Mark Peer enjoyed playing tennis so much that he decided to form a club.

That was in April 1989 and 30 years on Nailsworth Tennis Club are still going strong.

And so is Mark, who although now in his early 60s, remains devoted to the club he set up and is currently chairman, men’s club captain and the health and safety officer.

In fact he’s been chairman since the very first day, a role he very much enjoys even though he admits he has “tried to offload it a couple of times”.

The club really are a success story because they have 80-plus senior members and close to 50 junior members who play on three floodlit, hard courts.

They play to a decent level, too, with teams competing in the Gloucestershire summer and winter leagues. They also have a strong social set-up as well.

So how did the club come about?

“I used to play a lot of tennis but there was nowhere to play in Nailsworth where I lived,” explained Mark, who these days lives in Minchinhampton.

“Nailsworth is a town of over 5,000 people and I thought it could sustain a tennis club.”

He was right, of course, but a lot of hard work is required in order to make something like that happen.

“I identified a piece of wasteland behind the old boys’ club in Bath Road,” continued Mark. “There used to be a bowling green there.

“I approached the committee of the boys’ club with a view to setting up a tennis club and it all went from there.”

It certainly did although the hard work was only just starting for Mark even though he had support from the LTA as well as a good number of other organisations including the Gloucestershire Playing Fields Association.

Mark, along with two others, also put in £500 of his own money to help get things up and running and while it was very hard work at the time it has certainly proved worthwhile.

Originally there were just the two courts but such has been the club’s success that they were able to expand.

“Yes, I am very proud, it’s an incredible achievement. “ said Peer.

“The thing I’m most proud about is its sustainability. When we first started we didn’t know how it would take off.

“We have a very friendly, competitive club but we cater for people of all standards.
“We’ve got a very, very good committee of seven and you’re only as good as your committee.”

And they clearly are very good if the competitive side is anything to go by because the ladies’ flagship team compete in Division One of the Gloucestershire Summer League – their B team play in Division Two – and the men’s A team play in Division Two.

Mark still plays in the A team and he said: “Our teams do really well, especially when you consider the size of some of the clubs we play against.”

Indeed they do – the men’s team even won the Premier Division title a few years ago – and clearly the club will be clocking up the wins this season and for many seasons to come.

Mark, who plays tennis three times a week, will remain a big part of that, of course.

“I can play to a pretty good standard,” he said modestly, having originally learned to play the game at Sir William Romney’s School in Tetbury.

He also played at Stroud and Cirencester, which he enjoyed, but after all he’s done for Nailsworth Tennis Club, it’s most definitely the place he calls home!