Government to retain the clay courts at the Tennis Stadium, raised just above $600 in their first fund-raising endeavours on Saturday.

The money was taken in from the first ever round-robin tennis tournament staged at the stadium and organisers yesterday confirmed that immediate steps were being taken to hand the money over to Government to assist them in the major repairs planned for the facilities there.

"The response to the publicity that was given over the stadium on the weekend was great and consequently the turnout was quite good, with 44 people involved in the tournament,'' said one of the chief organisers, Joseph Morely.

"We intend to take this money to Government as a goodwill gesture and to let them know that we intend to make a genuine effort to help to improve things at the stadium.'' The group forced at estimated $115,000 amount of work that had started to be temporarily halted at the stadium after voicing their disapproval over Government's decision to replace majority of the clay courts that existed with all-weather courts. The group wants to clay courts to remain.

The group intensified their position last week when they began to petition players and members of the public for financial support in order that money can be raised to cover the cost of putting down new clay courts which are more expensive than the all-weather courts.

"Our goal remains to have them keep the clay courts, but more importantly, that is just one aspect of our ongoing concerns with the stadium,'' said Morley.

"So much has deteriorated there over the years. We just do not find it acceptable and we are simply going go press for a change.'' Morley would not elaborate on their added concerns but pointed out that they will all be outlined to Government in a letter that was being processed and handed to them later this week.

"We are making a number of proposals relating to retaining the clay courts and certain other things and hope to give them time to study them before anything further is made public,'' said Morley.