Western News: January 22, 2026

FOR LOCAL ADVERTISING
Alana Powell
Ph: 027 535 6583
alana@alliedmedia.co.nz
Park corner
sprouts into
community
garden
FOR LOCAL ADVERTISING
Alana Powell
Ph: 027 535 6583
alana@alliedmedia.co.nz
FOR LOCAL ADVERTISING
Annabel Judd
Ph: 021 457 469
annabel.judd@alliedmedia.co.nz
FOR LOCAL ADVERTISING
Jenny Wright
Ph: 021 220 3484
jenny@alliedmedia.co.nz
BY GEOFF SLOAN
A previously dark and
neglected corner park has
been transformed into the
city’s newest community
garden.
A 1770sq m section of
Addington
The Star, January
Park
23,
has
2025
been
turned into a garden that aims
to feed 100 people a week.
Wilby Le Heux, who
manages the Te Waerenga
Whakatō Puāwai garden, said
they had their first harvest last
week.
The Star, January 23, 2025
“We're growing veges in the
heart of Christchurch.”
He said people feel safer
now something positive is
happening in the space.
“For at least 10 years, this
corner has seen a lot of antisocial
behaviour and has been
a nightmare for the Addington
community.”
The garden is the first stage
of a $96,000 project at the
park.
The next stage involves a
revamp of the existing toilet
block and changing sheds.
Two brand new cubicle
toilets will be installed, and
the changing sheds converted
into a storage area with a
walk-in chiller. The space
will also feature a multi-use
activities room, meeting space,
office, and kitchen.
“Building consent has gone
in, so hopefully it will go out
for tender soon,” Le Heux said.
The garden will have a 1m
fence on the north side to act
as a buffer for sports activities.
“It was important for us that
we don't limit pedestrians and
cyclists going past.”
Le Heux said the project has
been well supported by local
businesses donating their time
and services to get it up and
running.
But $25,000 still needs to be
raised to finish the project.
“We're kicking into some
more fundraising, and the
vege bags we sell help towards
the effort.”
A public garden party and
barbecue will be held next
Friday at 5pm to celebrate the
completion of the first stage.
Wilby Le Heux flanked by volunteers
Janet Loh and David Mason at the
Addington Park community garden.
PHOTOS: GEOFF SLOAN
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The Star, January 22, 2026
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Trailblazing player’s epic tale
​Marjorie Bain went to
Wimbledon, fell in love, and
did not come home. Her
journey from tennis pioneer to
hardship – and back again – is
a remarkable slice of
New Zealand history.
Bridget Tunnicliffe reports
In 1922, Marjorie Bain set
sail on the trip of a lifetime
to the motherland, became
the first woman to represent
New Zealand at Wimbledon,
and spent a magical winter on
continental Europe.
But when her year's leave
was up she wasn’t yet ready
to return to New Zealand, and
eloped with an Australian she
met on the grass courts.
She was the envy of her
friends, but little did they know
the hardships she would come to
face before being rescued from
poverty and returning to New
Zealand 13 years later.
Unfortunately, Tennis NZ’s
archives are sporadic at best
and Bain’s Wimbledon appearance
is not widely known but
it’s what happened to her after
the prestigious tournament that
really shaped her.
Bain's granddaughter Penny
O'Connell said details had been
pieced together over the years.
Marjorie Helen Bain was
born in 1897 and grew up in
Christchurch, where her family
were of modest means but in
Marjorie Bain was the first New Zealand woman to compete at Wimbledon in 1922.
the background was a wealthy
widowed aunt who lived in
Queensland.
Bain flourished at tennis,
playing for Christchurch Girls'
High, Canterbury University,
and at the national lawn
championships.
In her twilight years,
Bain wrote a book for her
family, full of her memories, and
recounted going to Auckland
to see US Davis Cup players
compete against New Zealand
“and our own Anthony Wilding
who was so soon to be killed in
France”.
Bain also wrote about the
black influenza that swept
through New Zealand after the
World War 1 ended.
The rich aunt
In 1922 the rich aunt offered
to take Bain on the trip of a lifetime
to England and continental
Europe. She was in her mid-20s
and her two sisters were married,
so Bain was the obvious
choice.
The aunt’s husband had found
a nugget on the goldfields but
died young while electioneering
to be the Premier of Queensland,
leaving her wealthy.
Her aunt travelled on cargo
ships, which took only 12 passengers,
and she ruled the elite
roost at the captain’s table.
Some passengers called her
the W.O.D, short for “wicked old
devil”, but Bain also saw her as a
“veritable fairy godmother”.
Bain was granted a year's
leave from her teaching job and
the New Zealand Lawn Tennis
Association nominated her for
Wimbledon.
In reference to her actual
results at the tournament
Bain later wrote, “I shan’t tell
you want happened to me at
Wimbledon.”
It wasn’t until 1951 that Evelyn
Webster became the second
New Zealand woman to compete
at Wimbledon.
