By Deirdre Pike May 13, 2025 for Hamilton City Magazine
Formation of the tennis club at Gage Park dates back more than a century and it was once the largest club in Hamilton and among the largest in Canada.
Whenever my partner complains about being a “tennis widow,” I simply remind her that she is the source of these temporary, albeit regular, separations in our relationship.
Until November 2015, I was a twice-weekly, fair-weather tennis player at one of the not-so-bad, free courts the City of Hamilton offers in my neighbourhood. That all changed when Renée showed her love for me on my birthday that year with a Rosedale Tennis Club membership. Now I can be found on a tennis court from eight to 10 hours a week.
The gorgeous glimpses of the grand and the gritty from this century-old location, make concentration difficult when playing a match on the outdoor red-clay courts. Bound by acres of Gage Park to the north, and a community garden and Roselawn Lawn Bowling to the east, outdoor players bear witness to a fabulous growth of fauna and fowl from May to October.
When players switch ends, they see the retired chimneys from the Hamilton Brick kilns to the south-east, and the CN rail line with its noisy cars shunting east and west just under the escarpment, often dotted with tents and temporary shelters for unhoused people, reminding us of Hamilton’s gritty reality.
One of the people who has made Rosedale the place to play, particularly over the last 15 years, is the club’s now-retired manager Vince Ormond. He has been at the helm of the club as it doubled its membership to 700 full-time members, guided it through the pandemic, and, with a dedicated volunteer board of directors, managed the recent construction of the bubbled hard courts.
Rosedale Tennis was one of the first clubs in the city. Back in the 1880s, lawn tennis was growing in popularity. By the 1920s, the development of municipal park space coincided with the opening of tennis courts, including Rosedale at Gage Park and Dundas Tennis at the Driving Park, both in 1924, and Hamilton Tennis at the Hamilton Amateur Athletic Association Grounds in 1928.
According to the Canadian Parks Movement: Hamilton Experience, from the archives of the National Library of Canada, 1924 was a busy year in Gage Park. Tennis courts, cricket pitches and lawn bowling sites were developed at the south end of the park. The three groups shared a clubhouse consisting of small huts just south of the bandshell. By 1945, Rosedale’s eight courts made it the largest club in Hamilton and one of the largest in Canada.
In 1966, the current clubhouse facing Lawrence Road was built and shared for a short time with the ice skaters in the winter. Indoor games such as bridge, euchre, cribbage, checkers and table tennis were offered. Still today, euchre and cribbage players can be found in the clubhouse on weekend nights, with regularly scheduled round-robin socials happening on the courts for all levels of players.
Building community connections and making tennis accessible has been an ongoing direction for Rosedale. Some steps in this area include offering memberships to various organizations that assist vulnerable youth, and hosting tournaments that highlight gender equity, such as the Billy Jean King tournament last July.
To that same end, Ormond and the board made it possible for the Rainbow Kings and Queens, a group of African LGBTQ+ asylum seekers and refugees in Hamilton, to have some free court time and lessons and the new manager has committed to continuing that practice.
Besides all that and the numerous food and clothing drives that take place throughout the year to help people who live with economic insecurity, the club hosted its seventh annual fundraising tournament for the Eva Rothwell Centre (ERC) last September, supporting vulnerable youth in the North End.
Last year, Rosedale turned 100 and celebrated with an official opening of the new wheelchair accessible courts and bubble. As the club prepares for the next 100 years, it does so under the new and highly capable management of David Orde. Ormond retired in October and is expected to be on the courts more often as a player instead of a maintenance master.
Orde says even with the increased membership since the pandemic, there is still capacity for more players with the new bubble. Programs for every level and age of tennis player are available. While one of our members recently competed around the world in the over-70 age group, Rosedale’s Youth Academy has a good reputation for preparing young players for tennis scholarships and taking the right swings to help them become ranked players and head toward the pros.
It’s well known that tennis is a game where love means nothing, but it’s clear to me that Rosedale Tennis Club is a place where love for community means everything.
