Gaitz set to reopen at Bondi Bowling Club
NINE months after being forced out of courts in Wellington Street, Bondi, Brian Gaitz is set to open a new tennis centre.
NINE months after being forced out of courts in Wellington Street, Bondi, Brian Gaitz is set to open a new tennis centre.
Gaitz had been the tennis professional at Wellington Street for a number of years before Maccabi NSW, which owns the land, moved back to the site last year.
The tennis operator now plans to begin building three new clay courts at the Bondi Bowling Club on Warners Avenue in the next month.
“These will be the only clay courts in the Eastern Suburbs, and I believe the only new tennis courts that have been recently built in the Eastern Suburbs,” Gaitz said.
He said that Australia needs more clay courts.
“Seventy per cent of the tournaments throughout the world are on clay, but there are less than 20 clay courts in NSW.
“A lot of the feedback I have received so far has been about the clay courts because it is easier on the body, which makes it easier for kids to learn the game.”
The move will also ensure the future viability of the Bondi Bowling Club, which held talks with the Hakoah Club last year about possibly being taken over.
One of the club’s three bowling greens will be given to Gaitz to build the three new courts on.
“We have been trying to work out the best solution for the club over the last five or six years because we have been on a bit of a slide financially,” Bondi Bowling Club president John Wright said.
“We didn’t want to resort to poker machines or cranking up the sales of alcohol, and so we are proud of the fact that we think we can keep the club going, which is a value to the community, with the addition of the tennis courts.”
He said that Gaitz has the equivalent of life tenure as long as the club remains on site.
“We have a lease through Crown lands, and so we aren’t able to lease the site out to Brian because the government could, at any time, take the land back. But as long as we are here then Brian has the rights of the tennis courts, and we intend on having the club here in another 100 years.”
The courts are expected to be in operation by July.
JOSHUA LEVI
Brian Gaitz at the Bondi Bowling Club, where he will build three new clay tennis courts.
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