David's Best Tips:

• Planning permission may not be required for building a grass court in your back yard.
• Allthough the stipulated area for a tennis court is 120 feet by 60 feet, 110 by 55 is adequate for most people and can shave thousands off the cost.
• Putting fencing only around the backs of the court saves money and is visually less intrusive.
• Cutting the corners off at 45 degrees doesn't effect play but instead is visually more pleasing and it also trickles the balls to the centre of the court behind the baseline.

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You also took some of the fencing away. You only had fencing sort around the back and it was reduced by the net post wasn’t it? I think that’s quite a nice a feature because the spectators don’t have to look through a fence. I just think its nice visual thing - it’s not so intrusive in your garden.

That’s right. Now, this wasn’t my original idea like the cut corners were my original idea, but you actually don’t need wire either side of the net, you don’t actually need wire there because... it’s a strange thing the balls never go out along side the net, so you can leave that open. I left about 30 feet, 15 either side; I didn’t have any wire in the middle of the court either side. And then I had another little bit that was only low down and very rarely did a ball go out.

Does that matter if you’re using a ball machine for example, don’t the balls start to go outside the court?

No, I didn’t really... it doesn’t matter how high the wire, how limited amounts that you use as a guard, the balls will always go outside of the court. They fly over – it’s nearly always a mishit. You don’t prevent the balls from leaving the area – there isn’t a way of doing that.

Yeah.

They will always go out. But you can limit it down you see. So, you really need only shields at the ends of the court because that’s where they’re likely to go. But the rest can be restricted....

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