The 1922 Wimbledon
Championships marked the
tournament’s move to its current
famous premises on Church
Rd, amid forecasts at the time it
would become a white elephant.
The family still has Bain's competitor
card and the postcards
she sent. In one of them Bain
described the now iconic centre
court grandstand as a “huge circular
concrete affair” and wrote
“give me the New Zealand climate
every time”.
The 1922 Wimbledon Championships
are widely considered
the most disrupted tournament
in its history, with rain interruptions
every day.
Bain fell in love with England
and took in theatre productions
and concerts in London’s
West End, then travelled to the
Continent with her aunt, where
they visited France, Italy and
Switzerland.
The inventor husband
At the Wimbledon centre
court, her fierce aunt – who
acted as a chaperone – warned
her niece not to get mixed
up with the Australian representative
Herbert Tasman
Ethelbert Davies, an official at
the tournament.
Herbert was a metallurgist
from Melbourne University,
charming and clever. But the
aunt warned he was an inventor
and called him a ‘rolling stone’.
In today’s words, aunty believed
Herbert was a flake.
Bain ignored the cautions
and the pair eloped to Paris to
get married in a registry office,
thereby antagonising the aunt,
who sailed back to Brisbane.
The couple returned to London
and then, in Bain’s own
words, “followed years of anxiety,
mixed with a brave attempt
at happiness. . . an erratic husband
and a more than erratic
livelihood don’t spell real
happiness.”
Herbert, who floated companies
for developments and
patents, had no money sense
whatsoever.
Sometimes there would be lots
of money, then nothing. Unpaid
bills and frequent moves around
England became the norm as the
family tried to dodge numerous
debt collectors.
In 1923, Bain’s first child John
was born and in 1928 Barbara
(Biddy) arrived.
Decades later, Biddy wrote
down some early memories of
her mother and the family’s life.
At one of their brief addresses
in England, Biddy described
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starnews.co.nz The Star, January 22, 2026
of love, loss and lawn tennis
an old railway carriage at the
bottom of the garden “where
occasional explosions occurred
as my father continued his
experiments.”
Years later Bain reflected on
those years.
“I decided that my mission in
life was to reform him.
“Alas, my dear, never flatter
yourself you can reform
anyone.”
For nine years Bain struggled
on, forgiving Herbert and
starting again. She pawned her
last remaining scraps of jewellery
and earned what little she
could.
Wrote Biddy: “At times we
were rich, with a nanny and
maids all in uniform. Other
times when the bubble burst
there was no money at all.
“Then another woman
entered the scene, and my
mother grabbed her two children
and left.”
That’s when the hardship
really kicked-in.
Penniless
Perhaps pride prevented
Bain from telling her family
back in Christchurch she had
left Herbert because, in true
post-Victorian fashion, it was a
disgrace to have lost your man.
Bain, her two children, and
their beloved dog travelled by
train wherever she could find
jobs, not easy in the depths of
the Great Depression.
Biddy, who passed away in
2022, wrote that they moved
Marjorie Bain sent postcards home from the 1922 Wimbledon Championships,
describing the centre court grandstand as a “huge circular concrete affair”.
frequently because her mother
thought Herbert might try to
retrieve his son if he found
them.
Marjorie did all kinds of jobs –
she was a cook, a housekeeper in
a boarding house, made and sold
bread, and read to the blind.
“Many years later my brother
told me that during this period
he used to worry that if she
died nobody would know who
we were and we’d be put in an
orphanage,” Biddy wrote.
When Bain’s brother was
visiting England on his O.E,
he decided to find her and
reported back to the family that
they were living in appalling
circumstances.
The aunt was consulted
and, still smarting from her
niece’s elopement, reluctantly
agreed to pick up Bain and her
children during her next visit.
One day they found two
bailiffs waiting in the hall, so
they moved next door, where
Bain cared for an old man and
the children attended huge
grey, slummy London schools.
In 1935, the aunt rescued
them. She didn’t like children,
particularly girls, and Biddy
recalled that she didn’t talk to
her for the family’s six weeks
at sea.
The weary family eventually
found their place on Cashel St,
Christchurch.
Peace and security at last
The aunt had offered the
family a house near Brisbane,
but while they were waiting to
travel to Queensland, Labour
won New Zealand’s 1935 general
election and, for the first
time, five-year-olds were to be
admitted into school.
Old teacher friends begged
Bain to stay to help alleviate
the teacher shortage, so she
offended the aunt again by
remaining in Christchurch.
The family boarded for two
years before Bain managed to
procure a mortgage for her own
home, describing it as “peace
and security at last”.
Bain never mentioned
Herbert but kept her married
name and was always Mrs
Davies to the hundreds of
primary school students she
taught across the city.
John and Biddy were brought
up to believe their father had
died, though much later the siblings
found that neither believed
the story.
After Bain’s death in 1966 aged
69, her close friend told Biddy:
“We were all green with envy
when we heard this lively attractive
girl, popular with the boys,
and a tennis star, had married. A
few years later she arrived back
home with two children; not a
man in sight and never a word
of explanation!”
