Charles Gray and Tennis

Charles Gray had a lifelong interest in tennis which began late in 1901 when Horokiwi residents decided to form a tennis club and a site offered by Gray was accepted to build courts on. (Evening Post, 5 November 1901, p4) Gray was elected Hon. Secretary of the Horokiwi Valley Tennis Club. Within six months residents and supporters had excavated over 1,000 cartloads of soil, formed, asphalted and fenced the courts as well as erected a club house. (Evening Post, 5 July 1902, p 6)

On 23 July 1902 over 200 people attended the formal opening by Mrs W. H. Field in the absence of her husband, the member of parliament for the district. The Pāuatahanui Brass Band played throughout the day and the championship match was won by a pair from the Brougham Hill Club, one of six visiting clubs. Mrs Field presented the winners with “a very pretty gold brooch and a handsome silver-mounted ebony walking stick”. (New Zealand Mail, 30 July 1902, p33)

That evening over a hundred couples attended a celebratory ball and danced until almost daylight. The hall was decorated with flags, ferns and the club colours of black and amber. Gray and his hard-working committee were congratulated by the visitors. The next morning visitors from town were driven around the harbour to Paremata Railway Station, “the drive along the sea-side being most refreshing and enjoyable.” A newspaper reported that “Mr C. Gray, hon, sec., with his able and energetic committee arranged and carried the gathering out to perfection.” (New Zealand Times, 2 August 1902, p5)

Although not overly successful on the courts, members of the Horokiwi Valley Tennis Club were renowned for their hospitality towards visiting club members. Horokiwi members travelled to other clubs as part of the Wellington Provincial competition. Horokiwi Valley Tennis Club members showed their appreciation of the work Gray had done for the club by making him a “handsome presentation” in June 1903. (Evening Post, 1 July 1903, p5) A suggestion at a meeting of the Shield Committee of the Lawn Tennis Association to group the country clubs of Levin, Otaki, Pāuatahanui, Horokiwi, Judgeford, and Khandallah for a competition was made by Gray. When this was reported in the Evening Post the article concluded with “The idea originated with Mr. C. Gray, secretary of the Horokiwi Club, who has always been an earnest worker for the sport.” (Evening Post, 24 October 1903, p15)

By early 1904 the standard of play in the Horokiwi Club had improved to the extent that a match between Horokiwi and Taita Club on New Year’s Day had games that “were hotly contested from start to finish, the result being in doubt right up to the last stroke of the last game.” (Evening Post, 4 January 1904, p6) Taita won by 7 games to 6 with Charles Gray winning a doubles game. That year Gray played in ten tennis matches that were reported in newspapers. He also found time to be the secretary of the Pāuatahanui Public Hall Association, a role he had taken up in 1898, and to oversee the calling of tenders to build the hall. The hall was completed in time for the Horokiwi Valley Tennis Club’s annual ball when almost 200 guests danced to music by Mr. Platt’s string band. The ball was judged the most successful ever held in the valley at that time. “This success was mainly due to the untiring efforts of the committee and the hon. secretary (Mr. C. Gray).” (Evening Post, 20 October 1904, p5)

Gray had less time for tennis following his marriage in 1906 and after leasing land at Pukerua in 1907. “Huka” the Evening Post tennis reporter had Charles Gray tipped to win the singles handicap at the Brougham Hill Tennis Club Easter Tournament in 1908 but he lost after a close game in the first round. In July 1910 the “popular hon. secretary (C. Gray) of the Horokiwi Club” left aboard the Union Steam Ship Company’s Mokoia on a voyage to Rarotonga and Papeete for the benefit of his health. His many tennis friends wished him a good trip and a speedy return to health. Gray arrived back in Wellington on 28 July. (Evening Post, 9 July 1910, p14)

In 1921 when Gray was firmly established at Pukerua he organised a group of local tennis enthusiasts calling themselves the “Pukerua Club” to play a friendly match at Paekākāriki. The success of this encounter lead to Gray calling a meeting where the Pukerua Bay Tennis Club was formed with 30 members. Residents pitched in to build tennis courts on Gray’s land near Pa Road and what is now Highway 59. Gray leased the land to the Club for £1 per year. (Evening Post, 14 October 1922, p14)

In October 1922 the courts were officially opened in front of 200 people by Mr W. H. Field M.P., patron of the Club. The site was regarded as one of the best in Pukerua as it included a valley with native trees and ferns. Gray’s generosity was noted in a newspaper report of the event which went on to say, “He has always been a tennis enthusiast, and if there were more like him it would be better for the sport.” (Evening Post, 14 October 1922, p14) The first official match of the newly formed Club was a win against Plimmerton with Gray winning his doubles match but losing his mixed doubles. Four days before New Year’s Day 1922 members began constructing a 28ft x 24ft hall which was completed by New Year’s Day, something of a record. The dance that night was the first of many social occasions in the Tennis Club Hall which was then the social centre of Pukerua. In 1926 Gray presented a trophy to the Club and in 1928 he loaned the Club, at bank rates, the sum needed to complete an extension to the hall which had become too small for the size of the gatherings held there. He also supervised the extension work. (Pukerua Bay Tennis Club. R3122787. Archives New Zealand Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga) Gray was Captain of the Pukerua Bay Tennis Club until 1930.

Pukerua Bay Tennis Club activity decreased after the early 1930s and in 1938 the courts were demolished and the hall moved to make way for Centennial Highway. The demolition of the courts and loss of land became part of the compensation claim that Charles Gray pursued for years and was finally settled only a few months before his death. Included in the settlement was the construction of the current Pukerua Bay Tennis Courts on the corner of Teihana Road and Rawhiti Road.

By Ashley Blair