HEAD coach of Royston Tennis Club, Matt Fellingham, has been awarded the Aegon Tennis Coach of the Month for July.

HEAD coach of Royston Tennis Club, Matt Fellingham, has been awarded the Aegon Tennis Coach of the Month for July.

This national accolade was launched in January 2009 and is awarded to the coach being deemed to have had the greatest impact on British tennis. Each month the winner is added to the AEGON Roll of Honor and will be featured exclusively on the LTA website.

Matt was nominated by Leo Tutt, tennis development manager at Hertfordshire LTA county office. He was awarded the prize after recording the largest increase of competing juniors in the whole of Hertfordshire (50% over the last year) and the quickest increase of any club in the country.

Also attributed was the success of his junior players in the past year, with many of them reaching and winning county finals by beating clubs much larger in size and membership. This was seen by the LTA to be a massive achievement by Matt who had limited facilities for the juniors to use. This lack of facilities is one of the reasons the LTA are giving Royston Tennis Club a large amount of funding to help build new courts on Therfield Heath.

He was presented with the award last Wednesday at the National Tennis Centre in Roehampton by Tom Harlow (LTA Business manager) and was invited to spend the day with top UK players which included Laura Robson, who is the Junior Wimbledon Champion (pictured with Matt), Ade Adepitan, the British Paralympics basketball star and the British Davis Cup team.

Matt also met Roger Draper, the LTA chief executive and is looking forward to continuing his success at the new courts at Therfield Heath and to giving many more opportunities to junior and adult players.

Meanwhile, the adult mixed I team of Andy Holmes, Pru Burton, Garry Tobiss and Mike Fellingham lost away to Exning 6-2 then redressed the balance by winning at home to Gt Shelford V 6-2.

The mixed II team of David Addison, Karin Lambert, Garry Tobiss and Caroline McCormick beat Girton I at home 5-3 while the mixed III team of John Holmes Emma Windred, Mike Fellingham and Sue Addison trounced St Neots II 8-0 at home.

The junior under-13 I team of James Lee, Gus Rees and Leo Pickett beat Gt Shelford I 2-1 at home before beating Saffron Walden I 3-0 away.

The under-13 II team of Gareth Byles and Emily Griffin lost away to Gt Shelford I 2-1 and finally, the under-12 II team of Neil Addison and Ben Place lost away to Gransdens I by the same scoreline.

For full details of Royston Tennis Club see their website at www.royston-tennis.co.uk