FORGET Wimbledon fortnight, Iain Taylor wants to see Townley Park Tennis Club busy all year round – and he’s not doing too badly in pursuit of his aim.

The club has upwards of 300 members – a mixture of adults and children – attending sessions seven days a week at the club’s base.

But Taylor, who has been coaching for 15 years, is not done yet.

He is determined to, in his words, ‘grow the base’ of tennis players in Burnley to ensure the sport can fight with football and cricket for the town’s sportsmen and women.

“We want to see players pick up a racket and play,” said the 43-year-old. “Our Tennis for Free scheme is getting adults to come down and play tennis, most of them for the first time in their lives.

“We provide them with a racket and they can come and play. We don’t just leave them then, we provide coaching across the week for people to come and enjoy. What we want to do is grow the base and that way you will get more players coming through and better players coming through.”

It sounds so simple but . But it is not quite that straightforward for Burnley’s Taylor and the rest of his coaching team, which includes son Liam.

the club is in need of funding and Taylor, a former county tennis champion in his youth, wants to set up a base for players to enjoy.

“At the moment we get the courts for free from Burnley Borough Council but what we want to do is get some funding to replace our shale courts with courts we can use all year round,” he said.

“We want to get some floodlights there and a proper club house and that will help us,” he said. “It is only £60,000 that we want. That is a lot of money but in terms of spending on sports facilities it is not a huge amount. It would be great if we can get that and hopefully 2015 can be the year.”