The most prestigious club of our District, having been decorated by District Collectors as, presidents in a row for many years, being patronised by a membership strength of over 900 and having fixed assets over a crore of rupees as on date, had a very unbelievably modest beginning. Some twenty five odd eminent personalities, mostly gazetted officers, under the leadership of Sri A.Thirmalai IAS, first District Collector, in a meeting held at SLB High School on 09.03.1958 mooted the idea of forming a club mostly as a platform for promoting sports, social and cultural activites and decided to start club from 21.03.1958.
Some twenty five odd eminent personalities, mostly gazetted officers, under the leadership of Sri A.Thirmalai IAS, first District Collector, in a meeting held at SLB High School on 09.03.1958 mooted the idea of forming a club mostly as a platform for promoting sports, social and cultural activites and decided to start club from 21.03.1958. As planned this prestigious club started its activites from that day from a rented building in parvathipuram Road at a monthly rent of Rs.75 which was subsequently raised to Rs.90 from january 1969.Sri Thirumalai IAS, took over as the first president of the club assisted by a highly motivated management team consisting of Sri Deivanayagam, Sri Sankaran, Sri Ganesan, Sri Krishnaswamy and Sri Lawrence.This comittee constituted a sub comittee consisting of four dynamic members viz:Sri Venkataraman; Sri Fakrudin Adam, Sri Mathew Abraham and Sri Fakrudin Adam, Sri Mathew Abraham and Sri Deivanayagam and authorised it to draft the constitution of the club.
At a subsequent meeting held at the collectorate on 06.04.1958 the committee discussed the modalities for admitting the members to the club. An entrace fee of Rs.10 was fixed and as part of promoting tennis the commitee fixed the subscription of Rs.5 and resolved to appoint three ball pickers at monthly salary of Rs.5. To help the management in their official work, a part time clerk was appointed at a monthly salary of Rs.15. In order to mitigate the difficulties in reaching the club by members, the commitee decided to approach the RTO Nagercoil for bus facilities to Parvathipuram via the club and also to register the club with Registrar of Joint Stock Co.Madras.
In order to raise funds for own land and construction of a building for the club, it was resolved on 26/11/58 to keep a 'Hundi Box' for receving donation which would be kept opened on every meeting day and funds thus collected would be kept in a seperate account viz:'Building Fund'.The monthly hundi collections varied from Rs.14 to Rs.240. The treasurer was authorized to deposit the same with the Travancore Forward Bank Ltd., later shifted to the State Bank of India. In the meeting held in july 1962 the comittee decided to conduct a cultural programme to raise funds and accordingly a dance programme by the then renowned artist Kumari Kamala was arranged and a remuneration of Rs.2000 was paid to the artist.
The decision of the committee at a meeting held on 13.12.1962 to purchase one acre of land at Vadasery Village (Survey No.3156) with the funds collected through the dance programme was approved by the General body. As the required funds for the construction of the building was not forthcoming, the comittee decided to arrange for another cultural programme and resolved to raise the subscription amount for tennis to Rs.7, and to charge paisa 20 for every hour from members using billards table, and to charge paisa 5 from members using billiards table, and to charge paisa 5 from members using club telephone, towards building fund.
As a result of a rift between the landlord and the club, it was decided to shift the club to the new site purchased at an early date constructing atleast one billiards room, one card room, one verandah and an office room. At that juncture of financial crisis, there was a suggestion from a few members to merge the club with Ozhuginasery Club and the suggestion was however turned down by the management committee on 25.11.1966.
The General body on 28.07.1968 resolved to sell 25 cents out of the one acre of land purchased, to Planters Association for Rs.610 per cent for raising funds for the building and further resolved to construct the building at an estimated cost of Rs.30000/-and to raise the additional funds required from members by way of donation and also through inducting new life members.The General Body at the same meeting resolved to increase the number of executive members from 5 to 7 and to create a Vice President post for the smooth functioning of the club. Dr.Mathias became the first Vice President of the club in the year 1968 who later became the president in 1975.
