THE glitz and glamour of the manicured lawns of South West London harvest a surplus in excess of £40m for the Lawn Tennis Association each year but a group of determined Maryhill residents were reminding them yesterday that it doesn’t always take a multi-million pound budget to fashion your own field of dreams.

Roughly the same time as her second son Andy was pictured on social media hitting a tennis ball - against a wall - for the first time since his January hip operation, the Friends of Maryhill group were taking matters into their own hands by weeding and rolling a few of the five red ash courts which had been allowed to get into a state of some disrepair on their doorstep.

The Judy Murray Foundation could hardly fail to be impressed by such endeavours so it was fitting that the first lady of Scottish and British tennis should visit the courts yesterday to run starter tennis sessions for families in the local community in partnership with PEEK (Possibilities for Each and Every Kid). With only a modest investment in the region of £100,000 required to resurface these courts for proper community use, the foundation are hopeful there are potential stakeholders out there who might be keen to give the courts a facelift to make them a community facility on a permanent basis.

“I have always hated the idea that tennis is only for people who have money,” said Judy. “It really shouldn’t be, it doesn’t have to be and it is why it is so important that you get community courts such as these operational.

“I saw the picture and thought this park has been derelict for such a long time,” she added. “I had never been up here so I came up and thought it was an amazing facility. You can’t really play on it right now - because of the bounce - but they have done a great job preparing it. And for the local community it could be a great facility with a little bit of investment.

“If we re-surface it and re-fence it then my foundation can come in and work with the local community. There are three primary schools and one secondary school within walking distance so if you network the schools and involve the local residents then you can have a great community facility. The boys have created a huge profile around tennis but we need to do this now to make tennis accessible and affordable for everyone.”

Judy is famously reluctant to be drawn on the physical conditioning of her sons Jamie and Andy, but there is a cautious optimism about the three-time Grand Slam singles winner’s prospects of a return to the tour after his hip re-surfacing. For a start, he is ‘pain free’, his walking gait happily restored from the man spotted in recent seasons with a limp and a grimace.

“Andy is fine,” said Judy. “It is only weeks since he had surgery but he is not in any pain. It is very early days and we just need to wait and see what happens but he is without pain and he is walking normally which is good to see.

“So many people learned to play tennis against a wall,” she added. “The ball always comes back, for a start. As long as you have a wall - whether it is a tenement or a garage - then you can play tennis. It was great for Andy to put that video up because it shows how you basic it can be.”