BL Tennis coach Brian Griffen says he wants to bring tennis to the Three Towns as lockdown begins to ease restrictions on the sport.

BL Tennis was set up by Brian Griffen and Louise Sansum and they took over the coaching programme at West Kilbride Tennis Club last year.

Speaking to the Herald, Griffen said: “I have been a tennis coach for more than 25 years and Louise has been a full-time coach for around four years and for the last 10 years we have been living and working down in London.

“The concept for BL Tennis came during the first lockdown when we decided to come back to Scotland. We are from Kilmarnock originally.

“Towards the end of the first lockdown we had conversations with West Kilbride Tennis Club about running a club programme and we kicked it off early September 2020. It started off well but then another lockdown came, and we have been kind of trundling along because we are limited in terms of the age groups we can teach and the amount of people. We are looking forward to better weather and the easing of restrictions.”

Tennis is one of the few sports allowed to play on alongside golf during the ongoing restrictions due to it being non-contact and having natural distancing.

Griffen says he is grateful that the sport has been allowed to continue and said: “All age sectors are struggling at the moment, and we are just very grateful that tennis has been allowed to continue.”

Griffen says he hopes to get into schools to encourage the younger generation to play and dispel myths about tennis.

He told the Herald: “We are trying to dispel the myth about what tennis is, that you don’t play it unless you have a lot of money, when that is not the case. We have spoken to active schools and they are very keen to work with us as the three towns has tennis facilities but there is no structure there currently.

“Judy Murray has had a big part to play in terms of taking tennis into communities and deprived areas, allowing kids to access the fun side of the sport… and we are very much on the same path.”