Tennis is an extremely popular participation sport, with 320,000 people in New Zealand playing singles and doubles, and numbers split fairly evenly between the sexes. While a large percentage just go out and have a hit with their friends, almost 50,000 people belong to clubs, which are spread the length and breadth of the country. These range from tiny rural clubs that use school courts to huge city organisations that boast a range of top-notch facilities. Contact details are available both from the governing body, Tennis New Zealand (www.tennisnz.com, 09 528 5428), or from your regional association.

Each region has dozens of clubs (the combined Auckland regions have about 75) and there’ll be a range of competitions on offer, from juniors to midweek ladies and from premier leagues to competitions for veterans. Not every club will have a team in every competition, so, to find out if a club suits your needs and abilities, just pop along there day or evening. Social tennis is popular and most clubs offer some form of coaching, whether it’s paid lessons with a tennis pro or a voluntary helping hand from an experienced club member.

If you don’t want to join a club, you can often use school or community courts for little or no charge. Ask at the school or the council. Some clubs hire out their courts, but members of the public will pay a higher rate than club members and, even if a club’s courts can be easily accessed, it doesn’t mean anyone can just turn up and play. You should check first to see if they are available for public use. Small clubs will often have honesty boxes for casual players.