British Tennis Forum - Celebrating 20 Years!

sliced backhand wrote:

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Yes, it is the equivalent of the French version. It was started and organised for many years by Paul and Shali Hutchins. Up until about 2013 the first prize money was £10,000 per team. The LTA then to decreased it to £3000 for the winning team- which is the level at which it has remained since. In the early 2000's there was a much wider geographical range of successful ladies' teams. Edgbaston Priory and Holcombe Brook (Lancs), for example, always did well. There are about 24 teams in the four National divisions. Of those I think it unlikely that more than 3 pay their players. I believe that the David Lloyd clubs offer free membership to their players at all DL clubs. Big clubs (like Roehampton) can offer use of their wide range of court surfaces. A very small number of teams are assisted by sponsors. It would be very unusual for teams who do well not to fall into one of these categories. I believe that winning teams share the prize money amongst the players. With a squad of at least 6, even the winning team's players are not going to get rich! For the standard of the ladies teams to increase then there would need to be a substantial increase in prize money!

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Thanks Sliced Backhand, good insight!