History – Tennis served on grass courts

A tennis club was formed in Warkworth 117 years ago in 1893. Instrumental in promoting the sport were Mr W. Worsley, headmaster of the school, and Miss Emily McKinney.

Early photographs show men and women equally represented in the membership – the ladies attired in long white dresses, their heads adorned with millinery masterpieces. Tennis parties were popular social occasions and grass courts provided recreation for family and friends on a number of properties. Edward Morrison had courts laid at Red Bluff, Hepburn Creek, for the use by workers employed in his extensive orchard, and there were also courts near Riverina, on the Wilson land.

A Rodney Tennis Tournament was held in 1905 at Warkworth when W. J. (Bill) Dunning won a cup presented by Mr Sinclair, of Matakana.

Bill is remembered as one of the characters of tennis, playing on well into his senior years. Among other stalwarts were the Warin, Derecourt and Landgridge families.

It is not recorded where competitive tennis was played before three asphalt courts were laid in Baxter Street in 1920. The site was purchased from the estate of Alexander Trotter and in 1930, two concrete courts were added indicating steady progress.

Historically the land had been used for the annual Agricultural Show and at times by a traveling circus. Mrs Ragg, keeper of the Temperance Boarding House on Roberts’ Corner, housed her pigs there. When Shoesmith Domain became the centre of sporting activity, tennis joined other codes to move there and continued to prosper as the Warkworth Tennis and Squash Club. Commercial interests quickly made use of the land vacated in the town centre, obliterating all signs of its former use.