The Story of the UK’s Longest-Running LGBTQ+ Tennis Club

Croydon, south London, has always had a strong gay community vibe.

A stroke of fortune has meant that the local area has been full of professional LGBTQ+ people with many skills, knowledge and experience. This array of passionate people has made ACE Players Tennis the success story it’s become.

45 years on, we’re still going strong – despite the obstacles we’ve faced along the way.

The club was set up by friends in the summer of 1977. I joined in 1984. Nearly 40 years later – having just celebrated my 60th birthday – I still play every week.

In fact, my journey with the group has rather defined my life.

It hasn’t been all roses though. From dealing with unfriendly staff and homophobic bystanders calling us names in our formative years to sadly losing members during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s, our challenges were many.

ACE Players in 1993

However, these experiences inspired us to get active. We started the AIDS Care and Education project (ACE) to advocate for and support people living with HIV.

Tennis members became volunteer trainers, counsellors, buddies, fundraisers and caterers. Our little group of players didn’t originally set out to play an important role in the community – but we did.

After the millennium, with society’s changing attitudes, playing tennis on public courts became more comfortable. A new issue emerged though: was the group still relevant in 21st century Britain?

Time has proven there is still validity in having LGBTQ+ spaces where people can be their authentic selves. Largely thanks to the Meet Up app, we have expanded our membership from a low of 15 members to over 150.

It’s been exciting to see how the different generations of players get along and how our different cultural references within tennis have to be explained – the newer players being more inspired by Serena than Chrissie and Martina.

We now play at Shirley Park Lawn Tennis Club, who have been wonderful. Some ACE players have even joined their club and their members sometimes join in our sessions if we are short on numbers. Some of our older gay members are still developing confidence in accepting this new status quo of supportive allies, but this is great progress for our community.

ACE Croydon logo

The tennis group has been an important part of my life and it’s heartening to see a new generation of players come along and join us – just as we renamed the group ‘ACE’ as a tribute to the aforementioned AIDS Care Education project (as well as an obvious tennis reference).

We hope our new members – and many others to come – will raise a glass to us for our 50th anniversary in 2027 as they have for our 45th.

About the author – Leigh Armstrong (he/him) is a committee member of ACE Players Tennis Croydon and has played in the group for nearly 40 years. He has been a long term LGBTQ+ community activist in the area, helping to set up and manage a youth group, an HIV project and theatre group and a 50+ silver rainbow lunch club. Leigh is also a committee member of Racing with Pride, British Racing’s official LGBTQ+ racing network.

Previous
Previous

One year in: visibility, dialogue and Billie Jean King.

Next
Next

Over the Rainbow: True LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Tennis