Whanganui Chronicle
  • Whanganui Chronicle home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Taranaki
  • National Park
  • Whakapapa
  • Ohakune
  • Raetihi
  • Taihape
  • Marton
  • Feilding
  • Palmerston North

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • New Plymouth
  • Whanganui
  • Palmertson North
  • Levin

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Whanganui Chronicle

Next generation required for tennis club

By Jared Smith
Sports Editor·Whanganui Chronicle·
23 Sep, 2017 01:30 AM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Whanganui tennis needs more youngsters like Sam Russell to fill the shoes of talented players who have moved on.

Whanganui tennis needs more youngsters like Sam Russell to fill the shoes of talented players who have moved on.

It is next step: the future, for the Wanganui Tennis Club as the 2017-18 season begins with an open day this morning, ahead of the annual St John's Club junior tournament next Saturday.

Today's family open day begins at 11am, and will include a 12.30pm exhibition match, while there will be competitions before and after the game for guests and members.

It is BYO for lunch, but the day will conclude with a light meal in the club lounge including ham on the bone, rolls and salads.

In changes made at the Basset St courts, nationally top 5-ranked women's player Leela Beattie will take over as the head and, currently, the only coach - although the 23-year-old is hopeful others will come on board to give assistance as the summer progresses.

Trish Biddle-Amoroa will take over as the new chairwoman of the junior committee.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Among Beattie's roles will be organising a holiday coaching programme from October 9-13, as the club looks to scout and recruit more young players over the summer months.

"I just obviously want to build it up and get them playing good tennis," said Beattie.

"I just to want to get the kids to improve to play more tournaments.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"At the moment, we don't have many; they're not up to that standard."

After five glorious summers in both junior and senior representative tennis, Beattie agreed Whanganui is now having to address the end of an era as the "once in a generation" extended family of the talented Butters clan have aged-out of the local scene.

Cousins Paige Hourigan and Kyle Butters followed their parents, aunts and uncles into the sport and became world-ranked juniors, now doing well in the United States college system.

Rebekah Butters-Chamberlain and Paris Butters - with Paris having carried the torch for the last two seasons - are also starting out on their journey's away from home.

The teenagers presence helped Wanganui to junior representative success, multiple Christie Cup defences and ensured several Wanganui Open titles remained at home instead of departing to New Plymouth, Palmerston North or Wellington.

"It's really noticeable with Paris leaving," said Beattie.

"It's not just Whanganui - the whole of New Zealand is a little bit behind.

"Building from the ground up, juniors are hard to come by."

Beattie wants to work with the young players coming through to improve their games so they can feel confident playing visitors or outside of the district - developing strong serves and keeping their heads through multiple matches in a weekend.

It is youngsters that fill the gaps in the Whanganui Christie Cup team, as after narrowly losing the crown to Manawatu in March when in sight of a record fifth consecutive summer as holders, they hope to win it back this December when the aforementioned family members are home for the holidays.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I definitely think Whanganui always brings some good players, so we could definitely win again," said Beattie.

As well as the juniors, Beattie will also be running a Tennis Fit programme and adult coaching lessons.

Tennis is free at the courts in October.

Next weekend will be the junior tournament with the St John's club coming on board as naming sponsor, replacing Slazenger.

The tournament starts on Saturday and concludes on Tuesday with multiple age grades for singles and doubles.

Club member Neville Hopkins said entries and seedings will be confirmed next week, with registration on the Wanganui Tennis Club website.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"There's [also] an open event for adults or anyone to enter," said Hopkins.

"We know some of the coaches are entering so they'll be some good very talent for that."

The open tournaments for singles and doubles will be played on the Saturday and Sunday.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Sport

Sport

'Honoured': Pétra Allen steps into role as Whanganui Rugby chair

29 May 10:04 PM
Sponsored Stories

Rugby: Taihape's young guns aim for crucial quarter-final spots

29 May 05:00 PM
Sponsored Stories

Rugby: Rātana face critical match against Border

29 May 05:00 PM

Gold demand soars amid global turmoil

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Sport

'Honoured': Pétra Allen steps into role as Whanganui Rugby chair

'Honoured': Pétra Allen steps into role as Whanganui Rugby chair

29 May 10:04 PM

Jason Caskey and Aaron Currie are the board's new members.

Rugby: Taihape's young guns aim for crucial quarter-final spots

Rugby: Taihape's young guns aim for crucial quarter-final spots

29 May 05:00 PM
Rugby: Rātana face critical match against Border

Rugby: Rātana face critical match against Border

29 May 05:00 PM
'No one does ops like Kat': NZ loses athletics high performance leader

'No one does ops like Kat': NZ loses athletics high performance leader

28 May 05:00 PM
Explore the hidden gems of NSW
sponsored

Explore the hidden gems of NSW

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Whanganui Chronicle e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Whanganui Chronicle
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • What the Actual
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven CarGuide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP