By DANICA FELLOWS
Members of the Turner Tennis Club expressed their excitement today (Thursday, 25th February) as their club facilities will be upgraded with the funding received from the ACT Government Sports and Recreation Services.
Two of the courts are being resurfaced and the lighting will be upgraded so it is brought up to the standards as outlined by Tennis ACT. One of the club members, Geoff Christianson, part of the Turner “Rain, Hail or Shine” group, is very glad of the upgrade.
“The concrete is too bad on the knees, and I appreciate having the new mod-grass to play on,” Mr Christianson said.
The funding for the upgrade has come from the ACT Government Sports and Recreations Services as part of the nearly $300,000 promised in January, as well as from the additional half a million raised by the local tennis clubs themselves .
The Review of Tennis Facilities in the ACT released in March last year made recommendations that many of the smaller clubs needed court upgrades, as well as greater encouragement for young players to become regular members of the clubs.
The “Rain, Hail or Shine” group of the Turner club are all over 70 and they lament the decline in the number of younger tennis players they have seen over time. Mr Geoff Christianson believes the drop has happened because of the change in people’s lifestyles.
“You don’t have to go to something in the same suburb anymore,” he said. “Everyone has a car now, and they just go a bigger court further away and pay a visitor’s fee when they feel like playing.”
Tom George, now in his 70s, has been a member of the Turner club since 1956 and also is part of the “Rain, Hail or Shine” group. He is worried that despite the upgrade, the club will still lose members.
“I think it will just fade away if we don’t keep playing,” he said. “There’s really nobody here in their 50s to keep it going.”
