The Selwyn evening competitions started in the second week of October. If you live in Rolleston or Lincoln and haven't found a team yet, you're a bit late. Not shut out.
Most of the adult tennis out here is the Ellesmere midweek competition. It's the biggest senior competition in Ellesmere, around 100 teams across Tuesday and Thursday nights. Doubles only, three 30-minute matches each, 6.30 to 8pm. The divisions go all the way down to beginners and social players, so you don't need to be good. You do need to drive. The draw moves round the district, so it might be Rolleston one week and Southbridge the next.
Rolleston. Registrations for this season have closed. Normally the club puts you in a team of four or five by ability, or you can enter your own, and every team gets new balls each week. The season breaks in mid-December and picks up again around the end of January, so it's worth emailing rollestontennis@gmail.com now to ask whether a team needs a reserve, or to get in for the second half.
Prebbleton has the one you can play without joining. Its Monday twilight is teams of four playing three 20-minute doubles at the club, starting 6.15 or 7.15pm. It works out at $7 a player a night, paid per team for the term, and this term started 12 October and runs eight weeks. They take fill-ins too, so even without a team it's worth emailing prebbletontennis@gmail.com.
West Melton has a social membership that covers its Thursday twilight competition, with an A grade or a more social B grade, 6.30 to 8pm at clubs around Malvern.
Lincoln plays the Tuesday and Thursday midweek too, and has a Wednesday morning group from 9.30. It's historically been women, men are welcome, and the host team does lunch afterwards.
Why it matters
All of this is a fixed night with a fixed team. Great if Tuesday always works for you. Less great if you just want a hit on a Saturday morning with someone nearby at your level who's free too.
Hitter is for that second kind of tennis.
More at hitter.nz.
