Shortly after 7.30am on Tuesday 11th September 2001, a team of Royal Engineers from Gibraltar barracks arrived with a large mobile crane so that they could be in position by the time the new hut arrived at 8.00am.

The problem was that the delivery vehicle would be unable to go up the slope next to Court 1 and a normal civilian crane would be too big and heavy to make it up the field without building a temporary road. Obviously that was out of the question due to expense so the club's committee had to find an alternative and that was where the army came in. After a survey to confirm the job was feasible, dates were fixed and we arrived at delivery day.

As you can see from the picture, the mobile crane had little difficulty getting up the slope so now we waited for the hut to arrive. Karen Smith (our chairman) was in overall charge of the project and is seen here with Cpl. Dave Farrar, LCpl. Carl (Nobby) Noble the crane driver and LCpl. Alan (Taff) Tomkinson.

The plan was to lift the hut, which weighed about 3 tons, off the lorry and then drive the crane forward before swinging it round and lowering it into position onto the sleepers that had already been laid by a small band of volunteers the previous Sunday.

The tricky bit came, after lifting it off the lorry, when the jacks were raised and the crane inched forward with the hut hanging off the back and Nobby desperately trying not to do wheelies! The gap between the trees and the floodlight pole was a bit tight but they managed to squeeze the hut through.

Once the crane had stopped moving and put its jacks down again the hut was swung into its final position.

With the job complete, there was just time to take a last photo of Dave, Nobby and Taff with some of the club members in front of the hut, a record of a memorable day in the history of Crowthorne Tennis Club.

Little did we know at the time that events unfolding across the Atlantic would make September 11th 2001 a date we would never forget...