Tennis code's cry for HB boost | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

A Hawke's Bay stalwart believes tennis is fraying at the seams and clubs will die unless some drastic measures are imposed to prevent its rapid slide into oblivion.

Ian Purdon tells SportToday the code is taking an eight count on the canvas since its merger with Waikato as Tennis Waikato-Bays but believes getting out of that marriage isn't a viable proposition.

"We don't want to change but we want Waikato-Bays to perform better, especially in the way we operate in Hawke's Bay," says Purdon, who a fortnight ago stepped down as president of Hastings Tennis and Squash Club.

"We don't want to reinvent the wheel and a lack of local volunteers will mean we would struggle anyway," he says, adding the problem was symptomatic of a nationwide curse.

The Bay forged ties with Waikato-Bays three years ago after a Sparc gave Tennis New Zealand a shake-up to redefine boundaries across the country in a major rationalisation process.

The Bay had a choice to amalgamate with either Wellington or Waikato and Purdon says they chose the latter because of their better coaching programme.

At the crux of the crisis is what he considers high fees and a lack of rapport that are driving away tennis lovers and "older heads" as volunteers.

Amid the fear of losing this province's autonomy is the resentment towards contributing affiliation fees to a Waikato-heavy structure to support debts that are not Hawke's Bay's to shoulder.

The Hamilton indoor facility, some believe, is becoming a white elephant with declining numbers there too.

"People in the Bay are now making their own private courts outside the club structure because it costs too much to join and they don't want to volunteer either," he says, adding most of them are retired farmers and businessmen.

One Bay sports retailer, Purdon says, is selling more racquets to people who don't belong to clubs here than any other outlet in the country.

"The funding is falling away and the province is expensive with the indoor facility [in Hamilton]."

Hawke's Bay has one representative, Gavin Cooper, of Nelson Park Club, among eight on the Waikato-Bay's board.

He says Hawke's Bay has started attracting good coaches again, such as Simon Winter, of Napier, but the region was generally poorly catered for before that.

"It's still nervous times. Things are not rosy but there's daylight to pull us out of the doldrums," Purdon says, adding the number of juniors playing the sport have dwindled also due to lack of decent competition and tournaments.

However, even if Hawke's Bay did have tourneys now they would need 500 to 1000 players to revive the code. The secondary school sector, he feels, is neglected and the poor turnout at the recent residentials tourney a testimony to the need for a concerted drive.

What he describes as a "tax to Waikato-Bays and Tennis NZ", Purdon says adults pay $47 each of their $180 a year subscription to the two bodies. A child contributes somewhere in the vicinity of $35-$37 each to the bodies.

"It's a fair whack if there's a family with children playing tennis."

The Bay clubs - Greendale, Hawke's Bay Lawn, Hastings, Nelson Park and Havelock North - had formed a G5 alliance formed a year ago that meets once a month to debate issues.

Returning to the old structure, he believes, will be counterproductive but emphasises communication is vital.

While he is opposed to the Hawke's Bay Regional Sports Park in Hastings, Purdon believes centralising tennis at the new venue may ultimately be the code's saviour.

He says Waikato-Bays, the sports park trust and the Hastings District Council discuss matters but exclude the tennis fraternity.

"The organisers are making decisions for everyone and no one is talking to the Hawke's Bay community."

He had spoken to Hastings merchant banker Sam Kelt on what sort of surface to put on the courts at the new sports park after some wild suggestions in meetings. Kelt is no longer involved with the park project.

"I burst out laughing at a suggestion three years ago that we were going to put down a clay surface. They said we were going to be the French Open of the South Pacific," says Purden, saying he played on clay surfaces and they aren't suited to Bay conditions.

For someone who has served as administrator for 25 years in two provinces (including Taranaki), Purdon believes the gravitation towards a "pay-per-play" module is counterproductive to keeping clubs viable.

He cannot understand the logic behind an indoor velodrome in the Bay. "We play outdoors here so why would we pay $10-$12 to play on four indoor courts under lights.

"Don't get me wrong it's a lovely facility but it'll become a white elephant unless we start recruiting more players," Purdon warns.

The Hastings club, he says, was willing to sell its assets and contribute close to $500,000 towards the sports park but only if squash courts were going to be in the equation.

He feels the Napier City Council doesn't have a "buy-in" into the sports park project with Hastings "diving into it".

The knee-jerk reactions of other club's projects clashing with the sports park project also frustrates him.

"How dumb is it that two netball courts and a rugby club are establishing themselves at Elwood Park near the polo grounds?"

The gladitorial nature of tennis, he says, gives it an edge over squash where players tend to watch each other's backs in an enclosed room.

Purdon feels there's too much apathy among the code's protagonists with many harbouring a "capitulation" mentality.

"If we want to be successful then we need to take other sports head on," he laments, adding the organisers of junior and men's reserve competitions seem to be opting to stage events on days that did not clash with other major codes such as cricket.

"I'm a 40-something so where's that young guy on the other side of the net trying to knock me over? We just don't have that in tennis any more."