Arrowtown residents first in NZ to install synthetic clay tennis court

An Arrowtown family has made a notable addition to their property recently, after installing New Zealand's first private synthetic clay tennis court.

Mike Davies chose ClayTurf for the tennis court at his family home, which was developed by sports surfaces company, TigerTurf. The decision followed a recommendation from Australian ex grand slam winner and personal friend, Ash Cooper. Cooper suggested installing a clay surface, saying it lends particular support to players who are developing their skills on the court.

"We have 3 children, who are all budding tennis enthusiasts," said Davies. "Ash advised us to install a clay surface as it was the best surface to learn and develop on, compared with other surfaces which are a lot harder on the developing bodies of teenagers."

After doing a bit of research, Davies discovered that the New Zealand climate is extremely hard on real clay, and its maintenance demands are grueling. He was thrilled to discover an alternative, which was recently developed by TigerTurf in consultation with Tennis NZ and Australian Tennis great, Mark Edmondson.

"We were delighted to see that TigerTurf offered a synthetic clay surface here in New Zealand," said Davies.

TigerTurf tennis specialist, Stephen Holmes adds, "For young players, clay is more forgiving on the body in addition to developing great foundational skills. In order to develop elite tennis talent, players have to have training access to clay courts. The majority of the world's top players of today are learning their tennis on clay. ClayTurf was designed to provide a high performance, low maintenance synthetic surface that plays like clay."

Davies and his children are impressed with the ClayTurf court so far.

"We have only had the court down for a month,” said Davies, "but we are already impressed by what it has to offer. Truth will be told when Ash visits in February and will hopefully get a thrashing!” he said.

Project Manager Julian Kinnaird, says the Davies' development involved a major excavation and leveling component to prepare the foundation prior to the new playing surface being laid but the finished result was exactly what the Davies had hoped for.

"Because there was a hill directly behind the property, about 3000 cubic metres of soil and rock was excavated,” said Kinnaird, "The area was then leveled, boxed up and a 100mm concrete slab poured on to complete the foundation on which the Clay Turf surface could be built.”

Natural clay surfaces, which are predominantly found in Europe, allow a higher, slower bounce than other synthetic surfaces, enabling the player more time to get to the ball and execute their shot, while also allowing them to slide across the court. Holmes says the ClayTurf synthetic clay is hitting the mark when it comes to offering clay court characteristics.

"Through the trials we completed during development of ClayTurf at the Vodafone Tennis Park, feedback from top national players and coaches was that ClayTurf was offering the same bounce characteristics along with the ability to slide in to the shot,” said Holmes.

The landscape and development concepts for the project were created by Paddy Baxter, principal of Baxter Design Group of Queenstown.

TigerTurf previously laid New Zealand's first-ever synthetic ClayTurf surfaces at the New Zealand Tennis courts at the Vodafone Tennis Park in Glen Innes, Auckland in 2006.