01
Pop-up by design
A short run of courts across West Sussex — country house lawns, coastal hard courts and a few addresses we only share with members.
LGBTQ+ Tennis Club · West Sussex
A little play before the match.
A premium pop-up tennis club for the queer community of West Sussex. Four venues, one season, deliberately small numbers.
The club
Tennis is the excuse. The club is the point.
forecourt exists because good courts, good coaching and good company rarely arrive in the same place — and almost never for us. So we borrow beautiful courts across the county for one season at a time, fill them with players of every standard, and keep the club small enough that everyone gets a game and nobody eats alone afterwards.
02
Play, then people
Round robins, doubles ladders and coached clinics for every level, followed by long tables, cold drinks and better company.
03
Queer at the centre
An LGBTQ+ club first. Warm, unserious about ego, serious about tennis. Allies welcome at the invitation of a member.
Pop-up sessions
No dates in the diary. Yet.
We're confirming courts across West Sussex now. The first session will be announced to the waitlist before it goes anywhere else.
Next session
To be announced
Sessions are small, capped and one-off — a borrowed court, a few hours of tennis and somewhere good to sit afterwards. Join the waitlist and you'll hear first.
Join the waitlistRound robins
Rotating doubles so you meet everyone on court, not just the person you arrived with. Every standard, from first racket to county.
Coached clinics
An hour of proper coaching before free play, for anyone who hasn't held a racket since school and would rather not admit it.
Long tables
Every session ends with a drink and something to eat. Staying is optional but strongly encouraged.
The kit
Everything you need is already at the court.
Club rackets in forecourt green, fresh balls every session and a coach on hand for anyone who hasn't played since school. Turn up in whatever you feel good in — there is no dress code, only a strong preference for staying for the drink afterwards.
Request an invitationAbout
A club built by the people who couldn't find one.
forecourt started with a simple problem: there was nowhere in West Sussex to play tennis as ourselves. Plenty of clubs, all of them perfectly polite, none of them ours. So rather than wait for one, we started borrowing courts.
We're a pop-up by choice, not by circumstance. Each session is a one-off in a place worth playing — a lawn, a hard court, a walled garden — with good coaching, mixed abilities and a table booked for afterwards. Small numbers, high standards, nobody left standing at the fence.
- Where
- West Sussex
- Who it's for
- LGBTQ+ players, all levels
- How it runs
- Pop-up court sessions
Journal
From the baseline
Notes on venues, players and the slightly ridiculous business of putting a queer tennis club together in the Sussex countryside.
Field notes
How to arrive at your first session
Whites optional, nerves expected. What to bring, who you'll meet and how the first hour actually runs.
Interview
On queer sport, off the record
Members talk about the clubs that never quite fit — and what a court feels like when it finally does.
Venues
Four courts, one county
The lawns, the hard courts and the walled garden we spent a spring persuading someone to lend us.
The waitlist
Request an invitation
Tell us a little about your game. Invitations are released in waves as each pop-up is confirmed, and waitlist members always get first refusal on courts.