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On Monday 3rd April 1939 the first General Meeting of the Brentwood Hard Court club was held and during the war years which followed, the Club managed to keep going on a limited scale.
Once again this was due to the efforts of the Committee, especially A.Bartlett who took over Lionel’s job while he was away, S.I. Hammersley and F.Maggs, both who served a stint as Captain, and J.McCall, Vice-Captain for most of this period.
The Clubs financial problems, in particular the payment of rent, continued, but as usual the representatives of the Committee managed to negotiate their way out of trouble.
However, by late 1945, Mrs. Saunders who had taken over ownership of the club on the death of her husband - was threatening to sell the club at an asking price rumoured to be £850. The Committee though believed there was no real danger of this and continued to negotiate the amount of rent.
By 1947 the situation was more serious for the Club as Mrs. Saunders had put the Club up for public auction at £1,100. Secretary Bartlett and Lionel Bass (back to the Club as Vice-Captain) decided they could not put in a counter offer but resolved to try and raise loans from members.
When Lionel took back the position of Secretary and Treasurer in April 1947 the offer of loans amounted to only £400, patently not enough. However, times being difficult for everyone, the Committee offered £50 as rent for the following year and hoped Mrs. Saunders would accept and give them a year’s breathing space, this she did, and the Committee set about raising their agreed maximum price. They were prepared to pay £900.
At a Contributors Meeting in January 1948 Lionel reported the purchase price was £850. Of this, £555 had been received or promised and an anonymous contributor had offered a loan of £200 - a not inconsiderable sum in those days, he therefore concluded another £100 would cover the purchase price and any costs incurred.
Six members present were able to raise this sum and the Club was back in business. Subsequently, at the annual General Meeting of 1948, Lionel was able to report that the purchase of the courts was complete, the total outlay having been £841, which included £16 Solicitor’s fees.
An agreement, finalised in early 1949, was drawn up in which Brentwood Hard Court Club would ‘buy’ the Club from the Trustees of the Contributors for £900 in instalments, the size of which being determined by the state of the club’s funds at the time.
Although not known at the time, the anonymous contributor whose help had been so invaluable was Claude Wainwright, a long time member whose family also played at the club. Claude was Vice- president for 3 years before becoming President in 1948, and his son Frank became one of the Club’s top team players and at various times has also served as Vice-Captain, President and latterly Vice –president, whilst daughter Barbara was also a leading club player.
Another member to offer financial assistance at this time was Vernon Hardwick who offered a short-term loan to the club until it had raised the money for it’s next project - a new Clubhouse. To finance this project the committee introduced a joining fee for new members and again looked for interest-free loans from existing members, specifically those not having already contributed to the purchase of the Club itself.
The new clubhouse was in fact an old First World War army hut, which had been found neglected in a field by the then Captain, Don Murray. He managed to buy the hut from the owner and it was duly removed and rebuilt at the Club by the members.
The existing clubhouse, a much smaller building became the changing rooms, the ‘new’ clubhouse has in fact proved to be a good buy, as at the time of writing it is the clubhouse for the Club at its present site in Childerditch Lane, having been removed and rebuilt once more.
Although it may appear that the Club was constantly struggling for funds and members, it was by this time in a much healthier state; the social side was going ‘well and the teams were finding success, the Men’s team winning the Essex Junior Cup of 1949 and many individual successes going to the Club members. The Club was also on a much sounder financial footing and its facilities were on the upgrade with the improvements to the clubhouse continuing.
An area of concern for the Committee in the fifties was the condition of the courts, which were set on various levels. Court 3 on the same level as the clubhouse, court 4 alongside slightly higher and courts 1 and 2 on a much lower level below.
The ground on which they had been built had been constantly wet, due to underground springs, and even though a complicated drainage system had been designed for the courts, numbers 1 and 2 still remained moist for most of the year. As a consequence these courts were by far the most popular and were beginning to wear heavily, and so in1954 it was agreed to relay courts 1 and 2 (at a cost of £420) followed by 3 and 4 a few years later.
The remainder of the fifties saw two more important developments, which continued the improvements to the club. In May 1954 it was that the club should have a licensed bar. Whilst this might seem a logical step now, at the time it was not the norm and there was much opposition, so much so that the final decision agreeing to the proposal was at an extra-ordinary general meeting in July 1958.
The other suggestion, also made in 1954, was to floodlight court 2. This project planned and agreed quickly, was the idea of long-time and hard working Committee Member Geoff Snell (later to be Chairman and Vice- President).
He persuaded an electrical company, Crompton Parkinson, with whom he had contacts, to supply the materials at cost price and a group of members installed the floodlights themselves. The total cost, raised by the members, was only £150, less than half the normal rare for a job of that size. By September of the next year the floodlights were completed and were deemed a great success and as a result the Club became one of the first in Essex with a floodlit court.
For the next few years the general club improvements continued. By 1962 the final payment on the club had been made to the Trustees for the contributors and ownership of the ground passed to the club, represented by Trustees representing the committee, these being Lionel Bass, Percy Fisher (the Club President), Don Murray (Vice-President) and Frank Wainwright (Vice -Captain).
The middle to late sixties were much taken up with plans to move the club to other sites in Brentwood. The first involved a possible move to a ground in Warley, near the Barracks within ½ a mile of the original ground in Eagle Way. After 3 years’ deliberation the plan was shelved, as was a later proposal to move to land near ‘The Nags Head’ public house in Brook Street.
One moment of excitement in this quieter period of planning involved number 1 court, which although usually moist, became rather over moist when a surface water drain burst. The Council who had blocked the drain by putting a pile driver through it met the cost of repairs to the court, totaling £620!
In 1973 Terry Sullivan, an Official Lawn Tennis Association Coach, started coaching the club’s juniors on Saturday mornings and hence began a very successful relationship with the club. Terry’s enthusiasm and energy for his job resulted in him becoming one of Essex’s top coaches, and he taught many of the country’s top juniors as well as his own Son Mark, now a Coach, and daughter Sarah who reached international standard.
Terry’s untimely death in 1987 was a sad loss to every one who knew him, but the fruits of his labour can be seen in the numerous people playing top team tennis in Essex (many still for the Club), who began tennis with his coaching squads.
In early 1974 the wall which supported courts 3 and 4 above courts 1 and 2 subsided, particularly on the side of courts 2 and 4. Within a year court 4 had become totally unplayable and the cost of the repairs was estimated by Chairman Michael Cullen at over £5,000. At this time the option on 3 acres of land at Childerditch Lane, close to Ford’s Headquarters in Eagle Way, had become available and it was agreed to proceed with negotiations to buy it.
The bulk of the negotiations were handled by Michael Cullen and by John Tucker, the club Captain, the driving force in the club at the time. By February 1976 the committee was able to put a series of proposals to the members at an extra-ordinary general meeting. These included selling the Headley Chase ground for £36,000 and buying 2 acres of land in Childerditch Lane for £8,000, laying 4 Shale Courts at a cost of £7,500 and 3 Hard Courts at £10,500. The Trustees of this ground to be Frank Wainwright (President), Michael Cullen, John Tucker and Lionel Bass.
The annual general meeting of 1976 reported that negotiations were nearing completion and soon after the club moved to its present ground.
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History 
