Craig Farrar reflects on the road to becoming a Wodonga Tennis Centre life member

It all started with his parents, Ken and Louise.

"When we moved to Wodonga I was in grade four and we were living in a caravan park," he said.

"Before we even found a house, mum had joined up to the tennis centre and dad had joined the Wodonga Cricket Club at the same time.

"They've always been community minded sport people.

"It was always in my DNA, because that's what my family does."

Farrar recalls helping out around the courts from the age of 16 and has since gone on to be on the committee as the night tennis coordinator, secretary, vice president and is currently in his sixth term as president after taking on the role again last year.

Just months ago he was recognised as a life member of the centre.

While the pandemic has been the biggest hurdle the club has faced, Farrar has seen them overcome several other obstacles.

"We used to be run by four different clubs as a centre," he said.

"The club system disappeared, and with that change we also saw afternoon work being allowed on weekends, which severely impacted our junior ranks.

"Kids decided they could work in the afternoon and we dropped around 300 members over a two-year period in the early 90s.

"Other sports also had an impact."

He's also seen the club have to change with the times in terms of when members prefer to get their fix.

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"There's been a shift away from traditional Saturday afternoon pennant being the largest part of the tennis week," Farrar said.

"But we've seen the rise of the Tuesday and Thursday night twilight competitions.

"We've had up to 19 teams play on a Tuesday night, and that's become what our Saturday pennant was."

Farrar's favourite thing about the game is that it's a sport for all ages, and families.

"My son (Patrick) has just started playing and he said to me, 'dad, one day I want to play in your team," he said.

"That makes me pretty proud as a dad, but also as a president of the tennis centre, that kids want to play with their parents."

He admitted he was chuffed to receive his life membership from tennis legends Todd Woodbridge and John Fitzgerald.

"There's only 10 life members at Wodonga and it's pretty amazing to be recognised," he said.

Farrar's goal is to see the club reach its pre-pandemic membership numbers.

"I'd just encourage people to start playing tennis again, even if you haven't for 20 years," he said.

"It's like riding a bike, you'll get it back."

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