Cheadle Kingsway Tennis Club was created from the merging of Gatley Tennis Club, which was located at the end of Belmont Road in Gatley and Cheadle Tennis Club, which was always based within Cheadle Sports Club.

Tennis had been played at Gatley since before the first world war the with Mr H M Burns winning three Mens Singles titles in the 1920’s and 30’s. Lots of Gatley families played tennis at the club over the years, including the Wood’s, Clough’s, Garrett’s, Tomkinson’s, Terry’s, Hatton’s and Gordon’s. Even today, there are many players whose parents and even grand parents played – the Dabb’s, Sutherland, Johnson and Pullar names go back a few generations on the cups!

Gatley Tennis Club comprised of 4 shale courts, 2 all weather and a clubhouse dating back to 1902. In March 2003 the clubhouse was burnt down by vandals. The club was in trouble because shale was a surface in decline – it was made from brick dust and the North West only had one machine producing shale. The costs of new courts plus rebuilding the clubhouse were too great – a new solution was needed.

At that time Cheadle Tennis Club was struggling for members. They had three shale courts, two grass courts and a tarmac court and very few members. They too badly needed new courts.

Irene Pullar was Chair of Gately Tennis Club and Sandra McDermott was Chair of Cheadle Sports Club. They got their heads together and agreed to sell Gatley Tennis Club and use the proceeds to build six new courts at Cheadle. It sounds simple but there was lots of hard work involved. Planning permission was sought from Stockport Council – they objected as they saw it as the loss of six tennis courts in the area, despite the fact that by this time the Cheadle courts had fallen into disrepair and Gatley courts were becoming obsolete. The decision was appealed and ultimately ended up at the office of the Deputy Prime Minister, which was John Prescott – not someone who you would think would be supportive of a tennis club in South Manchester, but he came through for us and over ruled the council. The day he made the decision Stockport Council refused planning permission for our floodlights, despite over 20 positive submissions from the residents on High Grove Road (most of which were members of the club!). Gatley Tennis Club and Cheadle Tennis Clubs became Cheadle Kingsway Tennis Club.

Once the decision was made Gatley Tennis Club was sold for housing and the money used to re-develop the courts at Cheadle, tarmac the car park and establish a ‘sinking fund’ to replace the courts when required. The Tennis Pavillion was refurbished and named the ‘Irene Pullar Pavillion’ in recognition of the work Irene put in to make it happen. You may also see a plaque to Peter Kashem who was heavily involved in securing a developer and making the move happen. At that time Val Cording joined us as Tennis Coach – all three members were later made Life Members to thank them for keeping us all playing tennis.