FREE tennis lessons for children under nine are just the beginning of a drive to recruit more diverse players at the new Wantage Tennis Club.

The club, which is in the process of building four new courts and a new club house at Manor Road Recreation Ground, is offering the free sessions every Saturday morning from 11.30am to 12.30pm, funded by a grant from the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA).

Youngsters get a crash course in hand-eye co-ordination and take home a free racket, and the sessions have proved popular in the first free weeks.

But head coach Andy Aitken said it was just the beginning of the club's ambition to get a much more diverse membership at their new home.

Mr Aitken, who lives in Abingdon, said: "We would love to open the club up and get new members and offer disabled tennis as well.

"We'd love to offer visually-impaired tennis and hopefully we can be a massive hub for that.

"Coaches have to go on special training courses to offer it, but we're going to look to bring that in over the next 12 months."

He said he had already been on a training course to coach deaf tennis and was looking into further training.

Mr Aitken said the desire to expand and offer sessions for a wider range of players had been part of the reason for moving to Manor Road.

The club was based at its previous home in the middle of a housing estate in Foliat Drive, Charlton, for 25 years.

Surrounded by houses, plans to install floodlighting to offer late-night training were not popular with neighbours and expansion was not an option.

Mr Aitken said: "That old site was very small, we couldn't look to expand, we couldn't put the lights up."

But earlier this year the club won planning permission to build six houses on the courts and sold the site to a housing developer for more than £500,000.

They have now taken over the tennis courts at Manor Road, formerly run by Vale of White Horse District Council, and with the money from Foliat Drive built four new private courts, a new club house, and renovated the two public courts, which they will now also run.

Moving to the public park has also meant the club is a lot more visible than when it was tucked away in a housing estate.

Mr Aitken said: "Going to Manor Road is giving us massive exposure which was fantastic – it was a no-brainer to move there.

"We would never have been able to offer disabled or other forms of tennis without the move."

Annual membership currently costs £100 but Mr Aitken said the club was looking into pay-to-play options.

In the meantime, he said building works were forging ahead as well as could be hoped and the new club was on-schedule for its grand opening on Saturday, July 16.