Behind the scenes at the Ilkley Trophy as Yorkshire tennis tournament continues to grow

The action on Centre Court below you is a given, and on this warm Friday afternoon it was a men's singles semi-final in which Jason Kubler of Australia came from a set down to defeat Arthur Cazaux – the young Frenchman Andy Murray beat in the final at Nottingham last week – to reach Saturday’s showpiece.

To your left is Court One where Daria Galfi, the 2022 women's singles champion at Ilkley, was battling in vain to keep her title defence alive against Mirjam Bjorklund.

Look over your shoulder and you can see the other four match courts, three of them empty, with the worn grass at each baseline betraying how well used they were earlier in the week as the tournament unfolded. The fourth was used later on the Friday afternoon for the women’s doubles final.

A little further to the left are the practice courts, five if needed, while if you look hard enough through the treetops, you can just about make out the Cow and Calf, that famous rock formation on the moor that peers down on the spa town.

Looking back across the show court the clubhouse stands proudly in the sunshine, and to the right the hospitality tents are full, so is the small but busy catering area.

Beyond that is an array of hard courts, on one of which dozens of children from local schools are partaking in tennis drills.

"Most of the kids we’ve been able to get in are not just from the really local schools but from much further afield into the inner-city areas of Bradford,” explains tournament director and club chairman Rik Smith.

“We’ve had a big push this year to get kids here who ordinarily have never had access to racket sports. They get to take part in some fun tennis activities, and depending on their school timetable they can sit and watch a few games of tennis.”

Developing a community footprint is one of the many strands Ilkley is pursuing as it looks to maintain the tournament’s growth trajectory since the Lawn Tennis Association restored it to the calendar last June following a two-year break due to Covid.

Two weeks out from Wimbledon and held in the same week as Queen’s, it might never attract a cast list of grand slam contenders, but it is developing a positive reputation.

"The feedback we’ve had from both spectators and players has been unbelievable,” beams Smith. “For this level of tournament it attracts the most number of spectators they get all across the world.

"At Ilkley we take it for granted that we get this level of spectators, but at most ITF100s (women) and Challenger events (men) the crowds even for finals can be below 100.

"So for us to be sold out for Saturday’s finals day and pushing nearly 1,500 on site it’s quite spectacular, and that creates a great atmosphere for the players.”

With Smith at the helm there is an ambition to grow at a steady pace, using the 50-50 split of income they share with the LTA to reinvest into the club and their community programmes, while taking the learnings from each tournament to try to make the next one even better.

"We’ve had the highest number of spectators we’ve ever had, highest revenue we’ve ever had,” he says.

“We’ve probably doubled everything, if not tripled everything, from last year. The feedback this week is this tournament could increase in size, it could become a higher level tournament. And if it doesn’t, we’ve got the capacity to increase what we do during the week.”

The site is compact and eye-catching, but Ilkley Lawn Tennis and Squash Club would need to increase the infrastructure around them if they are to grow.

"Unlike a lot of venues we’ve got a huge car park that takes several hundred cars,” continues Smith, “and I knew we were going to be busy when on that first Saturday, which is primarily a casual day, we were full in the car park by 12pm.

"We’re looking at alternatives for next year, there’s plenty of fields that are used for other events. We’ll sell tickets earlier next year and if we see those tickets getting above 1,500-1,600, then we’ll have to look for additional parking. Bradford Council have been to the event, they’ve seen the scale of it and what it can do for the region and hopefully they can support us.”

As the last car pulled out of the car park on Friday night and the last tray of strawberries was consumed, there were only two matches left to be resolved – Saturday’s singles finals – after an exhausting, but fulfilling week for those involved.

"We want to put on a tennis event, not just a tennis tournament,” concludes Smith.

"Compared to Birmingham, Nottingham or even a Surbiton, our hospitality numbers are far in excess. At Birmingham, which is a WTA event, they do 90 a day, we do 200. For us to be knocking on the door of that, it says a huge amount about Ilkley and what it can be as a tournament.”