A BURY tennis coach has netted a top award.

Paul Jepson, from the Tennis For Free (TFF) St Mary’s Park site in Prestwich, has won the title of ‘Tennis For Free Coach Of The Year 2017’.

Announcing the awards, the judges’ citation read: “Paul has spearheaded one of the largest attendance bases any TFF site has seen in just a few months of operation. With a total of 273 enrolled players creating a total of 445 attendances in just three months, from an October launch with poor weather, is testament to Paul’s infectious personality.”

Paul said: “It’s an honour to receive this award and I’m very humbled. I’m passionate about tennis and about this site.

"I started played tennis on a park court and the game has been my life since then culminating in a career. We have a wonderful tennis community full of amazingly friendly, funny and passionate people who attend Tennis For Free every week whatever the weather and I will work even harder now to make sure we get more and more people playing this great game across the area.”

Paul has been coaching for 15 years starting as a community tennis coach in his home town. He then moved onto various indoor centres before setting up his own business and providing coaching across various clubs. Interestingly, Paul started his tennis journey at a park, just like many of Tennis For Free’s attendees. He started aged seven at Stamford Park in Ashton-Under-Lyme.

Tennis For Free is a UK charity which aims to create healthy, vibrant local tennis communities for free on public park courts creating new players of all ages and backgrounds. It is partnered with the LTA and joins the local authority to create two hours of free tennis every week at normally under-used tennis courts targeting hundreds of local people to enjoy a new sport to improve their fitness but also create new social and friendship groups.Tennis For Free supporters include Judy Murray (mother of World No1 Andy), BBC tennis commentator Andrew Castle and ex Grand Slam winner Pat Cash.

John Willis, Tennis For Free Regional Development Officer, said: “My congratulations to Paul and to everyone at St Mary’s Park. It’s a super site with energetic and friendly coaches and a real community feel – exactly what Tennis For Free is all about.”

Councillor Andrea Simpson, cabinet member for health and wellbeing at Bury Council, said: “Paul’s efforts in making the programme here in Bury such a fantastic success are to be applauded and many congratulations to him for winning this much deserved award.”

Tennis For Free runs at St Mary’s Park every Sunday between 2-4pm. Register at stmarysparktennis.co.uk For more information visit www.tennisforfree.com.You can also follow Tennis For Free on twitter @tennisforfree and on Facebook.