Game, Set and Match

Words by Sadie Pitcher

Photos by Caitlin Lock

Alexandra Park has been awarded the best tennis Park Venue of the Year and Hastings based Joe Adams has won Coach of the Year at the Lawn Tennis Association Awards. In light of these awards, Get Hastings chatted with Joe and Ross Cudmore, who coach from the park, to find out how they’re breaking the exclusivity of tennis and proving anyone can play.

Set in the basin of a valley, Alexandra Park slowly snakes its way for almost three kilometres from Hastings to St Leonards. Surrounded by rare trees, woodland, gardens and reservoirs are six tennis courts, where Joe Adams and Ross Cudmore offer a timetable of accessible and affordable tennis sessions through Break Point Coaching.

Now, two years on from the near £100,000 redevelopment of the courts, Alexandra Park has won Venue of the Year at the LTA Awards and Joe has won Coach of the Year. The redevelopment and appointment of Break Point as the official coaching provider in Alexandra Park has opened up tennis to a wider audience in Hastings.

“I started coaching tennis again because it was something I could fit in,” Joe explains. Having left London and a job in advertising to look after his children, dad and brother, tennis worked around his caring responsibilities. This is when Joe came across Ross, and Break Point Coaching developed from their friendship, shared love of tennis and their desire to make the game more accessible.

“Growing up with a physical impairment has made me a more patient and understanding coach—it’s helped me relate to the different challenges players face, both physically and mentally,” explains Ross, a World and European Champion Para Standing tennis player and a finalist at the first-ever Para Standing Tennis Invitational at the US Open.

Joe, himself a county champion player and now an award-winning coach, along with Ross, are challenging the exclusivity of tennis: “We ticked a lot of the boxes that the LTA are looking for at the moment which is to take away tennis from being uptight” Joe humbly says.

In 2023, the UK Government and the LTA Tennis Foundation invested £30 million into renovating local tennis courts across Britain, including Alexandra Park, with the aim of transforming grassroots tennis and investing in town communities. By maintaining public spaces like tennis courts and local parks, governments can encourage people to be active, social and build communities. Through welcoming and cared-for communal spaces, not only will tennis participation increase, as has been seen through Break Point coaching, but the health and wellbeing of the community will also increase. With over a thousand active players and flexible pay-and-play options, Joe and Ross have made Alexandra Park a welcoming and accessible hub for tennis, kick-started by the park's redevelopment.

Caitlin, a Hastings-based photographer and videographer, only picked up a racket since the refurbishment:

“I started playing tennis at the beginning of the year, having admired the blue and green courts in Alexandra Park from afar before then,” she says. She continues: “We are so lucky to have this facility in the town, I'm impressed by how inclusive the community classes are, it didn't feel scary as a complete beginner and everyone else on the courts seems to be very helpful and friendly.”

Working closely with Active Hastings, Break Point Coaching provides opportunities for all levels and ages. With walking tennis and SEND specific tennis sessions in partnership with the Parchment Trust, Ross and Joe are expanding tennis for people with additional needs. “Our weekly 'Walking Tennis' sessions have created a social, supportive environment for older adults and those returning to sport, often seeing twelve or more regular participants,” Ross explains.

Joe continues, “We’ve got a guy who celebrated his 80th birthday last week in Walking Tennis and then we’ve got two- or three-and-a-half-year olds crawling around rolling balls. We’re really open to everybody, because of our backgrounds and my experience, we’ve gone down that road and the LTA are now really into opening tennis up.”

Not only are there different sessions for all abilities but lessons are affordable. “Over the past year, we’ve delivered free weekly tennis sessions that regularly attract 20+ players, offering a welcoming space for families and people of all ages,” says Ross. An annual household membership to play in Alexandra Park is £39, and anyone in the household can play, covering up to five people, with a maximum of five hours of tennis per week.

With the LTA reporting that people within higher socio-economic groups are more likely to play tennis, along with the need to hire courts, have a tennis racket and balls, there are more boundaries stopping people from getting into the sport than ever which Joe and Ross are challenging.

With an air of elitism, furthered by the exclusivity and cost of tournaments like Wimbledon, there is also a discord between men and women playing tennis. According to the LTA some of the barriers preventing women from participating in tennis include a fear of not being good enough and a lack of places and other women to play with. Break Point is redressing this imbalance in Hastings, giving women and girls a place to play: “We’ve run two fully booked girls-only courses, giving 25 girls the chance to play, helping to close the gender gap in tennis,” Ross explains. Understanding the benefits of tennis for mental and physical wellbeing, Joe and Ross are using their central location in the park to get more people active and playing tennis: “We’re trying to involve as many people as possible because you can walk to the park,” Joe explains.

The six courts, with colourful bunting fluttering along the perimeter and surrounded by trees, is a lovely place to play competitively or for fun. “It’s brilliant to have such a great resource at the heart of the town, it’s such a lovely place to play and no surprise that Ross and Joe have been recognised for the great work they do,” Rob, a retired PE teacher who plays tennis in the park weekly, says.

With Break Point Coaching and the park’s award, Hastings and the South-East coast is quickly becoming a hub for grassroots, affordable and accessible tennis. Along the coast, Egerton Park in Bexhill has five tennis courts, one which doubles up as a pickleball court and in Eastbourne, the Eastbourne Open tennis tournament is on between 21st-28th June. With ground admission starting from £14, Eastbourne is a much more affordable option to watch worldclass tennis locally than Wimbledon.

Reflecting on his journey as a player and coach, Ross explains:

“One of the most powerful moments of my journey came at the World Championships, watching a player with no arms play at a level most able-bodied players would struggle to match. It was a striking reminder of how wrong our assumptions about impairments can be. Now through Break Point Coaching, I’m focused on making tennis more inclusive and helping players of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds experience the same sense of purpose and possibility the sport has given me.”

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Book the courts in Alexandra Park or coaching with Joe and Ross at:

clubspark.lta.org.uk/AlexandraParkHastings