Warrnambool Indoor Tennis Centre play comes to end after 39 years

Tennis operations will wrap up on Friday, December 17 with owners Salvation Army Warrnambool ready to start work on the site.

Rollo has been there since day-dot and the centre highlighted her loyalty at the final edition of ladies competition on Monday.

"The great story about Glenys is once she heard the place was going to sell, she really made an effort to keep playing because she wanted to play to the end," Urquhart said.

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The iconic Mortlake Road site, which hosts seven courts, was sold in 2016.

"The freehold was sold probably five or six years ago and the initial plan was for the Salvos to start redeveloping the site within 12 months," Urquhart said.

"Five years on, we're still here. And finally they've submitted their plans to council and they've got approval, so they're ready to go. So pretty much they'll start work on the site in 2022."

Urquhart was grateful to offer indoor tennis for longer than first thought.

"That was a blessing to be able to continue to deliver tennis for another four or five years," he said of the lease.

Urquhart will continue his business, which currently has 130 youngsters participating in lessons and four coaches, elsewhere.

"I've spent the last two or three months researching and searching for a new venue to transfer the business," he said.

"It's mainly (continuing) the coaching part of the business. So it's all the kids' lessons and also the Cardio Tennis.

"So we're looking to shift that to another venue, of course everyone wants to continue, we don't want to cut them off. So we've got a lot of keen tennis players that use this facility.

"We want to facilitate that going forward and we're very close to getting a place for them to go to so I'm looking forward to that."

Cardio Tennis is a fun tennis fitness program and the centre has about 80 players involved.

Urquhart has been appreciating the positives as the group reflected on its long stint at Mortlake Road.

"I suppose the way I look at it is we've been so blessed to have this facility for 40 years in Warrnambool," he said.

"And there are a lot of towns around Australia which would love to have a facility like this but have never had one and probably will never get one.

"It's sad in a way but it's been a real privilege to be able to have this facility and provide tennis opportunities."

The owner-manager has been around for more than half the journey.

He and Ken Barton, who left the business about a decade ago, took over WITC in 1998.

They were both school teachers and coached part-time at Warrnambool's Supergrasse Tennis Centre.

"Then the opportunity came up, the current owners of this business (Peter Haylock and Kevin Chiller) at the indoor tennis centre were selling and we took the plunge," Urquhart said.

"And it was a big decision because both of us left teaching and went into tennis full-time.

"This is a very busy place that required a lot of work.

"I think Ken took the plunge first and maybe six or 12 months later I came into the business as well."

Urquhart's wife Lisa has also been a huge part of the business across a quarter of a century.

Not only was she manager of competitions but she stepped up when Urquhart was managing Tennis Australia's (TA) Cardio Tennis and Hot Shots national programs from Melbourne.

"I spent six or seven years at TA and during that time Lisa was basically running the business," he said. "She was obviously very heavily involved and did a great job."

As reported in The Standard, Ian and Elaine Wright founded WITC and the centre was officially opened in November 1982. They had the centre for 12 years.

"As a result of them taking that risk we had the benefit of 40 years of the facility which is just fantastic," Urquhart said.

"It's been a real asset for the town and tennis has been quite strong in this town as a result of the facility being here."

Urquhart said the friendships were a highlight of the past 24 years.

"You've got 600 to 800 people coming through each week, doing lessons or playing competition, playing tournaments or doing events here," he said.

"The friendships you develop with the regular visits from these people each week is just fantastic."

Seeing past staff go on to run their own tennis businesses has also brought Urquhart joy.

"So there's Josh Hay who used to do lessons and then he became a coach here," he said.

"Now he's running his own business outside of the tennis centre, which is fantastic and gives me a real sense of pride that we've been able to train Josh to the point where he can go and run his own business."

Urquhart said the centre had employed more than 130 staff since he started there and he fondly remembers when business was booming through the mid-90s to early 2000s.

"In its peak, this facility would have seen maybe upwards of 1200 people come through a week," he said.

"At the moment, we're probably around the 700 to 800 mark so there's not as many staff.

"But I reflect on how busy it was back then and the amount of staff and resources required to run this place were enormous but it's obviously not as big now.

"That brings back great memories when this place was really buzzing."

So what does the experienced owner-manager think of the current state of the sport?

"Participation in tennis is changing a little bit in that less people are tending to do competition now," he said.

"And they're more doing Cardio Tennis, one-hour sessions where they can come in and out.

"So it's not as broadly busy, you get intensities of busy.

"So you might get two or three hours where you're flat out.

"And then obviously, you might have had a competition after that but that has actually waned over the years.

"And that's reflected across the country with tennis and a lot of sports."

While most of the competitions have finished, the men's finals are on Monday night for anyone wanting to see pennant one last time.

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