Ngā Puna Wai
18 courts- Senior Tennis ×18 concrete · Senior
Out & about · the court record
The tennis courts of Christchurch
160 courts on 55 named grounds across 42 suburbs, every one the council's recreation register draws, mapped and filed by suburb. About thirty you can just walk onto. Someone to hit with: hitter.nz, the Christchurch-built partner app.
- Courts on the record
- 160 55 grounds, 42 suburbs
- Grass courts
- 13 the rare surface, red on the map
- Affiliated clubs
- 20 4,398 members
- First championship
- 1882 Lancaster Park grass
Where you can actually play
~30
Walk on, free
Public-use grounds: Hagley Park North's five courts off the Armagh Street car park, Avondale and Avonhead parks, Spencer Park, the peninsula domains. Free outside club booking times; a community court also runs at 136 Shaw Ave, New Brighton, net up in summer.
2
Book by the hour
Wilding Park, Woodham Road, the national centre, six indoor plus eighteen outdoor courts, and Ngā Puna Wai's twelve acrylic courts in Wigram (daylight only, no lights). Both book through Pay2Play.
20
Join a club
The affiliated clubs: members' courts mostly, but the national Love Tennis open day in September opens them free, and several take casuals through Tennis NZ's Book a Court app.
Find someone to hit with
Courts are easy. A partner is the hard part.
Hitter is a Christchurch-built app for exactly this: see who's free near you, matched beginner to pro, request a hit and lock in a time without the group-chat chaos. Its own court map files 73 venues in the city, more than four hundred across New Zealand, and the directory reads on the web without the app.
Find a partner on hitter.nz
Its court map
Wilding Park on Hitter
An independent project made in Christchurch, free to join, opening here first. Court booking is on its roadmap, not live. Not a chch.live service.
Every ground, by suburb 55 grounds
Surface
Suburb
Hillmorton 1 ground · 18 courts
Merivale 2 grounds · 11 courts
Burnside 1 ground · 10 courts
Burnside Park
10 courts- Tennis Court ×10 asphalt · Intermediate
Richmond 1 ground · 9 courts
Richmond Park
9 courts- Tennis Court ×9 asphalt · Intermediate
Burwood 2 grounds · 8 courts
Bishopdale 1 ground · 6 courts
Bishopdale Park
6 courts- Tennis Court ×6 asphalt · Intermediate
Redwood 1 ground · 6 courts
Redwood Park
6 courts- Tennis Court ×6 asphalt · Intermediate
Islington 1 ground · 5 courts
Hornby Domain
5 courts- Tennis Court ×2 asphalt · Intermediate
- Tennis Court ×2 unknown · Intermediate
- Tennis Practise Surface asphalt · Senior · out of service
South New Brighton 1 ground · 5 courts
South New Brighton Park
5 courts- Tennis Court ×5 sand astroturf · Intermediate
Yaldhurst 2 grounds · 5 courts
Halswell 5 grounds · 5 courts
Stallion Reserve
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
Six Silvers Reserve
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
Forgan Reserve
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
The Oaks Park
1 court- Tennis asphalt · Training
Halswell Domain
1 court- Tennis Court asphalt · Junior
Beckenham 1 ground · 4 courts
Beckenham Park
4 courts- Tennis Court ×4 sand astroturf · Intermediate
Marshland 1 ground · 4 courts
Marshland Domain
4 courts- Tennis Court ×4 asphalt · Intermediate
New Brighton 1 ground · 4 courts
Rawhiti Domain
4 courts- Tennis Court ×4 asphalt · Intermediate
Spreydon 1 ground · 4 courts
Barrington Park
4 courts- Tennis Court ×4 asphalt · Intermediate
Parklands 2 grounds · 4 courts
Little River 2 grounds · 4 courts
Akaroa 1 ground · 3 courts
Akaroa Recreation Ground
3 courts- Tennis Court ×2 unknown · Intermediate
- Tennis Court 1 asphalt · Intermediate
Ilam 1 ground · 3 courts
Upper Riccarton Domain
3 courts- Tennis Court ×3 asphalt · Intermediate · out of service
Ouruhia 1 ground · 3 courts
Ouruhia Reserve
3 courts- Tennis Court ×3 asphalt · Intermediate
Pigeon Bay 1 ground · 3 courts
Unnamed ground
3 courts- Tennis Court ×3 asphalt · Intermediate
Mount Pleasant 2 grounds · 3 courts
Templeton 2 grounds · 3 courts
Christchurch Central 1 ground · 2 courts
Hagley Park North
2 courts- Tennis Court unknown · Intermediate
- Tennis asphalt · Training
Diamond Harbour 1 ground · 2 courts
Kirk Park
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 unknown · Intermediate
Governors Bay 1 ground · 2 courts
Cholmondeley Reserve
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 unknown · Intermediate
Heathcote Valley 1 ground · 2 courts
Heathcote Domain
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 asphalt · Senior · out of service
Le Bons Bay 1 ground · 2 courts
Le Bons Bay Domain
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 asphalt · Intermediate
Okains Bay 1 ground · 2 courts
Little Akaloa Domain
2 courts- Tennis Court 2 unknown · Intermediate
