PREPARATIONS are in full swing for this summer’s Tennis Country Week, with record numbers expected to descend on Swan Hill in February.
Although work for the largest event on the local sporting calendar is well underway, the Swan Hill Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club’s attention is focused no further than the next seven days, with the club’s weekend pennant competition set to hit off this Saturday afternoon.
It will be the first of the club’s weekly events to get underway, with their Wednesday pennant, Thursday ladies and social, and Saturday juniors expected to start from next week also.
With a big summer ahead, Swan Hill Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club president Christian Devlin said everyone was looking forward to getting back on the courts after a long, cold winter.
“It’s come around very quickly, our numbers with tennis can sometimes be a little bit slow coming in at the start of the year, but we’re seeing increased numbers across most of our competitions so far, which is really good,” Devlin told The Guardian this week.
“Our Wednesday night pennant draws by far our biggest number of participants for the week.
“Last year we brought in a draft system for our men’s division 1 pennant teams, which was quite successful.
“We had businesses sponsoring those teams and we’ll definitely be doing that again, but we also have a couple of divisions in both men’s and women’s so it’s a competition that caters for everyone at the same time.
“Thursday night we have our social competition, which is a relaxed atmosphere, it’s really about participation and not about ability, and then we have our Thursday ladies that play in the mornings.”
Junior players are seen as the lifeblood of any local sporting club, with the SHLTCC no different, with the club putting considerable emphasis on growing their future playing base over the past couple of seasons.
That emphasis looks set to continue, according to Devlin, with the club seeing a sharp upward trend in participants.
“Our junior program is starting to gather traction again, we’ve got numbers back to where they were five or six years ago which is a massive positive,” Devlin said.
“We’ve appointed Caleb Beggs as our tennis coach and we have Max Carroll involved as a coach as well, we have Hot Shots programs, junior development programs and coming up later this year, we have some statewide under-10s and under-12s competitions being hosted here, and they’ll be happening during the school holidays in mid January.
“We have some exceptionally good deals for juniors, we’ve cut the cost of their memberships to just $30 for a whole year and that includes free coaching for the month of October, as well as a free tennis shirt.”
The statewide under-10s and under-12s tournament in January won’t be the only major event hosted by the club, with the Tennis Victoria Country Week once again returning to our region this February 9-14.
With record numbers expected, the week also brings about its share of challenges for the club. But with Swan Hill widely regarded as the “home of Country Week”, thanks to its pristine grass courts and ability to host the event all in the one location, they are challenges that are always easily overcome.
“Preparations (for Country Week) are well and truly in full swing, we have our entertainment booked, we have our food sorted and the courts are looking good,” Devlin said.
“We certainly know that not everything will run smoothly, but we’ve hosted it many times now and we’re pretty well prepared.
“Accommodation can be one of our real challenges, but we feel like we’re on top of that compared to other years.
“Country Week tennis is a beast of its own, I don’t know any other event across any other sport where 1500 people of all abilities turn up to town for one week only.
“We’re talking about a tenth of our population coming here for a whole week and spending thousands of dollars in our community, in fact, the figures done on the previous Country Week in Yarrawonga were in the vicinity of $3 million to $4 million.
“Swan Hill is viewed as being the home of Country Week, we have a unique set up where we can host 100 courts in one venue and anywhere else you go, that’s just not physically possible.
“We have 1500 people coming and going all week and they’re arguably playing on the best courts in the world, our facility is underrated in my opinion – the surrounds are immaculate, the courts are world class and outside the tennis club in the early evening is just a magic place to be.”
Anybody looking to play in any of the SHLTCC competitions can visit swanhilltennis.com.au or the club’s Facebook page for more details.
