Welcome to the committee

Steve took up tennis late, at 15, on the Norfolk Park courts, mainly because his friend Gary Frost had got into it and wanted to be Bjorn Borg. Gary was very good but gave up a few years later. Steve, 50 years on, is still playing.

His first club, at about 17, was the long-since defunct City Surveyors. Some older Beauchief members may remember Wilf Butler and his son Mark, who had also been at City Surveyors. Steve doesn’t think it was his fault that the club folded.

In 1979 he joined Brentwood, which he says ruined his A-levels. A Brentwood member had seen Steve and a couple of friends playing in the S&D Tournament and invited them up to the club. Thanks to Brett Speddings, Steve has been a member ever since. At the time there were four shale courts and two grass, with no room to expand around them.

He won his first club Men’s Doubles title in 1990 and (probably!) his last in 2023. He retired last year and became a grandfather for the first time in June.