When it came to the welfare
of her pupils, Bain used a direct
approach, including tackling the
Education Board over the lack of
fire exits at her school.
Said Penny: “Mum used to tell
me about how (Bain) marched
into a board meeting with an
axe over her shoulder as a demonstration
because she was so
furious.”
Years earlier, when her two
young children attended a
school in London, one classroom
was so stuffy, Bain threatened to
throw a brick through a window
if the school governors did not
allow her to open them.
Penny remembers several
visits from Granny Marjorie
– a “fun, kind, and colourful”
matriarch.
“She was a very strong character,
headstrong in the face of
tough times. It was hard being a
woman on her own back then.
“My mother (Biddy) said those
early years made them resilient
and very loyal to each other,”
Penny said.
For the record, Bain and her
French doubles partner had a
walkover win in the first round
at Wimbledon and then gave
their opponents a walkover win
in the next round, so no tennis
was played. In the singles, Bain
lost her first-round match 6-0 6-0.
The shortest women’s final
ever recorded at Wimbledon
happened in the same
year when Suzanne Lenglen
of France defeated American
player Molla Bjurstedt Mallory
6-2, 6-0. The 23-minute record
still stands.
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The Star, January 22, 2026
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starnews.co.nz The Star, January 22, 2026

The Star, January 22, 2026
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starnews.co.nz The Star, January 22, 2026
CROSSWORD
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
8
9 10
11 12
13 14 15
16 17 18 19
20
434
SUDOKU
Every row, column and box should
contain the digits 1 to 9.
WordBuilder
WORDBUILDER
N T I
A E V
6
334 334
A E V
words of three or more letters,
How
including
many
plurals,
words
can you
of
make
three
from
or
the
more
six
letters, using each letter only once? No foreign
How words or beginning with a capital are
from many the words six letters, of three using or more each letters, only
allowed. There's at least one six-letter word.
including once? plurals, can you make from the six
TODAY
letters, Good using 21 each Very letter Good only 25 once? Excellent No 29 foreign
No words beginning with a capital are
words Solution or words 333: bed, beginning beg, berg, with bid, bide, a capital bier, big, are
allowed. allowed. bird, bred, There's bride, There’s BRIDGE, at least at brig, one least deb, six-letter die, one dig, six-letter dire, word.
word. dirge, dreg, drib, erg, gibe, gibed, giber, gird, grid,
ire, rebid, red, rib, ride, TODAY ridge, rig.
Good 21 Very Good 25 Excellent 29
Solution 333: bed, beg, berg, bid, bide, bier, big,
bird, bred, bride, BRIDGE, brig, deb, die, dig, dire,
dirge, dreg, drib, erg, gibe, gibed, giber, gird, grid,
ire, rebid, red, rib, ride, ridge, rig.
letters, including plurals, can you make
21 22 23
24 25
26 27
Across
1. Somnolent (6)
4. Narcotic (6)
9. Trick (4)
10. Attentive, engaged (10)
11. Group of seven (6)
12. Vital (8)
13. Sluggish (9)
15. Surprise attack (4)
16. Imprison (4)
17. Building (9)
21. Memento (8)
22. Idle talk (6)
24. Exaggerated comical drawing of
a person (10)
25. Shine (4)
26. This one or that (6)
27. Standing (6)
Decoder
Down
1. Embrace tightly (7)
2. Throw out (5)
3. Artist (7)
5. Allow (6)
6. Attacker (9)
7. 55th wedding anniversary (7)
8. Unadventurous person (5-2-3-3)
14. Zenith (4,5)
16. Reduce to ashes (7)
18. Salve, ointment (7)
19. Disastrous (7)
20. Leave empty (6)
23. Vision (5)
Crossword
Across: 1. Sleepy, 4. Opiate, 9. Dupe, 10. Interested, 11. Septet, 12.
Critical, 13. Lethargic, 15. Raid, 16. Cage, 17. Structure, 21. Keepsake, 22.
Gossip, 24. Caricature, 25. Glow, 26. Either, 27. Status.
Down: 1. Squeeze, 2. Eject, 3. Painter, 5. Permit, 6. Assailant, 7. Emerald,
8. Stick-in-the-mud, 14. High point, 16. Cremate, 18. Unguent, 19. Ruinous,
20. Vacate, 23. Sight.
WordBuilder
Ani, ant, ante, anti, ate, ave, eat, eta, etna, naive, NATIVE, nave, neat, net,
nit, tai, tan, tea, ten, tin, tine, vain, van, vane, vat, vein, vent, vet, via, vie, vine.
DECODER
Each number represents a different letter of the alphabet. Write the
given letters into all squares with matching numbers. Now work out
which letters are represented by the other numbers.
All puzzles copyright
T H E P U Z Z L E C O M P A N Y
www.thepuzzlecompany.co.nz
Sudoku

The Star, January 22, 2026
starnews.co.nz
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