Appropriately enough for a husband and wife who play a lot of tennis, Peter and Valerie Udale have been enjoying success at the double at Winchcombe Tennis Club.

Firstly, they have been driving forces at a club that were formed only last year, and secondly, they were both captains of teams that won promotion in the Gloucestershire Summer League.

While Valerie was steering the women’s A team to promotion to Division 4, her husband was captaining the men’s B team into Division 5.

And even though the men’s A team were unfortunate to be relegated from Division 1, that is only a small part of the story about a club that are one of those refreshing stories of success on and off the courts.

The club now boast 135 members and the women have doubled the number of teams they are fielding in the summer league to two in 2018.

So how did Winchcombe Tennis Club come about?

“A group of us thought it was the right time,” explained Udale, who is the club’s chairman. “Winchcombe is an expanding town with lots of new homes and new people.

“It was difficult if you lived in Winchcombe and wanted to play tennis because you had to travel a fair distance.”

The club’s home is at Winchcombe School and they play on two recently-built hard courts.

“We work very closely with the school,” said Udale. “We have to get it right because of safeguarding issues.”

And they clearly are getting things right because they are affiliated to the Gloucestershire Lawn Tennis Association; paid for their own coach, Simon Filiatrault, to go out into the schools in and around Winchcombe and have big plans for the future.

Udale is a big fan of Filiatrault.

“By going into the schools he’s made youngsters – and their parents – aware of what we’re doing,” Udale said.

“He coached a team at Winchcombe School and together with his assistant, Liam Gough, they have done a lot of good work

“We’ve got 45 juniors at the club at the moment and they are great coaches, it’s a good story.”

It certainly is but 55-year-old Udale, who used to play tennis at Beckford – before that he was a very keen squash player – is not the type of person who is happy to stand still.

“The big project this year is to get some floodlights,” said Udale. “That would mean we could play throughout the winter.”

Things like floodlights don’t come cheap of course – “They’ll cost in the range of £50,000,” admitted Udale – but it is hoped that they will be in place by the end of the summer.

“We’ve got planning permission,” added Udale, “and we’re pretty confident the LTA will help. Sport England are also very supportive as well.”

The club are clearly moving forward at a fast pace and have planning permission to build three more courts.

It looks like they’ll need it too because they are big on social tennis, running courses for beginners and adult returnees as well as all the work they do with the younger members.

They are currently negotiating a 25-year lease with the school and have plans to improve the facilities.

“The facilities are pretty basic,” admitted Udale. “We’ve got a relatively small shed but it does provide shelter.”

Those facilities will obviously be improved in the weeks and months to come and while Udale as chairman is a driving force behind the rapid development of what is still an embryonic club, he is keen to stress that it is no one-man operation.

“It’s a great team effort,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of people working very hard for the good of Winchcombe Tennis Club.

“The school have been great, very supportive in helping us to get going, and Ruth Marshall as club secretary has done an awful lot of work.

“The men’s A team captain Paul Smith has also been a big help as well and his team were very unlucky with injuries last season.

“We’re all looking forward to a really good year.”

And Udale will be a big part of that, on and off the courts.

Ask him how long he’s been playing and he’ll say, laughing, “Too long, I should be better!” before admitting he started at the back end of last century.

And while everyone wishes they were better at whatever sport they pursue, what is absolutely certain is that Winchcombe Tennis Club have a man who is passionate about the sport as their chairman.