Celebrating Excellence: Highlights from the 2026 County LTA Awards

2025 was an incredible year for tennis and padel in Berkshire. Our annual County Awards evening on Thursday 26th February was a memorable one, serving as a heartfelt 'thank you' to the incredible individuals and venues that make tennis and padel thrive.

Last year, we were proud to receive 44 nominations; this year, that number skyrocketed to 114 full nominations. This surge in engagement, particularly for our coaching categories, proves just how much our players value the people, places and events that keep them coming back to the tennis and padel court.

Below, we celebrate our winners and highly commended achievers for 2026 (for work in 2025).

🏆 Club of the Year: Wargrave Tennis Club

Wargrave is a worthy winner of the this award. Situated in the heart of the village, it provides a welcoming and inclusive place to play.  It has 7 tennis courts with 2 designed for locals to pay and play creating a warm community driven spirit at the club. Their membership has increased 60% over the last 5 years.  Wargrave offers tennis, padel and pickleball and they are currently awaiting planning for a second padel court.  They are a shining example of what a grass roots Tennis and Padel club should be, welcoming, inclusive and forward thinking.

🏆 Cathie Sabin Volunteer of the Year: Rachel Speight

Rachel received 8 nominations for this award. Rachel’s dedication to supporting both Junior and Adult tennis is exceptional. Her leadership, encouragement and hands on involvement have made a profound and lasting impact on Bracknell Club Community. Rachel is passionate about tennis and a powerhouse of promoting ladies and junior participation in the sport, running 5 ladies teams, 6 mixed doubles teams and a weekly mixed adult/junior event and various tournaments. We are delighted to award Rachel Cathie Sabin Volunteer of the Year.

• Highly Commended: Dave Winship

🏆 Coach of the Year: Colin Byers

Colin's impact on Sonning Tennis Club has been transformational. He has revitalised the coaching programme, embedding a culture of inclusivity, professionalism and passion. Colin has increased the juniors from 5 players to 30 players adding holiday camps and the clubs first junior friendly matches with more planned for 2026. The clubs overall  membership increased by 20% boosted by parents of the juniors joining the club He has introduced a teenage girls group focused on confidence and enjoyment demonstrating his ability to inspire, participation and diversity and we are delighted to award Colin Coach of the Year.

• Highly Commended:

  We had so many nominations for our coaches in Berkshire this year across many clubs, we only felt it fair to award the following for their continued excellent work in the County:

• Mark Bradley

• Simon Grassi

• Ilona Hawker

• Jay Hunting

🏆 Competition of the Year: The Inclusive Padel Tour at Maidenhead Padel

Maidenhead Padel hosted the first UK inclusive padel tour in September 2025 and had 62 competitors from around the world competing, making it the biggest competition of IPT so far. It was an excellent event showcasing what a fabulous community there is in inclusive padel. Preceding the competition there was a community day where children with disabilities and special educational needs got the opportunity to try padel and meet the IPT players. The SEND school pupils from 3 local schools continue to have padel sessions provided by Padel Maidenhead. 

🏆 Official of the Year: Selena Coburn

Under Selena's leadership the number, quality and variety of events have grown dramatically giving players of every age and level more chances to compete close to home.  Selena's professionalism and drive has transformed the County's competition landscape from U8 to U18, ITF and Tennis Europe events. Selena is an excellent role model for female officials. Selena has recognised the shortage of officials in the area and has organised and led courses to train and support new referees and competition organisers. We are delighted to award Selena with Official of the Year.

• Highly Commended: Stephen Mark Williams

🏆 Performance Coach of the Year: Lewis Brown

Lewis has been ever present at Berkshire County training for over 5 years and is always keen, enthusiastic and brings energy to each session. His pre planning is extremely thorough and he considers each individuals ability and strengths. The sessions are delivered with quality and relevant information focusing on all performance factors. This has made a significant difference to those he delivers coaching to as their results confirm. Lewis offers constructive support at all times. We are delighted to award Lewis Performance Coach of the year.

• Highly Commended: Peter Mogan

🏆 School of the Year: Wellington College

Wellington College offers high quality sessions to over 400 pupils as part of their sports curriculum plus out of school hours opportunity.  The tennis programme is designed to ensure the best quality provision for everyone from the top players competing internationally in Tennis Europe and ITF events to beginners with the goal of playing and enjoying tennis for life,

🏆 Young Person of the Year: Louis Hunting

Louis has recently started working as a coach at RATC but previous to this he volunteered his time and energy helping his Dad with the junior programme.  Louis is always happy to hit balls with anyone who asks him, spending time with the juniors, encouraging their love of the sport. Louis is always engaging and helpful despite  pressures he himself felt at times. Louis has continually demonstrated a fabulous attitude which coupled with his enthusiasm makes his a worthy recipient of Young Person of the Year.

What’s Next?

The journey doesn't end here! All of our county winners will now automatically move forward to the LTA National Awards 2026 judging phase.

We are incredibly proud to have such a strong cohort representing our county on the national stage. Please join us in wishing them all the very best of luck.