Phil Crozier was named the recipient of the Robilliard Trophy for his services to tennis at the Mid Canterbury Sports Awards at the Hotel Ashburton on Friday night. Photo Laura BagrieIt’s not often Phil Crozier is lost for words, but on Friday night he was rendered speechless.

As he got up on the stage at the 2018 Mid Canterbury Sports Awards to accept the Robilliard Trophy for outstanding service to sport after years of involvement with Mid Canterbury Tennis, the tears that had sprung to his eyes when he realised that was the reason why everyone had been so eager that he attended, spilled over.

When he was first told he had to go the awards, the 70-year-old wondered if they wanted him to be the mascot for the Mid Canterbury Tennis Browning Shield team, which was nominated in the senior sports team category.

He had to leave home at 2am on Saturday to catch a flight to Australia for a two-week tennis tour he had organised, so wasn’t sure a night out was a good idea.

But he went, and was surprised when he arrived to see his whole family there but didn’t think much more of it until James Cochrane started reading the citation for the Robilliard Trophy winner and he heard the words ‘tennis’ and ‘Chertsey’.

As Cochrane recited the many pages that were needed to sum up Crozier’s work, the man of the moment had to dig out a tissue to wipe his eyes.

An emotional Crozier later told the 200-strong crowd that some of them may not have known, but he lost his son Duncan to cancer four years ago.

The pair were both also heavily involved with scouts and since his son’s death, Crozier had begun running an annual summer camp, something that had always been a dream of Duncan’s.

Between scouts, tennis, his love for running, his family, and a career running his turkey farm, Crozier had always been busy.

He liked it that way, and everything he did, he did for the love of it.

Crozier hadn’t always played tennis.

He began at a young age at Chertsey, but gave the sport away for a fair few years, he was just too busy.

“It wasn’t until the 1990s someone asked me to play number one for Fairton. I was honoured but said I hadn’t played for a few years.

“I still had a wooden racket,” Crozier said.

He was beaten comfortably in his comeback match and someone suggested maybe it was time to upgrade his racket.

“I told them there was nothing wrong with the racket when I last used it, it’s just me,” Crozier said.

But, he’d caught the tennis bug again so brought himself a new Emrik racket and starting playing more regularly, and soon found himself heavily involved in the administrative side of the sport.

Along with Jack Allan and Reg Donaldson, Crozier became a driving force in the development of the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre, which opened in 2000.

The new, 16 plexipave court complex replaced the old grass courts on Oak Grove, and the old wooden pavilion made way for a big, new pavilion with a full kitchen and bar facility, which Crozier made his own.

From day one, Crozier had been chief barman. During the summer Mid Canterbury Tennis held a popular Sunset Doubles competition on a Thursday night, which Crozier played in then headed straight for the bar to serve up post-match beverages.

He loved it.

He was proud of the Ashburton Trust Tennis Centre he had a hand in creating and was glad they did it right. Initially they were only going to do four plexipave courts at the front and keep the rest grass. Then they thought they’d do eight plexipave courts.

“Then Reg said I’m not going to keep mowing the lawn out the back if everyone is going to be playing out the front, and then Jack said why don’t we just do the lot,” Crozier said.

“And within a year from the time we dug up the grass, we were playing on them.”

Now Ashburton had some of the best courts in Canterbury that were full of youngsters learning how to play during the week, social competitions on weeknights, and open grade, representative clashes and tournaments at weekends.

At 70, Crozier said he was playing in more tournaments now than he ever had, recently winning a Canterbury doubles title.

A couple of years ago he got out of the business that had kept him busy his whole life – Crozier’s Turkeys – so had more time to give, and to play, so he was making the most of it.

“I was 100 per cent turkeys when I was younger and didn’t have time for tennis.

“I probably played occasionally to make up a team if I wasn’t too busy,” Crozier said.

He was still filling gaps in teams, but not always with himself. Crozier was famous in tennis circles for his long list of names and phone numbers.

If there was someone in Mid Canterbury who was pretty handy with a tennis racket, chances were they’d be on Crozier’s list and could get a call if a team was short of a player.

Most of them at some point probably have.

By Erin Tasker © The Ashburton Guardian - 14 May 2018