In the 1950’s the Chinchilla District was a hive of Tennis activity with participation levels that will never again be achieved.
Not only viewed as a great social occasion it also produced some of the best players ever seen in the area. With the opportunity to play matches against a large number of clubs in the shire, as well as the many tournaments organized by these clubs, Tennis thrived for many years.
Some of the clubs and teams that existed in the 1950’s were Chinchilla, Brigalow, Burncluith, Pelican, Baking Board, Ehlma, Warra, Millbank, Oak Park, Lone Eagles, Haystack, Crossroads, Wambo, Boonarga, Columboola, Goombi, Wychie,Rywung and Hopelands. Many of these clubs played in competition, with a few only playing social. Tournaments were held at Baking Board, Chinchilla, Crossroads, Pelican, Burncluith and Warra.
In February 1953 the Council Sports Committee decided to develop the Recreational reserve and allocated 1000 pounds($2000) to build a Tennis club on the present site with a clubhouse and 3 courts. The surface of choice being ant bed. During this period the Lawn Tennis Association of Qld was very supportive and if a club affiliated with the State body it was entitled to be given exhibition matches by leading players.
In 1953 an exhibition match was organized to be played on the Chinchilla Bowls Club. As the bowls season came to an end the Bowls Club recommended that a court could be set up and the LTA be approached to organize an exhibition match. This was duly done and on the 12/09/1953 Roy Emmerson, Mal Anderson, Arthur Liddle, Barry Green, Murray Purves, Harry Downes, Dawn Gray, Brian Littleproud and Mavis Gray played matches in front of a large crowd.
Locals Mavis Gray and Brian Littleproud were selected to be a part of Harry Hopman’s coaching clinic in 1953.
On completion of the tennis courts and clubhouse in 1954 the centre was opened by Mr Lester Hancock QLTA on the 28th April 1954 with exhibition matches played by Fay Muller, Daphne Seeney, Ian Ayre, Reg Clements, Mal Anderson and Arthur Liddle. Mention was made of the support given by the local community including Harry Jefferies, Tom Donnelly, Snow Murray and the Chinchilla Shire Council.
Chinchilla Tennis Club held their annual Tournament at Easter 1954 with just over 200 entries being received. Players came all over country Queensland as well as Brisbane. With only 3 courts at the Chinchilla club, private courts and the Primary School courts (3) were used. Baking Board, a railway siding 5km west of Chinchilla on the Warrego Highway,probably held the biggest tournament at the time being played over 2 weekends at the Baking Board School.
In 1954 an approach was made to all clubs to affiliate with Chinchilla to form the Chinchilla and District Tennis Association. In May 1954 the Association was formed with Chinchilla, Baking Board, Wychie, Rywung, Lone Eagles, Ehlma and Burncluith. The delegate to QLTA was Mr. Eddie Crowther.
The Committee members on affiliation were:
President: P Sheriff
Vice Presidents: G Smith, G Littleproud
Treasurer: J Sharpe
Secretary: M. Cole
Committee members: J Cole S Downes V Kratzke
The Chinchilla and District Tennis Association owes its success to the support of all the districts that surrounded Chinchilla in this era and to the present.
Night Tennis in Chinchilla commenced in 1960 and and an extra two courts were constructed and fitted with lights. These courts being funded by the association.
During the 1960 to 1970 period extra courts were constructed, with lights, as tennis kept growing from strength to strength. Some country clubs however did not survive as demographics changed.
In 1980 Tennis had peaked in Chinchilla with a Day competition during winter and Night Tennis during summer. The winter competition comprised of Pennant, A and B Grade singles and doubles matches with 42 teams (4 men 2 ladies) competing. Night tennis was a doubles format (2 men 2 ladies) with 63 teams at its peak. Night tennis was played 5 nights a week. Fixture matches were played against Chinchilla teams as well as Brigalow, Warra, Haystack, Cameby, and Hopelands. Social matches were organized with Warra, Brigalow, Cameby, Burncluith, Barakula, Durong, and Haystack.
1980 commenced a decade of growth in infrastructure for CDTA with ant bed courts being replaced with Plexi Pave, new fencing, lighting and a modern clubhouse.
It was also at the end of 1990 that a change to Synthetic grass was initiated with courts 2-7 being allocated and as the years progressed courts 8 & 9 were completed. At present all courts have a uniform surface of synthetic grass. More efficient lighting has been installed to courts 2-7 with courts 8-11 being upgraded to competition standard in the near future as funding becomes available.
Tennis and the Chinchilla Tennis Association has had a remarkable journey since 1954, CTA has been fortunate to have Committees and members dedicated to improving Tennis as a sport with great facilities and giving players of all standards the opportunity to enjoy playing Tennis.
In 2001 CTA instigated the Chinchilla Open for Open and A grade players and has proven to be highly successful and has cemented its place on the TQ calendar. The equivalent tournament in 1954 was the Western Downs Championships with over 200 nominations from Brisbane and country Queensland.
Information attained with assistance of the Western Downs Library (Chinchilla), Chinchilla Newspapers