100 years of tennis history
Competitive centenary celebration
OPENING in 1920, Holy Name Tennis Club will celebrate its centenary this year.
The club has seen many tennis legend step foot on the courts, including Ross Case, Mark Kratzmann, Mal Anderson, Marj Dighton, and Helen Davis.
Treasurer Mick Forgarty said he became a permanent member of the club in 1990, but had played games at Holy Name years before.
“My first game here was in 1963 when I played Ross Case in a singles match,” Mr Fogarty said.
“He beat me and he went on to do better things than me.”
Along with Geoff Masters, Ross Case won two Grand Slam doubles titles – in 1974 at the Australian Open and in 1977 at Wimbledon.
Mr Fogarty said there had been plenty of changes to the club over 100 years.
Originally the club only had two courts, instead of the four available today, and in 1960 the original club house was replaced with a new one.
Mr Fogarty said the original courts might have been dirt or gravel, but they had ant bed courts from 1933 to 2005.
“Since 2005 when the first drought hit Toowoomba, these were ant bed courts but we were unable to use the water to maintain them,” he said.
“We were lucky we found four courts in Brisbane which were being dismantled so we had the surface lifted up and re-laid here, and we haven’t looked back since.”
The centenary celebrations will go for a week, with the main event being held on April 5.
The main event will involve a competition involving 16 of the club’s best players and eight invitational players from the veteran’s club.
Mr Fogarty said he hoped to involve the 14 small clubs that use the facilities.
“I’m trying to get all the little clubs involved as they’re very important to us,” he said.
“They provide the finance to improve the centre. “
There will be a chance to win prizemoney and a month of free tennis at the club.
Anyone wishing to get involved should contact Mr Fogarty on 0412 629 357.