Ilkley Tennis and Squash Club will benefit from a newly developed coaching aid that has been donated to the club.

Edmund Raczkowski, Managing Director of TeacherBoards based in Skipton, was particularly pleased to support the tennis coaching programme at Ilkley.

His company, TeacherBoards, is one of the top three companies in the field of dry wipe noticeboards. They export to 20 countries and are particularly strong in the UK educational market.

Edmund said: "I was a junior member at the club many years ago and the company TeacherBoards was originally started in Ilkley so it great to be able to give something back to local junior sport.

"Nick Fitzpatrick, a coach at Ilkley, actually came up with the idea of a tennis specific dry wipe board which had the court layout permanently marked out. We have now developed the idea and we feature sports coaching boards designed for different sports in our new catalogue."

Billy Kerr, General Manager at Ilkley Tennis Club, said: "We are very pleased to have Edmund's support and it is also great that Nick's idea has ended up in a new product line for TeacherBoards. I hope that their new range proves to be a success."

New role for

Fitzpatrick

With the tennis coaching programme at Ilkley Tennis Club growing beyond expectation over the past few years club tennis professional Nick Fitzpatrick will take on a new role at what is now one of the country's leading tennis clubs.

Nick becomes Assistant Head Professional and will support the Head Professional Simon Ickringill in the ongoing development of the coaching programme.

Nick will particularly focus on performance. He is already working closely with Simon Ickringill and with club coaches, Georgina Jackson, Nick Crowther and Derek Dixon as well as the Yorkshire LTA to further develop the club's performance programme.

Simon Ickringill, Head Professional, said: "Nick has played a major part in the success of the coaching programme over the past five years and I am sure that in his new role we will have even more success in the future. As well as continuing to introduce tennis to all junior schools in the area, we will now also focus on producing top performance juniors."

Billy Kerr, the club's General Manager, added: "With Simon and Nick, we have two of the top coaches in the country. They are also supported by a great team of club coaches and this is reflected in the number of juniors enjoying coaching at the club. They have already produced many top juniors who look to have the potential for an impressive tennis future, and with this added focus on performance, who knows... maybe a future Wimbledon champion."

Following recent meetings with the LTA the club aims to be selected as an LTA Performance Centre this year and this should result in additional funding that will help produce top players.