EARLY PREPARATIONS TO HAVE PARK AT BEST

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30559, 30 September 1964, Page 13

EARLY PREPARATIONS TO HAVE PARK AT BEST

/CANTERBURY tennis has an important season ahead of it when it is the province’s three-yearly turn to hold the national championships. It is not surprising that already much thought and effort are being put into the preparation of New Zealand’s finest tennis park.

A visit to Wilding Park shows that the ravages of winter are quickly disappearing, that maintenance work is in full swing. The park should be looking its most attractive when the best of New Zealand’s players attend the Canterbury championships and the national championships. Directing the work is the Canterbury Lawn Tennis Association’s Wilding Park committee headed by Mr E. Biddle as chairman. On the job at the park are the groundsman (Mr J. Manhire) and the assistant groundsman (Mr T. Paterson). Casual labour is used when needed. The grass courts had their usual topdressing at the end of last season and just before the winter with Waikari soil and the coarse grass let into worn baselines has grown again strongly. Now the main . problem stems from the remarkable dryness which leads to patchiness. The courts have

already been watered, the earliest ever for a season. There are usually 26 grass courts at the park, the two centre courts, one row of six and two rows of nine. However, this year’s rotation has reduced the two back rows to eight each. Apart from court care there is an exacting task at the park in the maintenance of facilities. During the winter an attractive lounge extension to the pavilion was opened and it will soon be the job of a team of voluntary labourers to paint the pavilion. The face of the memorial stand will also be painted and plans are afoot for the construction of a lavatory block behind that stand. Work on the wire netting divisions between courts has, proceeded throughout the winter and deteriorating stand seats have been repaired. Wilding Park has attractive gardens and shrubs and those should look their best in the middle of the season.