The management committee in its meeting held on 10.08.1974 agreed to raise the entrance fee for life members to Rs.100 w.e.f.1974 which was further raised to Rs.250 in year 1989.Due to the continued funds constrain, it was decided to have a mud wall as compound wall partly and remaining part to be wirefenced. As per the decision of General Body the management committee constituted a sub committee in 1988 for redrafting the constitution and the redrafted constitution was approved by the District Registrar on 20.11.1989.
In the year 1990 the verandah was converted into a table tennis room at the cost of Rs.10000 and the managing committee gave approval for laying a second tennis court for providing coaching facility for members and wards of the members. Though the construction of a permanent shuttle cock court was mooted and approved by the General body in the year 1989 itself, due to financial crunch it was decided to have a kutcha court in the year 1990 and to approach to District Sports Council, District Welfare Society and District Collector for funds.In February 1990 it was decided to approach IRE, ISRO and Koodankulam Project for enrolement of new life members.
In the year 1991 it was decided to permit spouse and wards of members to play tennis and badminton for a monthly subscription of Rs.20 for tennis and Rs.5 for badminton. They were to bring their own tennisballs and shuttle cocks. The tennis club was affiliated to the Tamilnadu Tennis Club Association in the year 1993 by paying Rs.25 as enrolement fee. To improve the financial position, in the same year an entrance fee of Rs.250 was charged to the new members desirous of playing cards. The idea of starting Health club was discussed and Rs.50000 was approved for starting the same.Sanction was accorded to charge Rs.1000 from every member availing healh club facility.More than Rs.40000 was collected from members and the health club came into existence from the year 1995.
The management committee at its meeting held in the year 1995 decided to enroll personalities in Govt. service and business as honorary members and accordingly the District Collector, District Judge, SP, DSP were inducted as honorary members. The entrance fee for life members was raised to Rs.1000 in 1995. In 1997 the much awaited swimming pool was opened.Rs.20000 for patron members and family and Rs.10000 for life members with family were fixed as entrance fee for the swimming pool. The newly constructed billiards room which had received maximum donation from Dr.Mathias family was named after Dr.Mathias and the same was opened for the members from the year 2001.
It is interesting to know that there was a move to repurchase the 25 cents of land sold to the Planters Association for Rs.12000 for Rs.15,00,000 in the year 2002. As this move did not find favour with the Planters Association the idea was dropped at the management committee meeting held in November 2002. That prompted the construction of the new building for the club which was completed in June 2003. Identity cards were issued to members in the year 2003 and in 2006 club's emblem was approved.
As the need for a permanent shuttle cock court was felt, a new subcommittee was constituted to look after the construction work in the year 2007 and the work was completed in 2008 at a total cost of Rs.1240000. The indoor court was inagurated in August 2008. The General Body approved construction of four suites above the restaurant. In the year 2009 the entrance fee for life members was raised to the Rs.20000. In the same year the proposal for a second shuttle cock court was approved. The second Court came into existence in the year 2011. The general body gave approval for construction of two additional suites in 2011.
By the year 2011 the membership strength swelled to over 900. What a fantastic growth! In its meeting held on 13.10.2013 the management committee took a decision to honour the deceased members by placing the photo of the deceased member on the day of death with a garland and to hoist a black flag in the club as a mark of respect to the departed soul. In view of the growing popularity of the club the demand for membership became more and to restrict the inflow of new members, the committee raised the entrance fee to Rs.150000 at the meeting held on 31.08.2012. It was also decided at same meeting to restrict the membership strength to a maximum of 1000.
In the year 2013 the present management took over under the leadership of Sri Nathan. In the meeting held on 6.9.2013 the committee took a decision to fix CCTV at all important points, and later decided to lay tiles (paver block) in the car parking area and to construct a watchman shed and appoint watchman for round the clock. There is a long cherished dream of the new management to have a full fledged library inside the club for the benefit of members and their families as is the case with all such clubs all over the world. Serious efforts are on.
This is a brief history of this historical club and with the continous patronage and support of the members the club is bound to reach greater heights in the years to come. In order to a honour the key personalties who had contributed for the growth of the club it was decided in a subsequent meeting to display the names of the presidents and secretaries in the front hall.The committee also decided to issue new identity card to our members.
