Longueville Tennis Club (LTC) history is the history of tennis in the beautiful peninsula of Longueville and also a history of changes in many aspects of tennis over the past 100 years.
The idea of a tennis club was raised in 1920 by locals who were anxious to have tennis courts in the area, particularly for the young people of the district. The group met in the home of EL Tyler and comprised WJ McGown, AJ Fraser, A Johnston, LE Palmer, EL Tyler, CJ Bentley and AH England. Between £400-500 was donated by these gentlemen and others in the community to build the courts.
Negotiations with the Lane Cove Council resulted in the Council approving of the Courts being built at the northern end of the Cricket Grounds (now Kingsford Smith Oval). The Council agreed to charge a nominal rental only for the use of the land as the original committee and members provided the finance to level the ground, make the courts, erect the fences and build the clubhouse shed.
The Longueville-Northwood Tennis Club
The Club was known as the Longueville-Northwood Tennis Club. Four loam courts were built and membership was limited to 50, with a waiting list.
Tournaments, bridge nights and dances were held to raise funds to build the fifth court, a grass court, which was ready by 1928. Early ‘minutes’ reveal the foresight of our founders in establishing Longueville as a grass court club, making it possible for members to play the first weekend interclub tennis competition in Sydney, known as “Badge”, and run by the Lawn Tennis Association.
Careful control was taken of the grass court. Only those permitted by the Grounds Committee could use the court and had to contribute to the upkeep of it. Male players were charged twice as much as women players – Men 1/- and ladies 6d.! Similarly, annual subscriptions for membership for our first 50 years were more for men than ladies.
The 1930’s and 1940’s
Early changes are interesting. In the 1930s approval by ballot had to be sought for men to be permitted to play tennis in shorts. The Club Constitution had to be amended for tennis to be played on Sundays, and then play was only approved from 1 pm to 6 pm.
At the 1940 AGM the name was changed to The Longueville Tennis Club.
The War Years were difficult for all clubs as their major volunteer group was serving, membership numbers dropped and tennis balls were not being produced. LTC closed 3 of its courts during the War years as balls were not available because all manufacturing was concentrating on the war effort. Methods of washing and recovering balls were tried.
The 1950’s
In the 1950s a major innovation was the introduction of a Sunday Morning Men’s competition. The Club introduced a club blazer and after several years of fundraising our current clubhouse was opened in 1957 by the Mayor of Lane Cove, Alderman Albert E Shaw.
The coach, Bevan Brown suggested annual reciprocal matches with Lane Cove Tennis Club to foster friendship between the two clubs. This became the Cliff England Trophy and was contested for over 30 years by the winners of each club’s Men’s Singles, Ladies’ Singles, Men’s Doubles, Ladies’ Doubles and Mixed Doubles winners.
The 1960’s
During the 1960s the club was fortunate that Aeolus Tennis Club closed and this brought 13 new members and keen volunteer workers to the Club, including Alan and Margaret Leask. Both were keen badge players, active committee members and Alan brought his engineering skills to benefit the Club. He was later President for 10 years and then Patron.
The 1960s saw the introduction of nylon nets which mean it was no longer essential to remove and store the nets at the end of play. Plastic lines were also installed eliminating the onerous daily job of marking the lines with chalk.
No Lights
In 1965, 1981 and again in 2019 we unsuccessfully sought to install lights on Court 1.
The 1970’s
The 1970s saw great changes in tennis everywhere. Yellow balls were introduced and different balls were manufactured for play on different surfaces. White or pastel coloured clothes were approved and track suits could be worn, but for pre-play only. The tie-breaker system was introduced and the Metropolitan Grass Court Clubs Association approved synthetic courts for Badge.
1980’s and 1990’s
In 1985 our grass courts were converted to synthetic grass and by 1990 all 5 courts were the same surface.
In the 1990s our membership grew, assisted by a generous family membership plan. There were social tennis groups meeting on most mornings, at least 4 teams playing Wednesday Northern Suburbs Tennis Association competition, 2 teams playing Thursday Badge and 2- 4 teams playing Saturday Badge.
2000 and onwards
The Club reached a peak membership of 456 members in 2006. Several of these are competition players who competed and are still competing successfully in World, Australian and State Masters Titles. One of these, Carol Campling, was awarded Australian Veteran’s Tennis “Player of the Year” in 2002 and in 2019 was inducted as the first Legend into the Australian Seniors Hall of Fame.
The demise of White City Club was our gain. LTC was fortunate to have several good players join our ranks. These included Margaret Bisley, Kellie Reid and Ann Tulloh who soon after agreed to join LTC’s Management Team. Since 2010 Margaret has been our President, Ann has been our Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Kellie, our Secretary , and now Senior Vice-President and Booking Officer.
Under their leadership we have installed a very successful On-line Booking System and Integrated Court Access System, which has enabled easy access to courts by members and the public alike. In 2017 LTC completely renovated the Ladies’ Changeroom and in 2018, the Men’s Changeroom. In 2021 the club replaced and renovated all the fencing and gates and in early 2022 the courts will be resurfaced.
The Club has a proud record of a century of voluntary commitment to the community. Generations have followed the example of their forebears and much has been accomplished. The Club looks forward to the next century of this great game in the Lane Cove community.
LTC motto – Ludus et amicitia – sport and friendship
Contact Details
Location: On the corner of Kenneth and Dunois Street, 2066
Hours: 6:30am – 7:30pm
Tennis Court Hire Info: click here
Phone: 1300 712 713
Coaching website: Lead Tennis Academy
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