Now with four courts the rental payment was double but still at the rate of £25 per court. The Club needed to attract members, so with the development of the estate, letters were circulated to all residents advertising the facilities.

200 membership cards were printed for the 1934 season by Turner & Dunnett (London) Ltd at a cost of £5 12s 6d. Committee meeting minutes had up till now been hand written in the minute book, the new Secretary considered this arduous, so from April onwards minutes were typed and pasted into the minute book.

Match fixtures had been arranged with Glebe, Upminster, Parkside and Grosvenor Clubs and a Mens team had been entered in the Essex Junior Cup competition with the 1^st round being drawn at home with opponents being Faircross. The result was a win for Faircross by 5 matches to 4. Arising out of complaints with regard to selection of match teams, a Ladies Captain, Mrs Green, was appointed, who became a member of the Selection Committee.

The Club was a centre of local social activity with whist drives and dances taking place regularly. During each month there seemed to be at least two whist drives and one dance, all making reasonable profits. Even though the social section was so successful, during the year the Social Secretary resigned. 

The Club received an offer for supply of tennis balls from Messers of Holborn at 7s 6d per dozen for Spenser Moulton ‘Reject’ balls. The Club would receive 2shillings per dozen for old balls returned, making a net cost of 5s 6d. It was therefore agreed that members could purchase balls at 2s 9d per half dozen, provided they were returned after use. 

Even in these times there were still the habitual actions of certain members inviting visitors to play on the courts, without making entries in the visitors book and without paying the fee. This prompted the committee into placing a warning on the notice board to take action against the offenders. 

At the 3^rd AGM the retiring members of the committee were all willing to stand again, so there being no other nominations, were all re-elected to serve for another year. As a result of a ballot, Mrs Patterson was elected as Ladies Captain. The accounts showed a credit balance of £42 4s 9d with the social endeavours contributing a profit of £33 1s 10d for entertainments, £7 7s 5d from the canteen and £12 13s 9d from catering. 

Tea outside the pavilion in the 1930s

At the end of 1934 the membership stood at around 100. During the early part of the year there seemed to be a high percentage of applications, around 25 by April alone, but the membership was still only just over 100 in May. There were many members who had not paid their subscription; this prompted the committee to display a list of members on the notice board who were not eligible to use the amenities of the club. However by July it was a case of having to refuse some applications as membership had reached its maximum. 

A Garden Committee was formed, which apart from looking after the grounds, were empowered to draw up a scheme for the purchasing and planting of poplar trees, for which the President offered to give one tree for every five subscribed for. 

A tea lady was engaged during the summer season, at a rate of 5shillings per weekend to assist with the serving of teas and washing up. This cost was recovered by a service charge to those partaking of tea. However there was a serious drop in catering profit and it was suggested that those members who had advocated this expenditure had not followed up with their support by taking tea at the Club. 

In order to provide added interest to finals day and with the view of obtaining the interest of other clubs in the area, an approach was made to Grosvenor, Upminster and Gaynes Park Clubs for co-operation in a scheme to provide Upminster with a Mens Singles Championship. The idea was for each Club to nominate their best male player to participate in a contest, with the final taking place on our own finals day. Enthusiastic support was received from Upminster and Gaynes Park Clubs but Grosvenor declined to enter the competition. The President, Mr A Palmer, donated a perpetual trophy for the event appropriately named The Cranston Cup. The winner of this first competition was Cranston Park’s Mens Captain and singles champion, Mr J R Mansell. 

Apart from tennis and table tennis another recreation was introduced at the Club. A budget of £9 was allotted to prepare the ground and purchase turf to lay a putting green in front of the pavilion. Members would be charged 1penny per round in an attempt to offset the expenses. By May receipts from the putting green amounted to £1 3s 0d, not a bad turnover at 1penny per round. 

The Lombardy poplar trees that surrounded the Club for so many years to come were planted. Around 120 trees were originally planted at a cost of £5 10s 0d. 

The social functions were still well attended but dances were not making very much profit, occasionally running at a small loss. The whist drives, still being held at least once a month, were showing profits of around £1 each time and the canteen was making a profit of around 10shillings each month. 

The playing standard of the men was strong for a Club of its size and the ladies always seemed to have a battle to get teams entered into competitions. The Championships Committee consisted of three men. An example of this bias was a proposal made to enter two pairs for the Leo Lyle Mens Doubles Cup, which was agreed, at the same time a proposal was made that a Ladies team be entered for the Whitcombe Brown Cup, this was defeated. It was not until this year at the 5^th AGM that the rules were altered to allow the Ladies Captain to be elected as a member of the committee. 

There was obviously some concern over the reliability of the reject balls being purchased and their suitability for matches, so it was decided to purchase Ayres 'Wimbledon' balls at 8shillings per dozen for use in matches. 

