Romsey Tennis Club is in need of a major upgrade to revitalise its deteriorating courts and better cater for the town’s growing community.
The club currently features five synthetic grass courts that are all in need of repair, as rips and tears in the surface allow gravel and other materials to rise and create patches of mud after rain.
Club president Brett Rees said a priority was building membership numbers – something the poor condition of its courts made difficult.
“The courts are deteriorating all the time. We’ve had to transfer some matches away from the club and play elsewhere when there’s been rain and the courts are a little bit too slippery,” he said.
“We’re just trying to get the courts being used and build up our membership base, but the problem is that our courts look terrible so unless we get new courts, we’re very unattractive to walk past and have a look.”
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Romsey Tennis Club has organised multiple open days and social tennis events, hired new coaches through the Macedon Ranges Tennis Association, MRTA, and given racquets to foundation students at Romsey Primary School to boost membership numbers.
The club also currently has one junior team and two Thursday night teams that compete in the MRTA and has just filled a full executive committee.
Home to about 50 members, Mr Rees said the club would be interested in providing public court access and expanding to other sports including pickleball to boost participation at Romsey.
“We just feel like we’re the poor cousin of the district,” he said.
“There’s a beautiful football oval at Romsey, they’ve got a brand new clubhouse and a scoreboard for the football club and the cricket club, and then there’s this tennis club with filthy, dirty courts and muddy patches on them that just sit to the side there.
“It’s [Macedon Ranges Shire Council’s] asset but we’re raising the money, that’s why if we go to them and say, ‘we have one third or one half of what you need, come and help us out with the rest’ then it’ll be done.”
The current courts are about 20 years old and the club maintains that funding for new courts would be money well spent – expected to last many years into the future if done well.
According to the Romsey Sports Precinct Master Plan, which was endorsed by council in 2023, the condition of the five synthetic courts was assessed as fair and requiring replacement, while the court perimeter fencing was showing signs of deterioration and requiring replacement.
Council’s assets and operations director Shane Walden said council was exploring grant funding opportunities to fund or co-fund the works.
“Following the master plan assessment, the resurfacing of the courts was categorised as a medium priority,” he said.
“It is noted that the Romsey Tennis Club submitted a proposal through council’s Budget 2024-25 process, this will be considered along with other community submissions.”
The club hosted an open day this month that was attended by about 50 people, with a $500 Bendigo Bank grant for the day put towards providing racquets to children and signing new members.
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