Rolling back the years by Jean Ryan & Pauline McEvoy (2 founding members still playing tennis in RTC)

We arrived at our newly built housing estate in 1975 and were busy raising our families. Rockfield park was just a big empty field. In 1983, there was great excitement as developments started in the park and word spread that there was going to be new tennis courts and a pavilion built. The courts were opened in October 1983 to the public and a group of locals from Whitethorn, Elm Mount and Thorndale got together to form a tennis club and look after the day to day running of the place. The club grew and grew and in 1986 we were very lucky to have floodlights installed which meant nighttime tennis was possible. The membership was extremely high, there was a great buzz about the club, and we even had to hire out the local school hall for our yearly AGMs to cater for the numbers! Free coaching was provided by FAS and our love for tennis developed further. Rockfield TC enjoyed years of internal club competitions, American tournaments, round robins, kit k at tennis for juniors and League tennis for Men and Women. We had lots of League teams competing in a range of classes and were lucky to win a few pendants along the way which are still hanging on the walls of our clubhouse today! Unfortunately, as the years went on, a lot of members left Rockfield TC and moved to other neighbouring clubs because of anti-social behaviour in the park in the 90’s. This meant we had to drop out of league tennis for several years, but we were lucky enough to have a few key members that kept the club open and ticking over.

We were delighted to see the great resurgence of members since 2019. This has allowed Rockfield TC to grow into the great vibrant club that it is today. We look forward to the years ahead as we watch RTC continue to improve and develop. It’s such an important amenity to the local community and we’ve no doubt that the future is bright for RTC 

Take it from us, you never lose your love for tennis!

Here’s a few photos of Rockfield TC back in the 80’s & 90’s