Saving a tennis club from becoming a statistic

First Person - As a sports journalist I've done a few stories over the years about the decline of sports clubs - now I'm part of one that is fighting for its survival.

The Newlands-Paparangi tennis club is just 200 metres away from my house. I joined four summers ago when I moved to the neighbourhood.

I had never played tennis before but it didn't matter, the people at the club were friendly and frankly just happy that new members wanted to join.

It used to be a thriving club. I missed the halcyon days of the 70s, 80s and early 90s, when sports clubs were a real hub of activity in New Zealand.

Barry has been involved in the club for at least 40 years. Back in its heyday the club had around 70 senior members.

Barry remembers when people used to form a social life around the club - Sundays were a big day at the courts back then.

People used to stay on after the games and socialise, they used to have a bar. The clubrooms saw a lot of 21st birthday parties back then.

But they had to give up the bar when regulations became too pedantic.

Being lumbered with too much compliance is one of the reasons often cited as contributing to dwindling memberships across clubs in New Zealand.

And people just seem to not have time any more, while at the same time there's so many more activities to choose from now.

The club made it this far on the back of people like Barry, and other long-standing committee members, who have done what needs to be done for years with minimum fuss.

But with most being well over 60 and ready for younger members to put their hands up, coupled with the investment needed to upgrade the court surfaces in the not too distant future, the club faced a bit of a cross roads earlier this year.

A special general meeting was called and the question was asked whether it was worth continuing.

But the members spoke and voted to continue. We've given ourselves two years to focus on building up the membership, which will improve our ability to raise funds and invigorate the club. At that point we will reassess the situation.

I'm sure many people can identify with what it's like to head to a club meeting with absolutely no intention of joining the committee, but leaving the meeting enlisted in that said committee.

When you're in a room with around a dozen people, it's pretty hard to shrink into your seat and turn down the request for help at a club you're benefiting from.

And so here I am now part of a new-look committee. The average age has come down a tad but we've still got experience.

Barry, bless him, he's now our club captain and lucky for us newer ones to have someone with all that institutional knowledge still on the committee.

One of things I have enjoyed most about being part of the club are the refreshments and home baking after inter-club on a Saturday.

The host club puts on tea, coffee, sometimes cooler beverages, and afternoon tea after the games.

Imagine that - just stopping to take time out of a busy day to sit around a table, sharing some food and making conversation, sometimes with near strangers.

There aren't many opportunities for that in life now and it's a ritual I would miss if it ended.

I've also got to know my neighbour as a result of the club. I met Nicole at tennis, before I realised she lived across the road from me.

Tennis really is a game for life. At mixed C inter-club we often come up against players who are pushing 70 and I've learnt not to underestimate them.

They might not run down the ball anymore but they certainly make up for it with their decades of experience. Their accuracy and smarts are often too good for us younger ones.

About six weeks ago we had our annual general meeting. In fact someone worked out it was the club's 90th AGM.

When you look around the walls of the clubrooms, there's actually a lot of history there.

The classic honours boards that adorn most sports clubs around the country go back to 1937.

A. Wright was the Ladies Singles champion 84 years ago and a C. Phillips was the Men's champion and also president for three years from 1937.

The honours board tells me that G. Low was unbeatable in the 1990s.

There's a random collection of framed photos too of past teams - senior midweek ladies and the like.

Physical photos have been phased out with the advent of social media, which we are trying to embrace bit by bit.

Before the AGM someone had a quick clean out of the area off the kitchen, that was once set up as the bar and discovered something quite amazing.

It was a thing of beauty, an old model of our club, the detail was exquisite, right down to the court markings and the features of the bank behind the clubhouse.

No one, not even Barry recognised it or knew of its existence. Our club has long since been painted white so it could be decades old.

Was it a junior member at the time who made it? What is the story behind it?

Someone must have really cared about the club to go to such effort.

We now have it on display and hopefully it will still be there in 10 years for our 100th AGM.

ADDENDUM

On reading the article, someone came forward with a strong theory of who could have built the model.

"I first met Brian in 1982 at the Newlands Table Tennis Club and he had already been a member of both the table tennis and tennis clubs for a number of years. 

"Brian, who passed away several years ago, lived on Black Rock Road, just up the road from the tennis club." 

"When visiting the house in Black Rock Rd many many years ago, I remember a large workshop/craft room above a double garage. Although I did not witness it, I can imagine Brian spending many hours in that space pottering away on various projects.

"Another reason, I suspect Brian may have made the model is the way the second court was not shrunken just to fit in. It seems cut off as if to maintain the integrity of scale which is the Brian I remember, always a stickler for detail, and sometimes rather annoyingly so.

"Brian had the time, the patience, the private workshop space, the long association with the tennis club, the attention to detail, the proximity to the courts and the ability to put in long solitary hours for the benefit of any project he deemed would be beneficial to other members."