The New Zealand Championships was a combined men's and women's tennis tournament founded in 1885 in Napier, New Zealand also known as the New Zealand National Lawn Tennis Championships or the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association Championships . The championships were organised by Tennis New Zealand , and played in various locations during its run that ended in 2020.
16-601: In December 1886, the first New Zealand Championships were held at Farndon Park , in the small town of Clive , near Napier . The championships were organised by the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association , which was formed in Napier. The championships were held in numerous locations throughout the course of their history. The championships were not held from 1915 to 1918 due to World War I and also from 1940 to 1945 during World War II . Although
32-627: Is a public park in Clive , Hawke's Bay , New Zealand . It hosts many sporting events, including swimming, tennis, rugby union, and rowing on the adjacent Clive River . It was formerly also a cricket ground. The eight-hectare (20-acre) reserve was purchased by the colonial government in 1870 from its Māori owners with the intention of developing it as a botanical gardens. Hawke's Bay played four first-class cricket matches at Farndon Park. Three of those came in 1892, against Taranaki , Wellington and Otago . The fourth came four years later when
48-1089: The Hawke's Bay region of New Zealand, played first-class cricket between 1883–84 and 1920–21, and competed in the Plunket Shield in the 1914–15 and 1920–21 seasons. The side has continued to appear in minor cricket and now competes in the Hawke Cup competition, where it has been the dominant team from 2020 to 2024. In their first match at first-class level, against Wellington at the Basin Reserve in February 1884, Hawke's Bay were dismissed for just 32 in their second innings thanks to Joseph Firth 's remarkable return of 8 for 13 from 13 four-ball overs. In their next match, in 1884–85, they beat Wellington at Napier Recreation Ground by eight wickets. They lost their next three matches, all against Wellington, before trouncing Taranaki in two matches in 1891–92. In
64-612: The Plunket Shield . In the 1920s Hawke's Bay played several overseas teams in non-first-class matches, including Australia , the MCC , New South Wales , Queensland and the Melbourne Cricket Club , all at Nelson Park . Hawke's Bay began competing in the Hawke Cup in the 1922–23 season. They have won the Hawke Cup 12 times. Their first victory was in 1946–47. They have dominated the competition in recent years, holding
80-775: The BP New Zealand Championships. From 1988 to 1992 the BP National Championships was a Grand Prix/ATP level event and from 1993-95 was part of the challenger circuit. The New Zealand national championships no longer had BP sponsorship from 1988 and was a national event won by New Zealand players only. This event should not be confused with the New Zealand Open Championships event that was first played in Auckland in 1969 and exclusively in that city until 1979 that
96-662: The best match figures were 13 for 33 (7 for 20 and 6 for 13) by Charles Smith in the second match against Taranaki in 1891–92. Along with Southland , Hawke's Bay lost their first-class status after the 1920–21 season, leaving just four first-class teams in New Zealand: Auckland , Canterbury, Otago and Wellington . In reorganising domestic first-class cricket, the New Zealand Cricket Council chose only those teams that could afford to travel to take part in an annual round robin tournament for
112-777: The event was held permanently in Wellington. The event was first known as the New Zealand National Lawn Tennis Championships or the New Zealand Lawn Tennis Association Championships. It was later shortened to just New Zealand Championships and historically sometimes referred to as the New Zealand Senior Championships. From 1973 to 1987 the tournament was sponsored by the oil company BP and was branded as
128-482: The first of these matches they dismissed Taranaki for 70 and 39 and the game was over in one day. In the second match Hawke's Bay made 128 then dismissed Taranaki for 35 and 29. Hawke's Bay's matches remained low-scoring affairs. They did not reach a total of 200 until their 17th match in 1895–96, when they made 207 against Wellington in a drawn match. Their first individual century came in 1897–98, when Hugh Lusk made 119 against Canterbury . However, low scores were
144-550: The majority of the winners of the event were from New Zealand, a number of players from overseas also won the title, including Grand Slam singles winners Bill Tilden , Fred Perry , Vivian McGrath and John Bromwich . New Zealand's multiple Grand Slam singles winner Anthony Wilding also won the New Zealand championships title. Before 1922 the Australasian championships were held in New Zealand on two occasions, but this
160-595: The norm in New Zealand at the time: in the eight first-class matches in New Zealand in the 1897–98 season, only two centuries were scored, Lusk's and one by another Hawke's Bay batsman, Jack Wolstenholme . Hawke's Bay played 53 first-class matches, for 11 wins, 35 losses and seven draws. Twenty-four of those matches were against their neighbours, Wellington; Hawke's Bay won six of these and lost 14. They lost both their Plunket Shield matches (against Canterbury in 1914–15 and Auckland in 1920–21) by an innings. Hugh Lusk made three of Hawke's Bay's five first-class centuries. He
176-757: The title from February 2020 to November 2022, and from November 2023 through to the end of the 2023–24 season undefeated. In 1950–51 the Central Districts cricket team began competing at first-class level in the Plunket Shield. Tom Reaney from Hawke's Bay was in Central Districts' inaugural Plunket Shield team in December 1950. The Hawke's Bay Cricket Association is one of Central Districts' eight constituent associations. The eight associations compete against each other annually for
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#1732791034580192-519: The touring Queensland side visited. The Otago Witness reporter in 1892 described the ground as "a perfect likeness of a good English private ground". Cricket is no longer played at the park. Farndon Park was the venue for the first New Zealand Tennis Championships , held in December 1885. 39°34′51.75″S 176°54′50.28″E / 39.5810417°S 176.9139667°E / -39.5810417; 176.9139667 Hawke%27s Bay cricket team The Hawke's Bay cricket team , representing
208-440: Was a combined event until 1981, and is directly descended from the both ATP Auckland Open and WTA Auckland Open . This tournament for all of its history was regarded as a national championships, and should not be confused with the men's BP National Championships tournament that was titled as such from 1988 to 1992 was also a different roll of winners. Farndon Park Farndon Park , also known as Farndon Park Domain ,
224-606: Was a separate tournament from the New Zealand championships. From 1922 onwards the Australasian Championships were no longer held at New Zealand or Perth and the event changed its name to the Australian Championships in 1927. From 1973 to 1987 the event was sponsored by the oil company BP and was known as the BP New Zealand Championships. From 1988 the event was a New Zealand national event and continued to be held through till 2020 when it
240-635: Was by far Hawke's Bay's outstanding batsman: in 28 matches he scored 1395 runs at an average of 28.46, and also took 40 wickets at 22.85, as well as captaining the side in most of his matches and representing New Zealand . The highest first-class score for Hawke's Bay was 134 against Wellington in 1914–15 by Jack Board , the English Test player who coached in Hawke's Bay for several seasons before World War I . The best innings bowling figures were 9 for 47 by Tom Dent against Wellington in 1900–01, and
256-593: Was discontinued. The tournament was played almost exclusively on grass courts from its inception until 1988 when it switched to hard courts . The winner of the first men's singles title was Percival Fenwick, and the ladies singles was won by Sarah Lance. The final winner of the men's singles title was Finn Tearney and the women's singles was won by Paige Hourigan . The towns where the championships were held included Auckland , Christchurch , Dunedin , Hastings , Mount Eden , Miramar , Napier , Nelson , New Plymouth , Palmerston , Timaru and Wellington . From 1979
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