Beginnings Nenagh LTC has its or

Beginnings
Nenagh LTC has its origins back in the late 1800's. We do not have precise dates as to when they started playing tennis there, but certainly by the year 1900 there was a thriving lawn tennis club in existence.

Play in those days would have course have been on all grass courts. We are talking about real grass courts - the type one talented tennis superstar of the 1980's, also known as a superbrat, is alleged to have referred to as being suitable only for cows. Whatever, John McEnroe's alleged comments on one occasion re grass courts were, the surface certainly suited his exquisite skills.

The club probably began with 2 or 3 courts and grew from there. Apparently, there was reputedly up to 10 grass courts in operation at one time. It would be a short season of course. Play had to be during the Summer months and probably on certain club days.

Other Sports
In the early stages, Hockey was extensivesly played there. Hockey was apparently very popular up to the time of the first World War. Part of the grounds was set aside as hockey pitch. This is probably why there is such ample space at the club. The whole facility would have been catering for Tennis, Hockey and Croquet.

After the Great War, the hockey section declined and disappeared. However, Hockey returned briefly to the club in recent times. In the mid-1980's, the Nenagh ladies hockey club examined the possibility of playing hockey on the area of the old grass courts.

The Nenagh Hockey club and the local CMS hockey team trained there for a season or so, but it did'nt work out. The available area was too small and the club moved elsewhere.

Croquet would have been a regular sport played there from the early stages also and indeed the club was officially known as Nenagh Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club up to recent times.

The croquet section went out of existence at various stages and made occasional comebacks. And in fact croquet was played there briefly for a while in the 1970's and early 1980's.

Some of the members in the club at the time were interested in trying the game and the necessary equipment was purchased. The problems of keeping a manicured croquet lawn would have been similar (and perhaps more difficult) to those in maintaining the tennis courts.

The Tennis Club
In all, there is about 3 acres at the club. To-day, it's doubtful if any tennis club in Ireland exclusively owns as much ground, and indeed, it's to-day's members' great good fortune that such is the case. There are many towns and villages where people would play tennis, but obtaining a facility to put down courts is the first problem encountered.

As a tennis club, Nenagh has always had a good reputation for good players and friendliness. The senior open tournament has been running since the 1930's and probably earlier but in a different guise, possibly one day events when players from neighbouring clubs would visit. Such clubs would be Birr Ormond, Roscrea, Limerick LTC and possibly Thurles.

Of those clubs only Limerick LTC survives today as a club from that era. There is though today, an old and progressive tennis club in Birr known as Wilmer Tennis Club, the founding date of which this writer is unaware. No doubt this article will prompt someone to inform us of other clubs from the area now extinct. We would welcome such information.

Two Clubs in Nenagh
From its beginnings, Nenagh LTC was a very exclusive club and was difficult to become a member of. So, around 1930 or thereabouts, another tennis club was formed in the town.

This club was situated approximately where the current car park is, opposite the New Institute in the town. As far as this writer as aware, the new club had only one court, but that was a hardcourt and therefore offered opportunity for play in wet weather and throughout the year.

The new club prospered for a period and inter-club matches would be a common enough event. The old club declined somewhat over the next 20 years and with the need for new members and another club in the town with members and inadequate facilities, it was natural that a coming together of clubs might occur.

Fortunately, some members of both clubs saw this as a natural and sensible progression for the game and worked towards an amalgamation. At first, the town club's members had certain playing days at the Limerick Road club.

The benefits of this obviously accrued to both clubs and the impetus for full merger was given greater push. Eventually, around 1952, the clubs become one.

Decline of Grass Courts
During the late 1960's, the club put down the first 2 hardcourts which offered the chance to play in all weathers and all seasons. At this stage, the club had 6 grass and 2 hardcourts.

This was the situation until the early 1980's when the club installed 2 further hardcourts. At this stage, 2 of the existing 6 grass courts were no longer useable and in a few years the club would decide to discontinue the use of the others due to difficulties in maintaining them.

Around this time there was a general leaning to the all weather hardcourts which allowed all year round play. This was the situation in most clubs throughout the country. The grass was coming out and the hardcourts going in.

Within a short time of course, the trend, when you could afford it, was back towards grass, only now it was the artificial type and playable all year.

Floodlights
Floodlit tennis in Ireland only really started in the late 1970's. There was no need for lights as tennis was a Summer game played on natural lawn courts during the long evenings. But with the arrival of hardcourts and facility to play throughout the year, it was natural that floodlights would follow.

Nenagh installed the first lights on 2 courts (Courts 3 and 4 opposite the clubhouse) in 1990. During the 1990's, all courts would have floodlights installed.