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Former president and life member Gail O\u2019Connor\u2019s connection to the club runs deep. Photo: Supplied.<\/p>\n
The Wollongong City Tennis Club\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
Gail O\u2019Connor\u2019s connection with the club, affectionately known as the TC, started well before the bricks on the current building were laid.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was probably born into the tennis club,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy father played tennis at McCabe Park and when it moved to Beaton Park became a very prominent member with the club \u2013 the association as well as the licensed club as it developed.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad was president and life member and 20-something years ago I put my hand up for the board and later became president.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I\u2019ve been involved in it for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The club was officially established in 1958, but it was a far cry from today\u2019s site at Gwynneville.<\/p>\n
In the early days, the club was sustained largely through community support, including Gail\u2019s parents Keith and Agnes Hummerston \u2013 who were instrumental in getting the bank loan for the current structure \u2013 and the many volunteers who ensured it continued operating.<\/p>\n
\u201cOriginally downstairs they had a snooker table down there and to start off they had volunteers serving, so they didn\u2019t have paid staff \u2013 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,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board used to go in and count the poker machine money on a Sunday night.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Gail\u2019s father Keith Hummerston received life membership in 1981, with Gail the last to be awarded the honour 40 years later. Photos: Supplied.<\/p>\n
That same spirit has sustained the club for decades, with the motto \u2018more than just tennis\u2019 proven true through its support and sponsorship of countless other sporting organisations and the connections and memories that have been made by patrons.<\/p>\n
\u201cI met my husband there, my sister met her husband there, my daughter had her hen\u2019s night there, her 21st there \u2013 that was the sort of club it was,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou could always go there and if you wanted to find someone to have a chat with or meet somebody, it was friendly and inviting.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was more to the club than just tennis, it was all the different clubs that ran off it but also the family involvement.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lady who told me on Friday night how upset she was and she\u2019s 93 and she\u2019s been coming to the tennis club for a long, long, long time.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was the first licensed club on the coast to hold a meat raffle.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would always go there as a family, and whoever got there first got the table,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you didn\u2019t get there between 5 and 5:30 you just had to stand for the raffle \u2013 and that was when the club was over two floors and all you were winning was a frozen chook, but you were so excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
For others, a key memory was the infamous \u2018TC port\u2019 which was particularly popular with the university students coming across from the student accommodation at Weerona College.<\/p>\n
\u201cOriginally it started as all the slops in the little keg,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all loved getting that before they\u2019d go on to a night club \u2026 or sometimes not.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou couldn\u2019t move; they\u2019d be there for an hour and then move out and the place would be empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Tennis Club has undergone renovations and reinvention over its nearly 70 years. Photo: Supplied.<\/p>\n
But when Gail thinks back to all the good times, the ones that stand out are those with deep ties to her family \u2013 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very humbled,\u201d she said. \u201cI was disappointed that my dad wasn\u2019t alive or mum to see that, but they supported me with things with the club when they were there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the ups, there were undeniable downs, with the club struggling financially in recent years.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith 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 \u2013 it wasn\u2019t from tennis courts \u2013 that had a big impact on the club,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s still quite a few regulars but those regulars are now in their 70s, 80s and 90s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t have the source from the university like we used to have so that\u2019s all changed the way the club has people in.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis time it was either go with the amalgamation or shut the doors,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
Less than two years later it\u2019s now time for final drinks, with the announcement coming in last month that the club would be forced to shut its doors due to \u2018sustained financial pressure\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cVery disappointed but can understand that they couldn\u2019t keep trading at a loss,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cassess the implications of the closure and explore options for the short and longer term future of the facility\u201d.<\/p>\n
Tennis NSW is believed to be in discussions with the council but in a statement said, \u201cFor now, it is business as usual at the Wollongong Regional Tennis Centre, with tennis continuing uninterrupted for players, members and the broader community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be there every Friday night until it closes; that was the night we always went,\u201d Gail said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll be there to say goodbye.\u201d<\/p>\n