Clive has the honour of holding in December 1885 the first New Zealand Tennis Championships – at Farndon Park.
At the suggestion after the 1886 tournament of a Napier man, Mr J.F. Jardine, a New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association was formed at a meeting in Hastings.
The first three public tennis courts in Hastings were at the Heretaunga school grounds at what became Nelson Park (which is now the Hastings Park Mega on Karamu Rd, Hastings).
A Hastings Tennis Club was formed, and land at Whitehead Rd was purchased in 1908. Ten grass courts and three croquet lawns were laid out.
Tennis was indeed the social event for the gentlemen and ladies of the district, with the many well-to-do families of Hastings taking part – and of course, the ladies providing a sumptuous afternoon tea to round off the day. Most of the early Hastings mayors were avid tennis players.
Six grass tennis courts at Whitehead Rd were set aside and prepared for the Australasian Open (then just for men) to be held in Hastings from December 30, 1912, to January 1, 1913.
The Hawke’s Bay Tennis Association gave to the Australasian Tennis Association a financial guarantee covering any losses to hold the Australasian Open in Hastings. Any profits over £60 (2025: $13,000) would be split 50/50 by the Australasian Tennis Association with the Hastings Tennis Club. It was a financial success.
New Zealand’s most famous tennis player, Anthony Wilding, had won the Australasian Open in 1906, when it was held in his hometown of Christchurch. He would not attend the Hastings event, as he was in Europe.
Those in Europe who did make the long journey to play in the Australasian Open in Hastings were the British Davis Cup team.
The opening day of the tournament on December 30, 1912, was successful “in perfect weather”, and more seats had to be hastily arranged. The tennis was said to have been “grand”.
The Governor of New Zealand (later Governor-General in 1917), Arthur Foljambe, arrived from Wellington to watch the games with his wife.
Only New Zealand and English players contested the Australasian Open, with no Australians playing.
The finals were to be concluded on January 1, 1913, but as the New Year’s races were held that day in Hastings, the games were held over to January 2.
As expected, the British Davis Cup team took out the honours in both singles and doubles.
The singles winner was one of Ireland’s best sportsmen, James Cecil Parke – who beat his teammate, Alfred Beamish, in five sets. Parke combined with teammate Charles Dixon for the doubles final, to defeat the remaining members of their team, Beamish and Gordon Lowe.
Parke was not only a tennis champion but also played and captained the Irish Rugby Union national team, won the Davis Cup for Great Britain, won a silver medal in tennis at the London Summer Olympics, and won the Wimbledon mixed doubles in 1914 with partner Ethel Larcombe.
Hastings, after the Australasian Open, was riding the wave of being one of the most successful tennis regions in New Zealand, and as such, in 1922 (the war and recovery years interrupted competition) was awarded the New Zealand championships.
Both men and women contested the 1922 New Zealand championships.
Taking the opportunity to promote Hastings to the many visitors, the Hastings Chamber of Commerce produced a souvenir booklet given away free to visitors.
Amongst the advertisers in the booklet was McKee’s Jewellers, who were selling the “wristlet watch” for ladies who stated, “It was such an attractive necessity that its future is permanent.”
The number of tennis clothing stockists showed tennis was popular in Hastings.
Men, of course, wore not shorts but trousers, which were sold at stores such as Millar and Giorgi and Roach’s, where you bought “cream garbi trousers” or “fine cream serge trousers”.
“The famous Kady concealed braces” could be bought to keep your trousers up, if you did not prefer a belt.
Women played in their tennis attire of long dresses below the knee. The ladies never feared laddered stockings as “Holeproof” hosiery with special suspender tops could be bought, which would “withstand the strain of any position”.
Whitehead Rd’s annual Hastings Open tournament, held at the end of the year since its formation, attracted many champion tennis players from all over New Zealand, and continued until at least the 1980s.
