It attracts hundreds of players from far and wide.

This Wimbledon-by-the-sea is back for another year and is promising to be a packed six days of tennis from dusk til dawn.

The Hunstanton Lawn Tennis Tournament dates back to 1920 but organising committee member Chris Holt said it may have been going a few years before that.

He said it began with a 'few competitors and was put on by local dignitaries', and when he became involved in the tournament in 1975 'we were getting at the most 400 competitors over six days'.

Now the competition has this year attracted nearly 1,200 competitors from as far as Singapore, Germany, France and Switzerland as well as Scotland, Wales and locally, said Mr Holt.

'We have quite a wide-ranging clientèle now.

'We always brand it as a family tournament, we do our best to get everyone who wants to play to come and play. The better players are coming out because they get points for rankings.

'When the sun shines you can't beat it down here.'

He said they had 38 grass courts which would be filled from 9.30am until the sun goes down.

The event has previously come under the spotlight for attracting anti-social behaviour but Mr Holt said over the past two years much of the trouble had been curtailed thanks to prevention measures.

He said the committee now had meetings twice a year with organisations including the council and police and a 'respect campaign' was launched which advised the public on conduct.

The event, this year sponsored by Scott Dunn, will run from August 14 to August 20. Sussex Barn will be holding parties for children during the week and public can browse a number of stalls at the tournament.

Have you got a story about a tournament? Email sophie.biddle@archant.co.uk