PERTH LAWN Tennis Club, which is the oldest in Scotland, is celebrating its 125th anniversary.

The club pre-dates the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) and as a way of commemorating the occasion members will be taking part in a Past, Present and Future event on Sunday, when they will dress up in Victorian tennis attire.

The club began on May 1, 1881, and its first annual meeting took place on July 5, 1882, and with nearly 150 members, Andrew Pennycook, the secretary, yesterday said the future is looking bright.

“As part of this anniversary we are offering 125 local children the chance to come and play here,” he said. “We are making the effort to make tennis available far and wide.

“In Scotland, we are trying to lose this stuffy image that tennis had. Now children watch Andy Murray, who is the rock ‘n’ roll star of the circuit and that is encouraging them.”

Perth Lawn Tennis Club has had its share of top names, including Elena Baltacha and Kenny Wood, who was Scotland’s number one at one point. The site of the club previously belonged to Perth Curling Club but it has had a chequered history.

The club was sold to Bell’s distillers in the mid-1970s for a token £1 but membership was limited to 60.

Mr Pennycook added, “A lot of people remember that era and perhaps still think we are only allowed 60 members but that isn’t the case now. However, facilities were improved during this time, including introducing synthetic courts.

“But the main difference from when I first started playing here aged nine-years-old, is that children are made far more welcome—they are the future of the club after all. Before, if an adult wanted a court you had to get off.

“We’ve now got all-weather tennis courts, which were installed in 2000 and our coaching classes for children are proving popular. The majority of the funding for the courts raised by ourselves (nearly £60,000), plus we received a loan from the LTA.”

He continued, “We are hoping that this anniversary will result in people providing us with archive material. We have some here but we’re asking for any information on our history, including relatives of past members.

“This might include ancestors of John Pinkerton who held the Gentlemen’s Challenge Singles Cup from 1896-1906.”