Fulford Tennis Club will be celebrating the new Millennium in style after being granted £7,500 towards the cost of building a third court.

The Foundation for Sport and the Arts have awarded the club £7,500 for the project which will cost a total of £32,000. After spending 18 months raising the rest of the cash through sponsorship and fund-raising events, it means the club can finally commence building the new court next month.

They had applied for a grant of £12,000 and club secretary Neil Bellamy was delighted with the amount awarded.

He said: "We were hopeful but we were pleasantly surprised to get over 50 per cent of the amount we applied for. It took a while. We applied 12 months ago, heard nothing for quite a while then all of a sudden things started happening."

Bellamy now expects building to start around December with completion by the end of January. The court, which will have a Tarmac all-weather surface, will then have to stand for a couple of months before being coloured in and should be ready for use by March or April.

The new court will be built on land adjacent to the existing two which the club has bought from North Yorkshire Council.

Like the other two, it will be floodlit and will allow the club to increase its membership. Fulford have five teams in the local tennis leagues and this year won three competitions which has led to an upsurge in people wanting to join the club.

It will also provide an extra facility for Fulford School with whom they have an arrangement.

Bellamy explained: "When our three courts are full then we share the local comprehensive. They use our courts as well so this new court is not just for the benefit of private members."

He added: "Plans for the David Lloyd centre seem to have gone now and although we have quite a few clubs around the city, another court is going to be welcomed."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.