A staple of the West Tamar community, the Riverside Tennis Club, will celebrate its 60th birthday on Saturday.
The club will hold a luncheon and small tournament for its members, with president and long-time member Max Byrne describing the milestone as unexpected.
"It came across as a bit of a shock that we were up to 60 years," he said.
"We had a very big dinner for our 50th and one of the ladies happened to ring up and say, 'do you realise it's the 60th birthday?'.
"So we panicked a bit and decided the quickest way was to have a luncheon and run what they call an American doubles tournament, where you just come in and put people together, redrawing each round so they can come and go.
"The ladies usually turn on a pretty good lunch here."
While the club itself was founded at a residents meeting in 1957, the first two courts weren't opened until October 21, 1961, with courts three and four following six years later.
Originally sand clay courts, the surface was top-dressed multiple times throughout their lifespan before the decision was made to replace it with artificial grass in 1987.
Throughout the club's history, Jim Witheford has been the longest-serving president and now has both a court and a mixed doubles tournament named in his honour.
The Witheford family is one of many that Byrne recognised for their commitment to the club with names like Lewis, Craw, Coburn, Wathen, Smythe, McNee, Booth, Allison, Geale, Young, Bond and Cooper playing a major part in the club's success.
It's been mainly a family place because ... it was really families that got the courts going and that's continued.
- Riverside Tennis Club president Max Byrne
Byrne joined the club as the coach in 1969 on the recommendation of Bill Craw, coming across from Newstead's Hart Street after spending time in both Hobart and Footscray.
Coaching at the four-court club for approximately 40 years, Australian seniors representative Byrne has been injured of late and hasn't been able to play as much as he would like.
Fifty-two years after he came on board, he says the membership numbers are around 160-170, making it one of the bigger regional tennis clubs in the North of the state.
"It's been pretty consistent from that once we got well and truly established in the 70s, from then on we've had a pretty steady membership.
"A lot of clubs were struggling for a while when the indoor centre started but we kept our membership up pretty well the whole time.
"I think the clubhouse shows we've looked after the place."
Josh Partridge
As a sports-mad fan who loves to remain challenged, sports journalism always seemed the path for me and it's allowed me to do things I never thought possible. A keen racquet sports player, I'm experienced in that field, allowing me to do my job at a strong standard.
As a sports-mad fan who loves to remain challenged, sports journalism always seemed the path for me and it's allowed me to do things I never thought possible. A keen racquet sports player, I'm experienced in that field, allowing me to do my job at a strong standard.
