OUR MISSION:
To bring players together, be passionate about player development, creating player pathways to improve participation in tennis competitions and tournaments and ensuring and contributing to local sporting infrastructure and facilities for our sport!
OUR VISION:
To adapt to changing play and priorities in tennis and continue to develop a community network, assist the community, centres and coaches across the district to improve participation in tennis and provide opportunities for player development.
The 8 courts and clubhouse at our headquarters in Panania are the centre of our association. Competitions are run out of other centres as well.
CBTA has a long, proud history and began in the early 1920’s as Sydenham Bankstown Tennis, located at Canterbury Park, King Street, Ashbury. It was an extremely vibrant club, which had a membership of up to 3000. There were over 300 courts used in the area of the association, over 130 Thursday ladies teams and over 125 Saturday afternoon teams. A fire in the late 1950’s destroyed most of the clubhouse and all of the records. The clubhouse was rebuilt and the association continued to thrive for another 45 years in Canterbury, changing its name to Canterbury Bankstown Tennis Association Inc, when Marrickville Tennis Association was formed. Many times over the years there were suggestions to move the site from Canterbury and this became a matter of urgency when Canterbury Council wanted to re-negotiate the lease for the premises at Ashbury in the mid 1990’s. The lease figure was too high, considering the amount of money that also had to be spent in upgrading the courts. It was decided by the Council of Management to make the move to the site at Panania. As the majority of the players were residing around this area, this seemed to be an appropriate site. The existing top 2 courts (of the original nine) were configured so that a Clubhouse could be built. Grass was laid, gazebos were built and, after a total cost of well over $420,000, the complex is as you see it today. Although a lot of tennis courts in the area have gone, making way for housing, tennis is alive and well at Canterbury Bankstown. Our vibrant committee of volunteers who love the game of tennis are dedicated to promoting and expanding our association and re-claiming some of the former glory! We embrace change and are particularly good at trialing new competitions so that we meet the needs of the membership. We are particularly proud of our representation in the NSW Hardcourt Tennis Association, Interdistrict Competition. For a relatively small association, we have one of the biggest representations of any other district and achieve great successes! We look forward to many more successful years ahead. |
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