Ballyjamesduff Tennis Club, stradone street, Ballyjamesduff, Cavan

The present tennis courts were formally known locally as the Gravel Hole in the 1930s and were owned by James Slowey. In 1930, Stan Lynch bought the Gravel Hole from James Slowey, levelled it and sowed grass seed, to produce grass courts. These were looked after by Bill Wright (Ulster Bank), and hence a great club in Ballyjamesduff was formed and flourished for several years. Bill Wright left and the grass courts went into decay. Then Paddy Cusack took over the courts, were gravelled and then light tarmac. Members started to depart and for several years the courts fell into decay and in the end were used to dump rubbish. In the early 1980s a new committee was formed and took on a major reconstruction job in the region of £20,000, and produced a fine enclosed court plus a practice alley.

The club thrived through the late 1970s/80s and much of the 1990s where the two courts were rarely vacant. Tournaments were held every summer with presentations held in the Percy French Hotel on Finals night. Ballyjamesduff Tennis Club at that time produced some of the finest tennis players around and had regular challenge matches with neighbouring clubs. In 1983 the then crowd favourite John McEnroe, whose paternal grandfather was from Ballyjamesduff, visited Cavan. His main memory of his trip to the Emerald Isle was a visit to County Cavan to see his one surviving Irish relative. He quoted "It was in Ballyjamesduff and the thing I remember when I was introduced to her was that she said that she preferred Borg to me." In early 2021 the local Community Council secured funding through the Leader programme and co-ordinated the works, which saw the full refurbishment of the courts and to facilitate different games like basketball and the handball. Hence a new club was established now known as Ballyjamesduff Tennis Club-MUGA. Tennis is a social sport, All levels of tennis ability are catered for beginner, social and competitive. New members are always welcome so have a look around our website. For 2023 our club is now affilliated with the national governing body Tennis Ireland.