Rustlings Lawn Tennis Club

A Brief History

Established in 1883, Rustlings Lawn Tennis Club is Sheffield’s oldest tennis club and one of the three founding members of the Sheffield & District Lawn Tennis Association (S&D LTA). The club takes its name from its original l;ocation in Endcliffe Park, off Rustlings Road. Rustlings and moved to its current site on Collegiate Crescent, in 1888 where they paid an annual fee to rent the siteland. In 1971 various fund raising efforts, voluntary donations and a grant from the Department of the Environment allowed the Club to purchase the land. The club originally had three grass courts and three shale courts, but these were converted to five all-weather tarmacadam courts in the early 1990s.    

Major fundraising efforts allowed us to resurface all five courts in 2019, and to install floodlights on 3 courts in 2020. The extension in playing time led to a growth in membership and and development of our coaching programme, which was formally recognised  in 2021 when Rustlings was named S&D LTA Club of the Year.

Today, Rustlings is a vibrant, friendly tennis club. In addition to a very active programme of social tennis, which includes organised social tennis sessions, Rustlings offers an all-year-round coaching programme for players of all ages and fields teams in the local S&D LTA leagues throughout the year so if you are interested in playing competitive tennis then Rustlings is the place for you.

Our Mission Statement

We are a friendly, welcoming club, proud of our history as the oldest established tennis club in Sheffield and dedicated to providing facilities to promote and encourage the playing of tennis by our members and the local community.

Our aims are to:

• Provide a friendly environment where players of all skill levels are welcome, can meet and make new friends and find players of a similar level to play with at the club.
• Provide a range of activities centred around the game of tennis including opportunities to develop and improve their skills through a coaching programme, to socialise through participating in our social tennis evenings and intraclub tournaments, and experience competitive tennis by playing for the club’s teams in the local tennis leagues.
• Manage and run the club on a non-profit basis, so that membership fees remain reasonable, while also embracing opportunities to develop the facilities for the benefit of the membership.
• Provide additional opportunities for members to socialise and come together off court.
• Promote the growth and development of the club and the game of tennis to achieve the maximum potential of both the facility and the local tennis community.