Members of Poppleton Lawn Tennis Club are finally seeing the light.

Work on the club's new £36,000 floodlights has been completed and courts four, five and six are now illuminated with county standard lighting.

Years of planning finally came to fruition when the lights were officially turned on at the grand opening on Tuesday.

Committee member John Bush said they had been applying for planning permission for years after it was initially turned down.

However, it was granted on appeal in the summer and work began last October.

It follows re-surfacing work which took place at the beginning of the season and took the club's spending on the courts up to £60,000. The Lawn Tennis Association also helped out with a loan of £15,000 which was guaranteed by City of York Council.

To deter vandals, the whole system has been designed so that the lights can be used without cash.

They are operated from a control box for which players obtain a key and credits to switch them on.

The courts can be booked from 5.30-10.30pm, with juniors having priority before 6.30pm.

Anyone who is not a member and wants to use the lights can join the club between now and April at a cost of £20.00. Those interested should contact membership secretary Laurie Crossley on 01347 810874.

Poppleton, York and Bishopthorpe ladies tennis teams have got off to a good start in the Fulford Ladies Winter Tennis League.

Poppleton had wins against Fulford and Strensall, while York beat Tollerton and Sheriff Hutton. Bishopthorpe had wins against Bubwith and Tollerton.

Cliffe beat neighbours Cawood but lost to Bubwith. Knaresborough won a close match against Castlegarth, Riccall beat Selby and Strensall had a good victory at Sheriff Hutton.

The annual meeting of the Fulford ladies Invitation league will be held at Fulford Sports Centre at 7pm on Wednesday, February 9. Heworth have applied to join the league and will take the total to 40 teams in the league this summer.

Any items for the agenda must be sent to league secretary Terry Haw as soon as possible.

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