The Railroad Club is there to support student tennis for the long-term. In the five hundred years it’s been played in Oxford, it has been the launching point of many of the world’s finest players. The aim of the Club is to maintain that tradition by developing each new generation of tennis players.
We aim to provide subsidised coaching for players at all levels – from sessions with Andrew and Craig for newcomers to masterclasses with competitors the calibre of Rob and Claire Fahey for the Blues squad. We also aim to help with the costs of kit. Racket prices have risen 35-50% in the last few years to around £350 for top-end rackets and we’d like to supply them for half that.
Where you come in
As players leave Oxford we will encourage them to join the Club so that they not only maintain their link to the game but also – in the longer-term – help to provide that financial support. But right now we need to encourage past players of the game at Oxford to support this initiative – which has been endorsed not just by past stars such as Spike Willcocks* but also by fifteen alumni who signed up to life membership of the Club at the launch event we held at the Oxford & Cambridge Club on 20 May [for more info on the launch, click here].
Will you join us by signing up to annual subscription or even a Life Membership?
For more on the launch event see the Introduction by Neil Mortensen and Spike’s wholehearted endorsement of real tennis and the Railroad Club.
Spike started playing Real Tennis whilst at Canford School.
He continued at Oxford whilst studying at Brasenose College from 1994-2001. Did his undergraduate degree in Chemistry and DPhil in Biochemistry.
His best handicap was +7 in 2007 which made him the 5th best player in the world at that point.
He is founder and now chief strategy officer of Oxford Nanopore Technologies.
What you get in return
Firstly, there will be an annual programme of social and sporting events in London and elsewhere designed to keep players in contact and keep playing our great game. A first event is planned for Queens in late 2022 and we’re planning a tennis event and (possibly) a dinner in Oxford as a follow-up in 2023. We’re also exploring the possibility of a match against Cambridge’s Giraffe Club – so
watch this space.
There will be opportunities to get hold of the limited and much sought-after Varsity Match dinner tickets. You’ll have access to court time at Oxford and you’ll get regular updates on the Club and its events.
But … it’s the drive to support all students to maximise their potential as players, to excel on court and (whisper it) do well against Cambridge that we’d like you to focus on.
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