Club History
WKTC - THE HISTORY OF OUR CLUB
Tennis has been played in West Kilbride since at least the early 1900’s. Grass courts were built on part of what is now the 3rd hole at West Kilbride Golf Club. These were subsequently relocated to a site adjacent to the public car park off Hyndman Road.
The original courts in Kiktonhall Glen were built around 1970 and operated as public courts by the then local authority. Tennis continued until the early 1990’s when, after years of poor maintenance, they were closed and gradually fell into a state of total dilapidation.
With tennis no longer available in West Kilbride some groups relocated to Inverclyde while others wanting to continue playing joined a variety of other Ayrshire clubs.
This continued until 2011 when John Wilson, founder and inaugural Chairman of West Kilbride Tennis Club, decided to initiate a project aimed at improving the sports facilities in the Glen, including a redevelopment of the tennis courts. He had gained experience of what was involved while President of Troon Lawn Tennis Club where he’d successfully led the redevelopment of their clubhouse and courts.
After a public meeting West Kilbride Community Sports Club was formed to take matters forward and the redevelopment of the existing tennis courts site was planned as the first phase. A long term lease of the site was agreed with North Ayrshire Council and £200,000 raised from a variety of grant funding bodies, as well as local organisations and individuals.
Construction of the new courts was completed in February 2016 and formally opened by Judy Murray in April 2016.
The courts very quickly gained a reputation among visiting teams as being the best in the whole of Ayrshire.
The new West Kilbride Tennis Club was constituted in January 2016 and the rest as they say … is history.
The dilapidated sports pavilion adjacent to the courts was subsequently refurbished by the Community Sports Club in 2019, in a further project initiated and led by then Chairman John Wilson, part of which provided a brand new clubhouse for tennis and completed the next key phase in the club's development.
OFFICIAL OPENING - APRIL 2016
