Tennis player Steve Hawkins has many strings to his racket.

He’s chairperson of Cheltenham Tennis Club, he plays for their B team, he’s a former B team captain and he was captain of RAF Innsworth’s tennis team back in the day.

He played for Innsworth in the 1990s and early noughties and he’s currently in his second spell with Cheltenham, a club which until recently were known as Cheltenham Civil Service Tennis Club.

“I joined the RAF when I was 17,” said the now 61-year-old. “I’ve moved about quite a bit with my job and played for tennis teams at various RAF stations.”

He rejoined his current club in 2013 - he lives in Cheltenham - and he took over as chairperson in February 2019.

He prefers to be called chairperson rather than chairman and he’s happy to serve the club.

“It can be challenging but I enjoy it,” he said. “I’m a good organiser. The club is very personable and I would encourage anyone to give us a try whatever standard, our joining fees are very competitive.”

Hawkins is also a good fundraiser - he does a lot of work for Macmillan Cancer Support - and he’s trying to raise money for Cheltenham Tennis Club.

The club, which can be found off Tewkesbury Road,  has four hard courts, two of which are floodlit, and Hawkins continued: “One of the things I want to do is get the courts resurfaced, that’s my ultimate aim.

“They haven’t been resurfaced since 2001. They’ve been painted and cleaned but that’s it.”

Hawkins reckons it will cost £50,000 to resurface the courts and the club, which has close to 100 members,  currently has about £15,000, so he is exploring the best options going forward.

Hawkins, who is originally from Sussex, has been playing tennis since he was 11, but while it’s been a big part of his life, it’s by no means the only sport he’s been involved in because he was a keen rugby player back in the day and took up running when he was 40.

“I played  rugby for Cheltenham  for a year before joining Old Patesians,” said Hawkins.

That was in the mid-1990s at a time when the Pats were climbing through the divisions.

Hawkins was a full-back and was at the Pats for three years with former team-mate and ex-Cinderford director of rugby Paul Morris describing him as “a good player and a good bloke”.

Hawkins, who coached at Cheltenham Colts for a year after leaving the Pats, is also a good runner, someone who has run under four hours for a marathon.

“I’ve run two marathon,” said the one-time  Cheltenham Running Club member.

“I ran the London Marathon when I was 50, that was my first marathon, I finished in three hours, 47.”

Ten years later he ran the Jersey Marathon and he’s also run a good number of half-marathons and 10Ks.

So what’s his favourite sport?

“Rugby,” he said, without any hesitation. “It’s the third half, I’ve made so many lifelong friends through rugby.

“I don’t mind growing older but if there’s one thing I do miss it’s playing rugby.”

Fortunately, he can still play tennis.

“Tennis is great,” he said. “I’m still very competitive and it keeps me fit.

“I like keeping up with the youngsters. They may be better than me technically but I never stop running.

“I chase every ball, they call me Duracell!”