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The Remuera Lawn Tennis Club came into existence in March 1907 with Mr A. Clark as President. Six courts were laid and in 1908, 160 senior members celebrated the first opening of the club. In 1909, three additional courts were laid, in 1911 a pavilion was built and in 1922-23 three further courts were added making a total of 12. In 1912 the visiting British Davis Cup team played on the courts and in 1913 they were used for the Auckland and New Zealand Championships.
The golden era of the club stretched from 1920 until 1939. During this period Remuera players reigned supreme in Auckland and New Zealand tennis. One still hears a respectful silence when the names of famous champions are mentioned; J.F. Laurenson, H.L. Robson, E.L. Bartleet, E.W. Griffiths, H.D. Brinsden, A.C. Stedman, N.G. Sturt, W.T. Pountney. From 1920 when J.F. Laurenson and H.L. Robson won the Auckland doubles title a Remuera player or players were the championship doubles pair, except for one occasion, every year up to and including 1938 with the win of A.C. Stedman and D.C. Coombe.
In this same period, twelve Auckland and three New Zealand singles titles fell to Remuera players.
Whilst several men players may vie for top place, the women's ladder must surely have at its head one undisputed name, Miss Majorie Macfarlane. Miss Macfarlane first won the Ladies singles title in 1921, held it until 1927 until she went to England for a year, won it back for a further nine year period until 1937 and won it for the last time in 1940, some 19 years later. Miss Macfarlane won the Auckland title seven times and the New Zealand title once.
Since the war the outstanding player has been Allan Burns whose illustrious career as a player, particularly in the doubles field, was delayed by the war years. What heights might he have reached otherwise? During the last three years, outstanding juniors in Anne Smith and Ian Crookenden have both reached the finals of the New Zealand singles. Both still have their future ahead of them.
The Second World War spelt the death knell of the golden era, and fundamentally changed the club. In 1942 land occupied by the club was taken by the Government to build an American forces hospital and this particular site was never regained. After the war, mainly through the initiative of the late Mr W.S. Spence, land was recovered from the Government in 1947 at the rear of the old pre-war courts. Eight courts were reinstated and army buildings converted into a clubhouse. The membership was rebuilt but the club never again enjoyed, during the next sixteen years, quite the same tennis prestige nor the same number of senior members as it did before 1939.
In 1951 a wise and far-sighted decision was taken to build two squash courts. During the war some members had played the game of squash and realised how well it would fit in with a tennis club. The two courts were completed in 1954, and the name of the club changed to the Remuera Lawn Tennis and Squash Rackets Club Inc. The New Zealand Squash Championships were held at Remuera in 1955. Membership was soon filled and the cost of the two squash courts, just over £5000 was raised by debentures. Numerically and financially the squash side of the club became very much stronger than tennis, and a tendency developed for the club to have divided interests and loyalties. In 1962 the constitution was altered so that one subscription would cover all of the amenities and sports offered by the club. This amalgamation of separate memberships is attracting squash players onto the tennis courts and vice versa. There have been several good squash players, particularly P.R.B. Jones, A.G. Roberts, E.C. Earwaker and A.H. Wright. The latter has the unique distinction of being the club tennis and squash singles champion in the same year.
Membership of the club commenced in 1908 with 160 members. In 1925 there were 260 (140 men and 120 ladies) and when the war came in 1939 there were 270, of which 50 were juniors. In 1939 the entire Auckland Wilding Shield team of Messrs Bedford, Gunn, Mayson, Sturt and Pountney came from Remuera. After the squash courts were opened, membership rose to 450 including 134 juniors, mainly junior tennis players, and at the new Dilworth Avenue site, membership has been closed at over 1000, including 650 seniors, 300 junior tennis and 100 junior squash. The strength of the club was particularly evident between the two world wars when the Caro Bowl, symbol of Auckland club tennis supremacy, had fallen to Remuera 13 times since it was first played for in 1920.
In 1957 the club first became aware that the southern motorway might pass through the Market Road site. In 1961, we were asked to prepare our compensation case. Thereafter progress was fast.
The club made a wise move early in 1962 by appointing a "project" committee to entirely handle the rebuilding of the club on a new freehold site in Dilworth Avenue, offered to the club by the Ministry of Works for £5000.
This committee comprised the President, Mr G.N. Cashmore, three past Presidents, Messrs J.E. Towle, R. Lawry and G.R. Brabant and the Vice-President, Mr J. Austin. This committee acted promptly by engaging engineers and architects to develop plans for an entirely new club estimated to cost £70,000 and by June 1963, the Dilworth Avenue site was built and occupied.
Administratively the club has always been strongly served by leading Auckland citizens. New Zealand Tennis Presidents include Mr E.W. Griffiths 1926-27, Mr T.E. Hickson 1934-35, Mr W.S. Spence 1953-54 and Dr T.D.C. Childs 1962-63. In 1956 the club appointed Mr A.G. Roberts a former British Davis Cup player as coach-secretary. At Dilworth Avenue, a part-time secretary, a caretaker and groundsman form a permanent staff to serve the club, now the largest tennis and squash club in New Zealand.
And so the club clearly enters a new and third major stage in its long life. It is again poised and ready to regain tennis leadership and to give to the fine games of tennis and squash, players who will be a credit to their club, their city and their country.
[Written in 1963] |
