COUNTRY Week means a lot of things to many people, especially in our region, but for Danny Gardner, it still means catching up with mates and playing the sport he first fell in love with in the backyard of his childhood home.
That’s despite the countless hours of hard work, sweat and toil that Gardner now endures as the Swan Hill Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club head greenskeeper every time Country Week rolls into town.
Having prepared the immaculate grass courts that many regard as the best in the country for more than 10 Tennis Victoria Country Weeks in his over 20 years in the role, the highlight of Gardner’s week will be competing against and socialising with the same opponents when he first started his Country Week journey as a player.
“We’ve played in the same grade for 30 years or more and we’ve played against most of same guys over that time,” Gardner told The Guardian last week.
“If the guys aren’t any good or they aren’t good blokes, then they don’t last.
“The beautiful thing about Country Week is that there’s a grade for everybody, there’s 14 grades for both men and women, basically anyone that has a racquet can play and there’s a lot of people that play that love tennis but don’t necessarily play competition from week to week and this is their hit of tennis for the year.”
After growing up with a home built tennis court in his backyard, it’s little surprise that Gardner took on the role of greenskeeper many years ago, with the veteran green thumb in the middle of his second 10 year stint in the role.
Although his journey has been long, the one thing that’s clear is that Gardner has never lost his love for the sport,
“We just grew up playing sport, Dad built a grass court in the backyard back in the day and I suppose that’s where my love of tennis started,” Gardner said.
“We lived out at (Lake) Boga and the court wasn’t much good, but if we weren’t on the Lake or playing footy, we were on the court.
“It’s just something I grew up with and I guess things like Country Week have held my motivation over the years because you have that event each year and it was something to strive for.
“There’s nothing like that journey at the start, when you’re learning the game and you’re improving all the time, that’s the best part of it, then you’re okay at it for a while before you start going downhill as you get older and start getting injuries, but I suppose time catches everyone in the end.
“I’ve always enjoyed the competitive side as well as the social side of tennis and it’s an ideal sport for that.
“With other sports, like footy, you put in a lot effort and it’s socially good as well, but tennis has a really good balance between the effort you put in and the enjoyment you get out of it off the court.”
With 222 teams hitting the court this week, Gardner’s task in keeping the highly regarded playing surface in immaculate condition will be a difficult one.
There’s little doubt that Gardner is the man for the job however, with the jewel in the crown of the SHLTCC getting its first polish in preparation of the busiest week on the local tennis calendar months ago.
“I’m always looking at the surfaces to prepare for our tournaments in the off season, which can start up to eight months out,” Gardner said.
“We also start thinking about preparations for the soccer oval around then as well, but we really kick into gear around Christmas time with that sort of stuff.
“The main jobs out there for me are the surfaces, the lines and the nets, while for the members, volunteers and the committee, they look after all the infrastructure and the net posts, fence posts and the like.
“It’s a huge job and as anyone would have seen, there’s been people running around here all week and we’ve held meetings all through last year and this year to get everything organised.
“You always expect hot weather and we’ve dodged a few bullets this week, we had some really helpful rain last week which we weren’t expecting.
“It was supposed to be 40 all week and we’re not getting that at the moment, although it was very dry in the lead up to last week and that was difficult, but you always expect hot weather and that’s where the club makes a lot of our money through drink sales.
“We’re kind of hoping for mild to hot weather, 35 degrees is ideal and then anything over that, you start getting challenges with the heat, but the weather looks like it’s going to be about perfect.”
While Gardner will still have plenty of work to do over the next four days, the finishing line is now in sight, with the tournament kicking off yesterday morning in earnest.
“For me, it’s just getting to the start line, that’s the hard part,” Gardner said.
“It’s a marathon to do the whole lot, but getting to the start line is the hard part.
“Everything’s lined and mowed and the players will come in and smash everything up and ruin all my good work, but I can’t do much while their playing.
“If I have to do anything, I just do it in the morning or at night and it’s usually just keeping up to the lines and things like that.”
