Mystery as Queens faces crisis talks

The grass courts at Queen's Club have rarely looked better. Spring showers have turned the lawns a vibrant, luxuriant green that promises a thrilling start to a summer of tennis. The prime condition of the courts would, in any other year, augur brilliantly for next month's Stella Artois tournament, but these are far from normal times. Queen's Club, one of the most distinguished names in tennis, is in crisis.

Tonight, the members of this iconic club - think royalty, movie people, pop stars, tycoons and quite a few thousand ordinary tennis enthusiasts - hold their annual meeting. Such affairs, held in the magnificent President's Room, are usually jolly occasions at which the business of the club is agreed in a goodhumoured and comradely fashion.

Not so tonight. There is a very good chance that, by the end of the evening, Queen's Club will be at war with itself. How, it might be asked, could such a thing happen? The answer is that Queen's Club has been jerked out of its gracious, sporting idyll and plunged into the middle of speculation about a vastly lucrative, but potentially acrimonious, property deal. There is dark talk of a mysterious Middle Eastern buyer, a vital missing document and a perceived threat to change the character of Queen's Club forever.

At the heart of the affair is the 10-acre site upon which the club and its worldfamous courts have stood for the past 119 years. The land occupies a position in highly desirable West Kensington and, to a property developer, it represents huge profits.

It has always been thought that such a transaction could never be done, given the club's status as one of London's designated private open spaces. But times change, and so do the people who run tennis in Britain.

Witness John Crowther, chief executive of the Lawn Tennis Association, the sport's ruling body. Mr Crowther took over at the LTA eight years ago after a high-powered career in the aerospace industry. He swiftly became known in the world of tennis as a man on a mission - to make the British game rank with the best in the world.

He has pursued that goal with a tenacity that has attracted a good deal of admiration. But to many members of Queen's, Mr Crowther is the moderniser who wants to put money before what they see as their legitimate interests.

It all began with a poorly aimed German bomb. At the height of the Second World War, the Luftwaffe attempted to flatten nearby St Paul's School, which was being used as Field Marshal Montgomery's headquarters. But the pilot missed and, instead, destroyed courts four and five at Queen's Club.

After the war, the club's members found they did not have the resources to carry out essential repairs and, in 1953, the whole site was sold to the LTA. The LTA moved in and runs its operation from there, but at the end of 2006 is planning to move to the new National Tennis Centre in Roehampton.

Before it goes, it will decide the fate of Queen's Club. Officially, the LTA says nothing will change. Mr Crowther has said that the future of Queen's as a racquets club and home of the Stella Artois tournament is assured. He and the LTA board maintain that nothing has been decided yet about a sale. But one thing has become clear - if the members want to buy the club they will have to outbid everyone else.

This has infuriated a large number of members who have created an informal network called the Montpeliano Group, after the Knightsbridge restaurant where their first meeting was held. They say making members bid in the market is unfair and probably illegal.

They believe the original agreement, made in 1953 when the club was sold to the LTA, contained a clause under which, if the LTA wanted to sell, it had to offer the club back to members on favourable terms. Bizarrely, no copy of this agreement can be found.

"We were told it had been destroyed in a fire," one member of the Montpeliano Group said. "But we have been told by people who had knowledge of the original deal that members were to get preference if the LTA decided to sell."

The group fears that the LTA's carefullyguarded strategy is to sell a 125-year lease on Queen's Club. The Association would remain as freeholder and retain a measure of control, guaranteeing the future of the racquets club.

While this might look good on paper, it would irrevocably change the club, they believe. At the back of everyone's mind is the fate of the Vanderbilt Club, a tennis club that found itself a pawn in the centre of a battle over a huge site in White City. As the site was developed, the club was forced to move.

And while assurances are repeated over the fact that, currently, there is no development permission for the Queen's Club site, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott - the ultimate arbiter - is seen as unlikely to withhold planning from someone keen to build homes on land used by what some may see as an exclusive club for tennis toffs.

Sir Bryan Nicholson, chairman of the Financial Reporting Council and the man currently overseeing the investigation into Rover, is one of the Queen's Club members who fears for the future. "There might well be covenants guaranteeing racquets and the Stella Artois tournament," he said, "but that could be done on less than the whole site. It could be developed as a leisure complex, or a long-term property play. Once it is sold, it is difficult to see how it could be the same Queen's Club it is today.

"Queen's is one of London's great assets, one of the things that makes London the city it is. It is a place where many people of many nationalities share a love of tennis. It would be a great pity if any of that were lost."

The Stella Artois tournament is one of the premier sporting events of the summer and often provides an exciting prelude to Wimbledon. This year it will feature a titanic match between Boris Becker and John McEnroe, the first time the two Wimbledon champions have played each other on grass.

Queen's currently has around 4,500 members. They include the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, actors Joseph Fiennes and Damian Lewis, Hollywood star Charlton Heston and singer Elaine Paige. The club also has a large number of City professionals and international business people, including Richard Branson and George Soros.

Soundings taken by Montpeliano members indicate that if the club were sold at its current book value - £10 million, the value it is given in the LTA's accounts - members could put together a subscription to buy it back. But there have been estimates that it could go for £35 million and there have been persistent rumours that a potential Arab buyer has already made an approach.

This cannot be confirmed and the LTA insists it has still not decided what to do. But one member said: "They have recently commissioned a promotional video of the club. Someone has been filming the whole place. We are sure that is part of the marketing strategy."

Robin Edwards, a fund manager who plays three times a week at the club, said: "I don't think they should try to make a profit out of the club. It should be sold back to members on the same basis it was sold to the LTA back in 1953. That would be fair."

At tonight's meeting there are likely to be clashes between members who are worried about the future and those who believe the LTA will act in the best interests of the club. Among the latter group are supporters of the outgoing chairman, Mr Grant Merrick, who headed a team to liaise with the LTA board over any disposal.

But his team was disbanded after some, including Montpeliano members, believed it was working with the LTA. These suspicions have caused divisions that are likely to erupt at the meeting.

Feelings run high because many of the members are passionate about their tennis and their club and are adamant that things should not change. They believe the LTA has a moral duty to make it possible for them to buy back their club before it is sold to the highest bidder. Mr Crowther does not appear to share this view. He and his board believe they are under an obligation to get the best deal they can for the LTA and British tennis.

"There is nothing sinister going on here," his spokesman said. "We have made it quite clear that, whatever happens, the site will continue as a racquets club and home of the Stella Artois tournament."

Informed observers have said the LTA does not need to make a killing on Queen's Club because it is a rich organisation, fed by British tennis's milch cow, the All England Club at Wimbledon. Indeed, the LTA's cheque from Wimbledon recently went up by £1 million to £26.8 million. But the LTA has ambitions that transcend even these sums.

Mr Crowther has set targets to create new tennis facilities across the country, to bring more young people into the game and to put not one Briton in the top 100, but six.

It will cost money, he says, and he has been in the forefront of moves to secure extra funding from government. These have not always been successful. He has pointed out ceaselessly that Britain will struggle to become a premier tennis nation while it spends a fraction of other countries' sporting budgets. Paris, he points out, has more indoor courts than the whole of Britain.

But is the answer to do a deal that may risk changing forever a muchloved home of international tennis and a London landmark? Mr Crowther can be sure that at their meeting tonight, Queen's Club members will reply to this with a resounding "No".