Sports men and women have habitually dyed their hair over the years.

Back in the day footballers such as Gazza and David James spring to mind, while more recently England cricketer Jimmy Anderson was sporting a blonde hairdo at the start of this summer.

It’s not something that’s really caught on in the world of tennis though. Roger Federer with a blue rinse? Not going to happen!

Nor is it likely that Nadal, Djokovic or Murray have any plans in that direction either.
But all is not lost. Step forward Mark Stephens, who just happens to be captain of Cerney Lakes A tennis team and whose daughter Esme just happened to be born on Wimbledon ladies’ finals day last year.

Cerney Lakes play in Division 3A of the Gloucestershire Summer Doubles League and it’s fair to say that Stephens, who has been playing first-team tennis pretty much since the turn of the century, is a cut above both on and off the court.

“I bleached my hair white,” laughed the 36-year-old. “I look like I should be in a boy band. It must have been a mid-life crisis, I thought I’d make myself look a bit younger.”

He may or may not have succeeded in that particular aim – his wife Lauren is probably the best judge of that! – but it soon becomes clear that behind the laughs is a pretty decent tennis player who is playing the sport he loves at a thriving club.

“I started at the club when I was nine or 10, maybe a bit younger,” said Stephens, who grew up in South Cerney. “That was when the club first started. Sylvia Davis used to hold coaching sessions on Saturday mornings and my mum and dad used to take me there just to get me out of the house.

“I went with a group of mates but I’m the only one still playing.”

And not only is he still playing, he’s playing very well because he’s in his “fourth or fifth season” as captain of the men’s A team, who play their home games at Upper Up playing fields in South Cerney.

The club have two hard courts which are well used all the year round. And very soon they will be used even more because the club are hoping to install floodlights for the start of the winter season.

That is part of a programme of improvements that has seen their clubhouse renovated – they now have a kitchen and a toilet – at a total cost of £40,000, much of which they have had to find themselves.

“It’s fantastic,” said Stephens, who first started playing for the B team at the age of about 15 before graduating to the flagship side some five years later. “We’re a vibrant club. We run two men’s teams and three women’s teams in the Gloucestershire Summer League and we also play in the Stroud Winter League on Sunday mornings as well as in an over-60s league.

“The floodlights will mean we can play in the Gloucestershire Winter League as well because those matches are played in evenings.”

It’s fair to assume that Stephens will be putting his name down for that as well and if he does he’ll be hoping that his regular playing partner, David Hartland, does likewise.

“We’re quite successful, we do alright,” said Stephens. “He’s fantastic at the net. I don’t go to the net. I’m a baseline player, hard-hitting with plenty of spin. I try to set him up so that he can put the ball away, he’s awesome at that.”

And Stephens is just as upbeat about the two other players who make up the A team.

“Joe Dennish is a new lad,” he said. “He’s only just turned 15 but he’s a fantastic player. It was his first season last year and I’m trying to give him as many opportunities to play as possible.

“And Andy Walker has only just got back into tennis and he’s getting better and better.

“We’ve been a bit of a yo-yo club between divisions two and three. Division Two was a really good standard last year but we’re doing okay this season.”

And while the men’s flagship team are going well on the court, Stephens, a plumber who these days lives in Cirencester, is quick to praise those who have done so much to make the club so successful in recent times.

“Chairman David Tonner and his wife Wendy Murphy have been brilliant, particularly Wendy,” said Stephens. “She’s the driving force behind the club, you really should speak to her about the club.”

And Murphy, who is the women’s captain and has been with the club for the past five or six years, is equally generous about Stephens.

“He’s very loyal to the club,” she said. “There are a lot of clubs who would love him to play for them.”

Murphy moved to this area from Manchester in the mid-noughties and had stopped playing tennis for a while before heading south.

“I wanted to find a club that wasn’t too intimidating,” she said.

And the 63-year-old has certainly found that at Cerney Lakes where she is now captain of the B team.

“Our aim is tennis for everybody,” she said. “We don’t want it to be an elite sport, it’s not all about winning championships. We just want kids from the village to come along and hit a ball. We’re open to all standards.”

And while that is certainly so – junior membership is free – there is also a competitive side as well at a club who have 60-70 adult members and 20-25 junior members.

“More than 50 per cent of our adults play competitive team tennis,” said Murphy with some pride. “We won two trophies in the league last season, we’re in their fighting.”

They certainly are. They’re a good club that are clearly going places.