Sherburn Tennis Club was formed in 1936 by a group of villagers who wanted to play tennis in a club atmosphere, for the competition and the social side. During the first few years the members played a number of friendly matches against such clubs as Monk Fryston, Tockwith, Micklefield Welfare, Garforth, Scholes, Clifford, Colton, Whingate Methodists, Silver Royd Church, Bramley Liberal Club, Knottingley, Crossgates, Aberford, Whingate, Farnley, Allerton Bywater, Sutton-on-Derwent, Wistow and Tadcaster but sadly only Sutton-on-Derwent, Wistow and Tadcaster Tennis Clubs are still in existence. There must have been great enthusiasm for tennis in the 1930s/40s/50’s for there to have been so many clubs and for teams to travel quite some distances when transport and facilities were very different to today.

The club originally had two shale courts and a grass court was added in 1961. The two shale courts were converted to hard courts in 1988, which also included floodlights. The grass court is no longer kept up as a tennis court.

The number of members has varied considerably over the years, the highest being 110 in 1944 when the membership was closed! Last year (2006) we had 18 adults and 62 under 18’s.

The club organised a tremendous number of social events each year such as dances, whist drives, beetle drives, garden fetes, car rallies, Christmas and New Year parties, jumble sales, invitation tournaments but these declined during the 1970’s, but we do still hold social events today but not as numerous.

Then in 1949 the club became a founder member of the Barkston Ash Lawn Tennis League, along with Tadcaster, Tockwith, Clifford and Scholes. The first matches (mixed) were played in 1949, consisting of nine rubbers, each being one long set, so some of the matches must have taken a considerable time to play. Sherburn has been the only club in the league to hold continuous membership since inception. By 1955 Tockwith had withdrawn and Micklefield, Bardsey, Collingham, Colton and Wetherby had joined. In 1950 the Barkston Ash Lawn Tennis Cup was presented to Sherburn and won 3 years in succession from 1958-60.

In recent years there have been either 3 or 4 divisions in the league and we have entered one or two teams with varied success over the years, mainly playing in divisions 1 and 2.

We first entered a men’s team in the Barkston Ash League in 1991 winning the division at the first attempt but we have not been able to enter a men’s team every year.

In 1979 the club joined the York & District Mixed League, which was formed in 1957 and is the largest League in the country. The first year we won Division 7 and the York Handicap Tournament, and then won each year until 1984 when we came fourth in Division 2. There are now 11 Divisions and Sherburn has mainly been in Divisions 2 or 3 but never lower than 5 since then.

In 1993 we entered the York Tyke Petroleum Men’s Tennis League and have entered a team every year with mixed success.

The club has a policy of actively encouraging junior members and organising coaching sessions for them. We run two junior teams in the Barkston Ash League, U14’s and U16’s.

The club has an active membership, fulfilling the needs of and spanning all ages of the community in tournaments, league fixtures, friendly matches, coaching, club sessions and social events.