- Tennis Court 1 asphalt · Intermediate
Phillipstown 1 ground · 2 courts
Linwood Park
2 courts- Tennis ×2 asphalt · Recreational
Somerfield 1 ground · 2 courts
Centennial Park
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 unknown · Intermediate
Wainui 1 ground · 2 courts
Wainui Domain
2 courts- Tennis Court ×2 asphalt · Intermediate
Spencerville 2 grounds · 2 courts
Wigram 2 grounds · 2 courts
Avondale 1 ground · 1 court
Avondale Park
1 court- Tennis Court 1 asphalt · Intermediate
Avonhead 1 ground · 1 court
Avonhead Park
1 court- Tennis Court asphalt · Intermediate
Brooklands 1 ground · 1 court
Brooklands Domain
1 court- Tennis Court 1 asphalt · Intermediate
Cashmere 1 ground · 1 court
Cashmere Valley Reserve
1 court- Tennis Practise Surface asphalt · Senior
Fendalton 1 ground · 1 court
Jeffreys Reserve
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
Hillsborough 1 ground · 1 court
Hillsborough Park
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
Westmorland 1 ground · 1 court
Francis Reserve
1 court- Tennis Court 1 unknown · Intermediate
Woolston 1 ground · 1 court
Woolston Park
1 court- Tennis Court asphalt · Intermediate
From the council's recreation asset register, the SportArea polygons, joined to suburbs by the court's own pin. A court the register says is gone keeps its row, drawn hollow.
The suburbs they cluster in
…and 28 more suburbs with a court or two, every one is in the roll above.
The surfaces
asphalt
93
unknown
24
concrete
18
grass
13
sand astroturf
12
The register's own surface words, normalised, it writes "Ashphalt". Surface is what the asset file claims, not a promise about today's bounce.
The clubs: Tennis Canterbury's roll 4,398 members, 2023–24
Twenty affiliated clubs, ranked by the members the society counted in its 2023–24 table. Beyond the city the Ellesmere, Malvern, Mid Canterbury and North Canterbury sub-associations field another 1,405 players.
Three more affiliated memberships play without a fixed ground, Christchurch Tongan, Filipino Aces and Canterbury Tennis Seniors. Also in the record but off the affiliation table:
- North Beach Tennis Club New Brighton · 34 Palmers Rd
- St Martins Valley Tennis Club Hillsborough · 14 Hillsborough Tce
Tennis Canterbury itself runs interclub, tournaments and junior programmes from Wilding Park, the centre's own page holds the address and the phone.
Back then
- 1880Frederick Wilding co-buys Lancaster Park.
- 1882Canterbury's first championship, on Lancaster Park's grass: Frederick Wilding wins it.
- 1910–13His son Anthony, born in Opawa, wins Wimbledon four years straight, still the only New Zealander to hold the singles title.
- 1911–12The Davis Cup final plays at Lancaster Park: Australasia 5, the USA 0.
- 2013Wilding Park reopens after the quakes: twenty-four courts where thirty-nine stood, still the country's Davis Cup home.
- 2014The last Canterbury Championships, a hundred and thirty years of them.
Anthony's sister Cora Wilding has her plaque in Hagley Park North.
Photographs from the archive pool, each linked to its source record, the whole pool lives at /then.
The record behind this page
Christchurch City Council open data, the recreation asset register's SportArea polygons, 160 tennis rows in the file. A polygon says a court exists on the register; who runs it: club, council or centre, is the file's silence, not the site's claim. Rows flagged gone are out of service on the register but kept in it. The same layer draws live at the map and feeds the suburb pages' sport counts. This page as markdown: /tennis.md.
Questions, answered briefly
How many tennis courts does Christchurch have?
160 courts sit on 55 named grounds in the council's recreation register, spread over 42 suburbs. The affiliated club roll adds the membership the register can't see.
Which courts can anyone play on?
The council names about thirty grounds for public use: Hagley Park North's five courts off the Armagh Street car park among them, free outside club booking times. Wilding Park and Ngā Puna Wai take casual bookings by the hour through Pay2Play; club courts are members' except on open days.
What does "out of service" mean on a court?
The register keeps rows it has retired, 8 courts are flagged gone, still drawn and still counted, because the file is the record of what stood there, not a brochure.
Where are the grass courts?
13 courts in the register wear grass, the rare surface, drawn red on the map. Everything else is asphalt, concrete or sand astroturf.
Who runs tennis in Canterbury?
Tennis Canterbury, headquartered at Wilding Park on Woodham Road: twenty city clubs on its affiliation roll, 4,398 members counted, plus the Ellesmere, Malvern, Mid Canterbury and North Canterbury sub-associations.