Former president and life member Gail O’Connor’s connection to the club runs deep. Photo: Supplied.
The Wollongong City Tennis Club’s faithful patrons are saying their final farewells to the beloved venue, with its closure after nearly 70 years marking the end of an era for its community.
Gail O’Connor’s connection with the club, affectionately known as the TC, started well before the bricks on the current building were laid.
“I was probably born into the tennis club,” she said.
“My father played tennis at McCabe Park and when it moved to Beaton Park became a very prominent member with the club – the association as well as the licensed club as it developed.
“My three sisters and brother all played tennis there for the City of Wollongong, junior and senior and at one stage we even had a family team.
“My dad was president and life member and 20-something years ago I put my hand up for the board and later became president.
“So I’ve been involved in it for a long time.”
The club was officially established in 1958, but it was a far cry from today’s site at Gwynneville.
In the early days, the club was sustained largely through community support, including Gail’s parents Keith and Agnes Hummerston – who were instrumental in getting the bank loan for the current structure – and the many volunteers who ensured it continued operating.
“Originally downstairs they had a snooker table down there and to start off they had volunteers serving, so they didn’t have paid staff – a lot of the firemen from the fire station who also played tennis or were butchers or whatever, they would do their three hours here and three hours there as well as the board,” Gail said.
“The board used to go in and count the poker machine money on a Sunday night.”
Gail’s father Keith Hummerston received life membership in 1981, with Gail the last to be awarded the honour 40 years later. Photos: Supplied.
That same spirit has sustained the club for decades, with the motto ‘more than just tennis’ proven true through its support and sponsorship of countless other sporting organisations and the connections and memories that have been made by patrons.
“I met my husband there, my sister met her husband there, my daughter had her hen’s night there, her 21st there – that was the sort of club it was,” Gail said.
“You could always go there and if you wanted to find someone to have a chat with or meet somebody, it was friendly and inviting.
“There was more to the club than just tennis, it was all the different clubs that ran off it but also the family involvement.
“There was lots of families involved in those younger days, they might of had two or three kids or more, and all played tennis. You grew up with those sort of people and some of those people are still coming in their 70s in the club now.
“There’s a lady who told me on Friday night how upset she was and she’s 93 and she’s been coming to the tennis club for a long, long, long time.”
It was the first licensed club on the coast to hold a meat raffle.
According to the 50-year celebration booklet, the idea was brought back from a member who saw it at a country club in NSW, with the tickets just poured out onto the floor.
Those raffles attracted large crowds and are still a staple at the club, now with a bit more than frozen chicken on offer and an automated ticketing system.
“We would always go there as a family, and whoever got there first got the table,” Gail said.
“If you didn’t get there between 5 and 5:30 you just had to stand for the raffle – and that was when the club was over two floors and all you were winning was a frozen chook, but you were so excited.
“We would have this round table and we would have 12 to 14 people sitting around it just so that you could be there for the raffle.”
For others, a key memory was the infamous ‘TC port’ which was particularly popular with the university students coming across from the student accommodation at Weerona College.
“Originally it started as all the slops in the little keg,” Gail said.
“They all loved getting that before they’d go on to a night club … or sometimes not.
“You couldn’t move; they’d be there for an hour and then move out and the place would be empty.”
The Tennis Club has undergone renovations and reinvention over its nearly 70 years. Photo: Supplied.
But when Gail thinks back to all the good times, the ones that stand out are those with deep ties to her family – such as the pride felt when an area of the club was renamed the Keith Hummerston Lounge after her father, or when she received her life membership from people who had known her nearly all of her life.
“I was very humbled,” she said. “I was disappointed that my dad wasn’t alive or mum to see that, but they supported me with things with the club when they were there.”
Despite the ups, there were undeniable downs, with the club struggling financially in recent years.
“With the downturn in people coming with the economic climate, with poker machines not being played as much, which was our really big source of income – it wasn’t from tennis courts – that had a big impact on the club,” Gail said.
“There’s still quite a few regulars but those regulars are now in their 70s, 80s and 90s.
“We don’t have the source from the university like we used to have so that’s all changed the way the club has people in.”
Members had rejected an amalgamation request from another club more than a decade earlier but in 2024 when the suggestion was put forward by Wiseman Park Bowling Club, it was one of the few lifelines the TC had left.
“This time it was either go with the amalgamation or shut the doors,” Gail said.
Less than two years later it’s now time for final drinks, with the announcement coming in last month that the club would be forced to shut its doors due to ‘sustained financial pressure’.
“Very disappointed but can understand that they couldn’t keep trading at a loss,” Gail said.
The future of the site, which is on Wollongong Council land and next to the newly upgraded courts, is still undecided, with the council saying it will “assess the implications of the closure and explore options for the short and longer term future of the facility”.
Tennis NSW is believed to be in discussions with the council but in a statement said, “For now, it is business as usual at the Wollongong Regional Tennis Centre, with tennis continuing uninterrupted for players, members and the broader community.”
The last day of operations will be Saturday 29 August, with plenty of memories to be shared and tears expected to be shed in the coming weeks.
“We’ll be there every Friday night until it closes; that was the night we always went,” Gail said.
“We’ll be there to say goodbye.”