Events
Tennis-a-thon 2022 - Dementia UK
Sign up to the Dementia UK Tennis-a-thon and challenge yourself to play tennis for as long as you can on 10th JULY raise awareness and vital funds for families facing dementia.
Whether you’re smashing serves against the wall or snatching sets from family and friends, every ball you hit and penny you raise will help our specialist dementia nurses support more families when they need it most.
To help with this we shall be organising the following timed events to help the flow of the day.
8am - 10am social tennis - £1 to play
10am - 2pm - Mixed Doubles tournament - £3 to play
2pm - 2.30pm - Waves - £1 to play
2.30pm - 3pm - Around the world - £1 to play
3pm - 4pm - our favourite "21" - £2 to play
Breakfast cobs: £2 each
BBQ Lunch: £5
All funds raised will go towards raising funds for Dementia UK
Everyone is welcome and is open to anyone wishing to raise funds for this cause and not just members of the club.
Sport in Desford at the Desford Heritage Festival 2nd/3rd July
Sport in Desford (SiD)is proud to be making a significant contribution to the Desford Heritage Festival
which will be taking place on the weekend of 2 nd and 3 rd July, with over 70 activities taking place! There
will be 8 different time zones around the village and the SiD/Caterpillar / Neovia site on Peckleton lane
has been designated as the WWII zone due to it being the location of Desford Airfield.
This was a really important airfield from 1935 to 1953 and most particularly during World War II.
What is now the SiD site was the Sergeants’ Mess attached to the northern end of the airfield. Desford
Parish Council bought this site from Caterpillar in 1988 and SiD was set up to manage its development
for sport and recreation. At the time the Sergeant’s Mess itself had already been demolished. This was
originally sitting at the south end of what is now the football pitch, leaving only the semi-derelict
squash court and dilapidated double tennis court standing. It is with this important history in mind that
the full address of SiD includes the location as the “The Flying Fields”.
During the late 1930s this airfield, initially run by a company called Reid and Sigrist, became a training
ground for new pilots. They deployed De Havilland Tiger Moth aircraft which even in 1939/40 were very
basic biplane trainers. At the peak during the war 120 Tiger Moths in 4 flights were stationed at Desford
Airfield and were used for initial pilot training of several thousand pilots. It is recorded that the rookie
pilots had a number of crashes into trees, hedges, etc with one even landing on one of the hangers.
Around 60 women from the village were employed at one time to patch up the damaged aircraft to
make them airworthy again!
At the southern end of the airfield in a completely separate operation it is estimated that over one
thousand Spitfires were assembled, making a major contribution to the war effort. Of course many of
the pilots who did their initial training on the Tiger Moths went onto fly Spitfires, Hurricanes,
Lancasters, etc during the war.
As part of the Desford Heritage festival our very own Sport In Desford (SID) has its own exciting
activities taking place on Saturday 2 nd July, and welcomes everyone to come down and enjoy!
The RAF Memorial flights including a Spitfire and a Hurricane will make 3 flybys over the village
around lunchtime on Saturday 2nd July
A low level air display of 9 Tiger Moths – sponsored by Griffen Park Development will take place
early Saturday afternoon, followed by a single Tiger Moth aerobatic display. As this is a low
level display over the field at the back of SID it will be best viewed from the SiD car Park
A Display of vintage American vehicles around the SiD clubhouse
Linda Williams Dance Academy will perform some WWII routines on the MUGA at the front of
the SiD site between 12.45 and 2pm
The PSA Futsal team will give demonstrations of playing Futsal on the MUGA at the front of the
SiD site between 12.45 and 2pm
Heritage Come and Try it sessions will be held on the SiD tennis courts and the Bowls Green
behind the Clubhouse
You are more than welcome to come view all of our facilities.
Bar located in SID will be open and toilets are available on site
There will also be a Hot Potato van, Burger van and an Ice cream Van
The SiD site will be pedestrian only with free parking is at Neovia – over 800 spaces available
Programs for timings of all these events taking place across the weekend, can be located in Desford
Library during opening times for a nominal fee of £5. They will also be available at Caterpillar and the
village Church Hall over the weekend