The Pukekohe Tennis Club is determined to continue as usual despite suffering a fire in early February.
Counties Tennis Association president Sharon Nelson said part of the deck was burnt to the
ground, the main roof and kitchen sustained some damage, and there was extensive smoke damage everywhere inside.
“Fortunately, no one was hurt, and the courts were not affected. Despite the damage inside, we were able to partition areas off to enable limited use, so our tennis activities continue as usual.”
She said both NZ Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand are investigating the blaze.
“What we know is that there was no ignition source where the fire has consumed the most timber.”
In a post on Facebook, the club thanked the community for rallying following the fire.
“Thanks to everyone’s incredible help during this emergency, we made the club safe so our junior players would not miss their coaching that Monday afternoon.”
The Pukekohe Tennis Club has around 180 members and has another 80 children in their
Hotshots programme. Counties Tennis has about 800 members throughout the region, who come to use the centre for coaching, interclub matches, representative matches, and social events.
The Counties Tennis Centre was opened in 1991. The regional facility has 20 tennis courts: four multisport turf, four tennis turf with the remaining 12 hard courts. Last year marked the 10th anniversary of Pukekohe Lawn Tennis Club and Counties Tennis Association working together at the Counties Tennis Centre in Pukekohe.
The two organisations have collaborated on a number of projects that have greatly benefited tennis in the region during the past decade.
Initially, lights for 10 courts were installed, and change rooms, toilets and showers were all refurbished, four courts were resurfaced with plexipave, and another four courts were resurfaced with multi-sport turf. More recently eight hard courts were resurfaced, LED lights replaced the metal halide lamps, two-thirds of the clubroom deck was replaced, and disability ramps were added at all entranceways.
The inter-club season is underway. The Counties Interclub Finals will be held over two weekends, March 7-8 and March 15-16. The highly anticipated Counties Closed Tournament sponsored by Business Plus One, scheduled for April 5-6, will determine the top competitors of the season in men’s, women’s, doubles, and mixed doubles categories. Spectators are welcome at these events.
