A MYSTERY benefactor has made a large donation to allow Fort Matilda Tennis Club to install a new £47,000 floodlighting system.

The big-hearted anonymous donor is understood to have handed over £11,500 to the club, which means night light will be shed on the courts for the first time in the club’s 92-year history.

Club president Anne Wright said she was overwhelmed by the kind gesture.

She told the Tele: “We’re absolutely delighted as we can now go ahead and get the job done.

“The new floodlights will mean that children will be able to play after school and adults can play after work all year round.

“Previously, on darker nights, we couldn’t have coaching sessions for anyone in the evening.

“We hope that the new lights will help us keep junior players in Greenock — as at the moment they go off to clubs in Glasgow and Strathgryff.” As well as the anonymous donation, the club raised its own funds and also received a £20,900 cheque from sportscotland and £4,000 from Inverclyde Council to help pay for the improvements.

Anne, of Robertson Street, said: “We want to say a huge thank you to the anonymous donor and everyone else who gave us funding.

“We’ll get the power installed to the courts as soon as possible and then we hope to have the lights themselves erected during October.” The low level bulbs — specially designed to stop their beam spreading from the courts to surrounding residential areas — will be installed on three of the club’s four courts.

The new lights will also allow the club, which has 85 senior members and 70 juniors, to join the West of Scotland Winter League.