FERNDOWN’S future Andy Murrays can now play all year round thanks to a huge grant from Sport England.

The national organisation has approved a donation of £39,765 towards a total project cost of £54,764 to provide floodlighting for Ferndown Tennis Club.

And the initiative has also been given a £15,300 cash boost from the KGV Playing Fields Charity, much of which will be used in refurbishing the existing facilities, with additional donations coming from Synergy Housing.

Chair of the club, Lynn Chong, said: “All of us at Ferndown Tennis Club are extremely pleased the Sport England grant application was successful.

“We’re especially grateful to former town clerk Ian Jones, who made the application as the KGV Charity owns the courts. The application highlighted our Tennis for Everyone campaign, and demonstrated how we plan to expand our existing programme to offer year round, low-cost, accessible tennis-based activities to the whole local community.”

She added: “We can't wait to see what the future holds for the Club now and welcome everyone to come and join us and play the great game of tennis.”