A personal history of the 'Wanaka Experience' by David Buckingham
Taken from "Time's Arrow: Memories of a Wayward Scientist" June 2003
Comment is appropriate here concerning 'The Wanaka Experience' weekend. This began as a 'fun' tennis tournament for a mixture of Dunedin and Wanaka over 40's, and is held annually towards the end of February on 6 private grass courts. It began (1992) as an off-shoot of the January Holiday Tournament run by the OTA, and was first suggested by Margaret Young and run by Murray Waterson and Sheryl Thorn.
Initially 6 teams of 12 players were involved (6 men, 6 women, per team), but following 1996 this was reduced to 4 teams so that each team played the other 3 over the weekend. Teams are chosen to be as even as possible, with no one player playing more than once with the same partner (doubles only). This takes a lot of organising. Following play on the Saturday everyone (including non-playing partners) are invited to Trevor Scott's for a social get-together followed by a dinner at a local restaurant. Once we went to the Cardrona Hotel, and on another occasion before dinner George Wallis had his Farm Manager drive us around Wanaka in his de-commissioned red 'London Bus'.
The concluding lunch and prize-giving on the Sunday afternoon is always held at Blennerhassett's 'Barn-Pinch Farm' property at which, for many years, Bill O'Brien held to account any individual on-court misdemeanor carried out during the weekend. Many stories can be told about the Wanaka Experience Weekend, and one early one that comes to mind involves Irene McIntyre who was staying at my house. After a late Saturday night she came into the kitchen on the Sunday morning dressed in her pyjamas only to find that a car had gone through the fence of the property opposite my house. Looking across from the kitchen window she was heard to exclaim "everything happened to me last night". All of us were left wondering what she had been up to. On another occasion, Lindsay Gordon scared the daylights out of Gerry and Diana Lonie (who were asleep in their campervan in my driveway) when, finding himself locked out of Margaret and Jim's house in Tenby street, came to my place well after midnight looking for a bed. On another occasion, this time on a Saturday morning, my long-term friend and neighbour from across the road. Mayford Dawson, came to tell me that I was wanted on the phone only to find me flat on my tummy in the front room (in tennis shorts with shirt off) being massaged by Corrine Gilkilson. Mayford promptly left without seeking a reply!
Early in the piece it was decided that excess monies gained from entry fees would be donated to the Wanaka Tennis Club, and in February 2001 my friend Roger Hall from our Cosy Dell days was invited back. He had played in the Wanaka Experience Weekend in its beginnings but now was living in Auckland. He gave a talk to a full house in the new Town Centre about 'being a playwright'. This raised some $1200.
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Courts used belonged to George and Jo Wallis (Mt. Barker), Roger Gardiner (Stone St.), Trevor Scott (Stone St.), Graeme Marsh (Beacon Point Rd.), Bruce Guthrie (Eely Point Rd.) and Ken Patterson (Kidson Lane). In 1994 Keith and Jo Barclay's grass court in Waimana Place replaced the Patterson's asphalt court. On occasions Joy Leslie's (Beacon Point Rd.), John and Jill Blennerhassett's (Barn Pinch Farn), and Lois Mill's (Mt. Aspiring Rd.) non-grass courts have been used.
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Reproduced here with kind consent from Wanaka Tennnis Club Past President, David Buckingham.
Initially 6 teams of 12 players were involved (6 men, 6 women, per team), but following 1996 this was reduced to 4 teams so that each team played the other 3 over the weekend. Teams are chosen to be as even as possible, with no one player playing more than once with the same partner (doubles only). This takes a lot of organising. Following play on the Saturday everyone (including non-playing partners) are invited to Trevor Scott's for a social get-together followed by a dinner at a local restaurant. Once we went to the Cardrona Hotel, and on another occasion before dinner George Wallis had his Farm Manager drive us around Wanaka in his de-commissioned red 'London Bus'.
The concluding lunch and prize-giving on the Sunday afternoon is always held at Blennerhassett's 'Barn-Pinch Farm' property at which, for many years, Bill O'Brien held to account any individual on-court misdemeanor carried out during the weekend. Many stories can be told about the Wanaka Experience Weekend, and one early one that comes to mind involves Irene McIntyre who was staying at my house. After a late Saturday night she came into the kitchen on the Sunday morning dressed in her pyjamas only to find that a car had gone through the fence of the property opposite my house. Looking across from the kitchen window she was heard to exclaim "everything happened to me last night". All of us were left wondering what she had been up to. On another occasion, Lindsay Gordon scared the daylights out of Gerry and Diana Lonie (who were asleep in their campervan in my driveway) when, finding himself locked out of Margaret and Jim's house in Tenby street, came to my place well after midnight looking for a bed. On another occasion, this time on a Saturday morning, my long-term friend and neighbour from across the road. Mayford Dawson, came to tell me that I was wanted on the phone only to find me flat on my tummy in the front room (in tennis shorts with shirt off) being massaged by Corrine Gilkilson. Mayford promptly left without seeking a reply!
Early in the piece it was decided that excess monies gained from entry fees would be donated to the Wanaka Tennis Club, and in February 2001 my friend Roger Hall from our Cosy Dell days was invited back. He had played in the Wanaka Experience Weekend in its beginnings but now was living in Auckland. He gave a talk to a full house in the new Town Centre about 'being a playwright'. This raised some $1200.
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Courts used belonged to George and Jo Wallis (Mt. Barker), Roger Gardiner (Stone St.), Trevor Scott (Stone St.), Graeme Marsh (Beacon Point Rd.), Bruce Guthrie (Eely Point Rd.) and Ken Patterson (Kidson Lane). In 1994 Keith and Jo Barclay's grass court in Waimana Place replaced the Patterson's asphalt court. On occasions Joy Leslie's (Beacon Point Rd.), John and Jill Blennerhassett's (Barn Pinch Farn), and Lois Mill's (Mt. Aspiring Rd.) non-grass courts have been used.
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Reproduced here with kind consent from Wanaka Tennnis Club Past President, David Buckingham.
