The Cobram Lawn Tennis Club has offered its facility to help the Goulburn Murray Lawn Tennis Association get under way for 2022.
With the Shepparton Lawn Tennis Club staring at the possibility of a prolonged clean-up and recovery effort due to the recent flood event, Cobram, Yarrawonga and Tatura all offered their courts to ensure games can be played.
Sitting next to the Goulburn River, 21 of Shepparton Lawn’s 26 grass tennis courts are still inundated with floodwater.
Shepparton Lawn Tennis Club secretary Jarrod Bingham said with the club facilities now accessible after water receded around Victoria Park Lake, the club had put significant effort into pumping water off three of its main courts, as well as two others closer to the flood levee.
“It’s pretty challenging at the moment, naturally, through the river level dropping and work on our end with drainage and small pumps, we’ve been able to get water off our front three courts and two up near the levee bank,” Bingham said.
“We’re getting pretty desperate to get water off the courts, we’re worried about long-term impacts, our front three will recover fairly well with water off them, but we’re not sure about the others now that water has been there for a considerable amount of time.”
Shepparton Lawn’s upcoming tennis tournaments, and how the club will navigate the Goulburn Murray Lawn Tennis Association and Shepparton District Junior Tennis Association seasons, remain up in the air.
“We’re starting to worry about our new year tournaments, we’re hopeful that some of the courts are playable by January so that the club can get players in, but it’s also something that benefits the town,” Bingham said.
“It starts to have implications further down the line; we’ll be in discussions with leagues as to how we navigate the season — if we can get water off some courts they will be playable, but we may need to talk to associations into moving home matches in the short term.”
Bingham thanked the wider tennis community for its show of support, after a number of clubs had offered up their facilities.
“We’ve had support from clubs in the GMLTA that have offered up the use of their courts in the short term — Yarrawonga, Cobram and Tatura have offered, and even beyond that,” he said.
“A huge amount of people have reached out and expressed concern and support.”