Sonning LTC are proud to announce that Head Coach, Colin Byers was awarded with Berkshire LTA's "Coach of the Year 2025" award at the Berkshire LTA's annual meeting and awards evening at the end of February.

Taking over when Rob Ventin set off for his Australian adventure, Colin pushed on to complete his LTA coaching qualifications in 2024, having started that journey in summer 2023, intending to help and back up Rob.

Chairman, Tim Banks (pictured here with Colin and his award) nominated Colin for an LTA award to recognise the role he's played in building the club's membership across all categories and offering many different ways to get involved. In Tim's nomination he - and the Berkshire LTA judges - recognised the great progress at SLTC, almost doubling membership since early 2024, introducing several coaching initiatives including Cardio Tennis, Walking Tennis and several junior groups and offering new and regular players lots of opportunites to get on court.

Perhaps most noteworthy is the rejuvenated junior section, which has grown from less than 20 to more than 70 members, with junior sessions often now attracting 30+ players regularly each week. Especially noted by the award assessors was the junior teenage girls group, who meet on Sundays and enjoy coaching and games together each week. 2026 will see the club entering junior teams in the Berkshire Youth league for the first time.

Of his award, Colin said "It's really a recognition of the whole membership at Sonning who welcome new players whenever they come along. We're a friendly local club who encourange participation for all, whether you want social, friendly or competitive tennis". He added "I'm incredibly grateful to the committee at Sonning who've been supportive of me and always backed our new initiatives. We are lucky to share a great, well run club and I'm looking forward to continuing our tennis journeys together in the coming years".