THE oldest and most prestigious tennis tournament in the world has sent a curation team to learn from Swan Hill Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club.
Earlier this year, Wimbledon’s head of courts and horticulture Neil Stubley and head agronomist Mark Ferguson met with Swan Hill’s own grass court aficionado, Danny Gardner.
Through his work as SHLTCC curator, Gardner had the opportunity to travel to the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club in 2019 for tips from the best in the business.
The Brits returned the favour, hearing from Danny and the Swan Hill club about how curators battle local conditions and keep the courts in top shape.
Gardner said the Swan Hill visit followed a stop in Queensland.
“They came out to Australia about a month ago,” he said.
“They’ve got a trial site up in Queensland where they are trialling a range of different grasses.
“The reason that they are out here is basically so that they can learn to grow our grasses.
“They can grow the grasses in the cooler climates of the world like Europe, but in the warmer climates like Australia and parts of the United States, they don’t really know how to grow their grasses.
“They didn’t really know what to expect when they came over, they might have come over thinking that they might have to provide us with some nice grasses.
“But then they got out here and found out that we are doing pretty well with the grasses that we’ve got.”
Gardner said he thought Swan Hill’s grass courts were treated to “perfect conditions”.
“We have a lot of sunlight, we have heat and we have water,” he said.
“Those are the three things that really make the perfect recipe for grass courts.
“I think that Australia’s heat and playing on a grass court just matches up.
“We wouldn’t be playing on hard courts if it’s a 40-degree day.
“The surface of a grass court is at least 10 degrees cooler than a hard court on a day like that.”
Gardner said the partnership was part of Wimbledon’s attempt to “protect and enhance the grass court game”.
“They have Wimbledon and a number of other tournaments, but they’re still working on when it comes to providing grass courts to places around the world,” he said.
“They want kids growing up and playing on grass courts and having a good experience, so that when they do get to Wimbledon, it’s not their first experience on grass.
“They’d been out before and seen places like Kooyong and the trial sites, but they’d never really been out to our areas.
“It was really good for them to see courts in a bit of a different environment.
“Now they are ready to put some of their trial grasses into action in real-life situations.”
Gardner said that while the partnership was in its infancy, there were exciting times ahead between the two clubs.
“We’ll have an ongoing relationship with them,” he said.
“We’re still in the early stages of the partnership, but we are looking at putting in some trial surfaces for them and monitor them over the years.
“I think they’ll probably come out here every couple of years.”
