It's just not tennis!

Games bid "hit by club sale"
THE SALE of a West End tennis club could have a negative effect on Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games. Campaigners fighting to save Dowanhill Tennis Club have questioned what kind of message its closure would send out to the panel deciding the fate of Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games.Dowanhill is currently on the market, with offers of more that £5million already lodged. Its members would receive as much as £100,000 each if the deal were struck. Billhead Councillor Niall Walker whose ward covers Dowanhill told the Mail that Scottish tennis might have a good chance of winning some medals at the games and that despite the strong pool of players in the West End, there is a shortage of courts.

Niall Walker raised the matter at a council meeting last Thursday, where he ask if the council accepted that the loss of even a single tennis court would send out the wrong signal to the Commonwealth Games bid. He said: 'The Council is trying to promote Glasgow's bid for the Commonwealth Games. I support this bid, and I believe tennis going from strength to strength in Glasgow. "But our players need all the encouragement they can get. Imagine what the Games Panel would think if a tennis club, whose courts are in demand, was closed and flats built on it?" Esther Daborn of the Save Dowanhill Tennis Club Action Group said: "for us it's about the closure of recreational facilities and the effect it would

have on youngsters who may have aspirations to play in the games." Campaigners are also furious the office-bearers at the Dowanhill club have allegedly limited numbers of new members or excluded them from full voting rights. It is also claimed that the office-bearers have rejected offers from other clubs to use Dowanhill's courts, with only two of the four currently being used.
Source West End News