Numerous complaints were being received regarding the condition of the courts and it was realised that they would need to be replaced. A sub-committee was formed to inspect various types of court with a view to making a recommendation to the Committee for consideration. Mr Palmer was prepared to spend up to £250 on the work, to be repaid by the Club at the rate of £40 per year. The Committee were unanimous that the offer by Mr Palmer was unacceptable and a counter offer was proposed, this was to enter into a new agreement for five years at a rental of £120 per annum on the same conditions as previously, provided the courts were re-laid with a type of surface approved by the committee. 

The Committee were in unanimous agreement that an En-Tout-Cas type surface should be laid. Mr Palmer accepted the proposal of the five year agreement at an annual rental of £120, in addition to resurfacing the courts he also agreed to provide watering facilities. In view of the likely increased running expenses of the proposed new courts it was decided to increase the playing membership fee to £2 12s 6d.

Mr T Spencer congratulating Mr W Williams on winning the Cranston Challenge Cup at the Club finals day in 1936

The new courts were ready for play by the spring and a groundsman was taken on at a wage of 1shilling per hour, attending to the courts for 4 hour periods on four occasions per week. Later in the year the groundsman was employed for a further 2 hours per week to upkeep the putting green. 

In a letter to the Committee, the Ladies Captain queried whether the ladies were expected to drag the courts after using them. The reply from the Secretary stated “Whilst the Committee do not wish the ladies to over exert themselves in any way, they do look forward to their kind co-operation in assisting to maintain the good state of the courts particularly in the first few months”.

The new courts were announced in the local press

The Essex Mens Junior Cup team had reached the final but were defeated 7-2 by North Ilford 2. The Cranston Challenge Cup was regained by Mr J R Mansell who defeated Mr S C Hubbard in the final. 

The social functions for the year had shown good results with 10 whist drives, 2 crazy whist drives, 3 bridge drives, 3 dances and 4 social evenings making a profit of £25 12s 6d, an increase of over £16 from the previous year. 

Later in the year plans were drawn up by Mr Palmer, the landlord and President, for 4 grass courts to be laid at the Melstock Gardens end of the club.

The Mens 1^st team were entered in the Essex Intermediate Cup only to be defeated 8-1 by Brookside, with a Mens 2^nd team entered in the Junior Cup, reaching the 4^th round of the competition and beaten 9-0 by Monkhams. 

The Annual Dinner Dance moved further afield to Southend’s Palace Hotel. The cost was 5s 6d per head with the band booked at a fee of £4 4s 0d. It was at this Dinner Dance that the Club Championship presentations were made for the first time, as opposed to being presented on finals day. 

Table tennis took a step into the unknown with entry into the Romford League for the 1938/39 season, on the proviso that all entry fees should be self financing from the table tennis section. 

Towards the end of the year a special committee meeting was held, the aim was to acquaint the Committee with the financial situation. The situation was a cash balance of £19 13s 2d with an estimated expenditure to 31^st December of £30 3s 0d. The solution was to obtain as much profit as possible from social functions, with an estimate of raising approximately £14 to place the Club on a better financial basis. 

The 4 grass courts were being constructed, but owing to the current financial position it was unlikely that the Club could take them over and incur any further liability. Suggestions were made that they should be opened as public courts during the 1939 summer season with the Club hiring them for home matches. 

The championship board on which the Club’s singles champions are shown was donated by the President, Mr A E Palmer, and following the submission of a specimen of signwriting by the Assistant Secretary, he was given the job of signwriting at cost of materials only.

The summer season saw the innovation of a new scheme for the control of play with members entering their names on a slate and the first person arranging a set from those included in the first eight. The weekly programme of play was arranged such that each evening or weekend session was dedicated to one type of set only, i.e. 'Mixed', 'Mens', 'Ladies' or 'Own Sets'. 

The effect of the outbreak of war in September was felt immediately, an emergency meeting was held at the Club. The Mens Captain had been evacuated with his firm and the Secretary had joined the RAF, members were co-opted to fill these positions. Black-out arrangements were put in hand but until it was completed all light bulbs were removed. As soon as these arrangements had been made whist drives and solo whist drives were held on alternate Saturdays and in spite of the black-out were very popular and proving to be a fair source of income. 

The table tennis team entered in the Romford League was undefeated until the last match of the season which they lost 12-13. This success would normally have meant promotion to Division 1 but owing to the outbreak of war all further fixtures had been cancelled.

1939 Membership card

Within seven years courts went from two to ultimately eight available. Money was tight but many social functions, putting green hire and canteen sales kept the club solvent. The ground was still owned by Mr Palmer with the rent depleting the funds to a minimum. Mr Palmers encouraging remarks at the AGM were that it was his desire that every effort should be made to see the Club through the war time period and that the question of rent would depend on the Club’s finances but normal overheads should be met first. 

So the Club was to face its greatest challenge against the European doubles partnership of Hitler and Mussolini.