WELLINGTON Tennis Club has been served an ace from local councillors after they agreed to support the organisation with an £880 grant.

Members of Wellington Town Council’s finance committee discussed on Tuesday, January 17, a grant application made by the club for money which would go towards extra youth training sessions.

And councillors unanimously supported the application with the hope that the club might one day find a future Andy Murray or Emma Raducanu tennis champion.

Cllr Marcus Barr was quick to propose the application was given support and suggested that the tennis club apply for money every year – no different to Wellington Cricket Club.

Cllr Marcus Barr said: “I propose we give them the money. We gave money recently to Wellington Cricket Club and we have made a bit of a rod for our own back so I’m surprised we haven’t had grant applications come in yet from the rugby club, football club, bowls club and squash club.

“We keep giving grants to the cricket club year after year so we have to give to the tennis club as well.”

Cllr Andrew Govier quickly responded with a tennis-pun quip: “I hope Marcus isn’t suggesting this is a bit of a racket?”

But Cllr Govier added: “We have got a good record of supporting clubs in the town and I would be happy to support this application.”

Cllr John Thorne said: “We do look at each grant application on its own merit. We don’t necessarily give grants away to clubs just because we’ve given grants to other clubs.

“Wellington Tennis Club is worthy of a grant. The club is trying to find future British tennis stars locally from Wellington – perhaps we could have the next Andy Murray or Tim Henman?”

The Mayor, Cllr Mark Lithgow, added: “I fully echo what Cllr Thorne has just said about looking at each grant application individually.”

Cllr Barr suggested that perhaps the council could support each sporting organisation in the town each year with a grant – instead of waiting for applications for funding to be submitted.

But Cllr Lithgow said: “I would be uneasy about just handing money out.”

The finance committee has the power to award grants of up to £3,000, with larger requests referred to the full council for a final decision.