By JARROD POTTER
BERWICK Tennis Club has got the blues in the best way possible after sprucing up its main courts.
Switching from the green and red plexi-pave courts of yester year, the club has laid down a top notch synthetic surface, coinciding with the summer tennis season.
With a grant from Tennis Australia to help provide the new surface, club president Shane Fielding said the $100,000 of improvements across the club’s main three courts have gone smoothly, despite the huge amounts of rain delaying completion, and finished up this week.
“We’ve been using the old plexi-pave courts for at least 20 years – since we last put a surface on them and they were getting quite worn and cracked and lumpy,” Fielding said.
“So we’ve splurged and spent about $100,000 on a nice, new rebound ace court and gone to the Australian Open blue colours.
“Champing at the bit to get out on the courts and use them – we’ve got about 510 registered users at the club, about equal-13th in the state for our club – and they’re keen as well to start playing.”
Ensuring the players have a smoother, more-uniform and easier-playing surface is the big tick for the club.
The rebound ace rubber underlay should decrease knee and ankle injuries and help absorb some of the jolts as players fly around the court, especially juniors who will play on the integrated “Hot Shots” markings across the courts.
“We’ve got a lot of older members, and the plexi-pave was never really too good on the knees,” Fielding said.
“This has a spongier surface and is a lot easier on the body and plays like a hard-court too, so there’s no slide through like the mod-grass courses, so it’s very flexible for the players.”
Fielding said the club was also open to the idea of naming the courts after any number of club legends.
Construction at Arch Brown Reserve is set to continue for a little longer as the club undergoes a complete renovation of the Mrya McDonald Pavilion.
The City of Casey in its 2015-16 budget has allocated $400,000 to refurbish, add an extension and include accessible toilet facilities and make it more user-friendly, especially for social events at the club.
The current clubhouses will start its facelift in January and Fielding was thrilled to see the space transformed so more people can enjoy them.
“As you can see from the brick-colour, the clubrooms haven’t had much done in 30 or 40 years,” Fielding said.
“The major issue for us has been social space – some of our mornings up here we have 100 juniors trying to cram into the room and get some food or get out of the rain.
“We’ll get an extra 40 square metres of social space and allowing us to expand our social space with sliding stacker doors.
“It’s reward for our existing members who have been here for the last 10 to 15 years, that they’re getting some nice, new facilities – clubhouse, courts and new fences that have come up a treat.”
He thanked the council and Tennis Australia for their assistance with the upgrades.
