket still works.

It has been genuinely nice to see new members settling in so quickly. A club is only as friendly as the people who turn up to welcome others, and on that front 2026 has been a good year.

The last few weeks of the year

There is still plenty to come before the calendar turns. Winter league fixtures continue, there is a final social to look forward to, and the usual scramble to get courts booked before everyone disappears for the holidays. Bring a layer, bring a flask, bring your sense of humour about the ball skidding low.

Looking ahead to 2027

There is always a temptation in these pieces to make grand promises. We will resist. What we can say is that the junior coaching blocks will be back, the leagues will run again, and the club will keep doing what it does best: giving people a decent game and a decent cup of tea afterwards.

If you have been hovering on the edge of getting involved, this is your nudge. Come along to a session, sign up for a box league, volunteer for an hour. The people who make this club what it is were all new once too, and every single one of them will remember who made them feel welcome.

Here is to the rest of 2026, and to another year of local courts and friendly faces.