The Campbell Park Tennis Club has a long history. The club site is magnificent, located opposite to Cornwall Park and fringed with mature trees and grassed areas.

The club was formally constituted on 30 September 1922 as the Campbell Park Lawn Tennis Club. Captain A. Whitney was elected president in recognition of the energy and enthusiasm he had put in to getting the club set up. Capt. Whitney, at the first General Meeting, paid tribute to the generosity of the Cornwall Park Trustees in providing the land for the club, and other assistance.

At the first Annual General Meeting in 1923 it was recorded that from the outset the committee was handicapped by lack of funds and found it difficult to get players to give up playing time to form courts and make other improvements. All available funds were spent on buying essential materials and labour for two hard courts and three grass courts.

However, all did not proceed smoothly as the grass courts later proved a failure. Committee efforts converted one of the grass courts into a hard court, and plans were put in place for the formation of three more hard courts. Tournaments were organised and social functions and dances held.

The club found it was not able to affiliate with the Auckland Lawn Tennis Association, as one of their stipulations was that the club must possess a pavilion. It was resolved to focus on building a pavilion and this seems to have been achieved in a remarkably short time. At the 1924 AGM it was reported that the progress of the club had been much greater than even the most optimistic member had anticipated. This had been made possible by work being done on the courts by a few committee members right through the winter season, together with the efforts of the Ladies’
Committee in organising card evenings and dances.

In 1925 the club pavilion was completed. Club membership was restricted to 100 members, with ladies’ membership restricted to 66% of the total!!

In 1928 the club had 178 financial members, the second largest playing membership of any club in Auckland. Over the years the formation and maintenance of courts proved to be an onerous task, yet the number of courts formed quickly grew to 10. At this stage they were clay-based courts with a fine chip surface and required constant maintenance, in some years carried out by a paid groundsman and in others by club members. For many years the court lines were formed by lead tapes, later replaced by plastic tapes. The first task before play commenced was the sweeping of the courts using three metre wide hard bristle brooms followed by sweeping of grit from the line tapes. Then, if the courts were dry, water guns were turned on and the nozzles swept from side to side to dampen all the court surfaces. During a day’s play this procedure might have to be repeated several times. At regular intervals the courts also had to be rolled.

Over the years club membership shrank somewhat and the number of courts were reduced. Two clay courts at the eastern end were turned into a carpark. Two at the western end were turned into a pleasant grassed area and a volley board facility.

Eventually, it was decided that chip courts were a thing of the past and a new surface, Techtone, was introduced. These were the first courts in Auckland to have this surface and they were so successful that NZ Davis Cup players used to practise at the club. With the passing of time these surfaces became worn and the club was advised the six courts needed to be completely reformed to provide better bases. New fund raising efforts began and the front three courts were surfaced in Astroturf, and the back three in Plexipave, to provide harder, faster surfaces.

By 1967 the old pavilion was in need of upgrading, when disaster struck and it was demolished accidentally — by fire! Temporary accommodation was provided (with long-drop toilets). In 1968 with new efforts and under the drive and leadership of Terry Williams and assistance once again from the Cornwall Park Board of Trustees, a new clubhouse was built. It served the club well, but 30 years on it became obvious it would have to be substantially upgraded to meet current requirements, or be replaced. After careful consideration the decision was made to rebuild
and a new pavilion was opened on 7 November 1999.

The club has had some long serving members. Notable among these was Mr Val Barfoot. In 1924 club minutes show he joined the committee, and became president in 1927. He proved to be a tireless worker for the club, serving in various positions until 1976.

Over the years the club has been very successful in interclub competition including competing successfully in the top Caro Bowl competition. It now fields teams in a wide range of men’s, women’s and juniors’ grades. Recent years have seen growth in organised midweek play, and frequent night tennis now that the club has very good court lighting.

The club is grateful to the Cornwall Park Trustees for their assistance over the years. In recognition of this, the Chairman of the Trust was invited to officially open the new pavilion in 1999.

As a final comment, the similarity in the design of the upper section of the 1925 pavilion and the current 1999 version, is quite striking.