Saturday Junior Pennant is drawing closer to finals and in Section 4 Boys, the ladder couldn’t be much closer.
Last week Geelong Lawn was the only team to hold its position, poised for the minor premiership, well clear of second.
The remaining five teams are still fighting it out to make the four with Wandana Heights in sixth only four points away from Highton in fourth.
Round 14 could make or break some teams and while the top three seems set, there was still a chance for Highton to sneak into third and any team to make the four.
Highton hosted Geelong Lawn, hoping to close the gap on Bannockburn, and third place. In their previous encounter, Lawn took the win by the narrowest of margins – one game while tied on sets. Highton were looking to improve on this.
Archie Campbell put Highton on the board, staving off set points with a tight tie-break win in the first singles, but from there Lawn’s Oliver Chudoschnik, Billy Rayson and Tarun Makonhalli turned the tie, winning the remaining three singles.
Lawn’s form continued into the doubles with Chudoschnik teaming with Javier Rau and Rayson and Makonahalli winning the both doubles 6-1. The win guaranteed the minor premiership to Lawn and Highton best placing fourth, with one round to play.
Barwon Heads, in second, were half a point ahead of Bannockburn and were hoping to stay there, when they hosted Wandana Heights. The Heights, only four points out of finals, were looking for a big day to close the gap and potentially push themselves into fourth.
The match started with the doubles where the Heads got off to a good start with Joe Escaran and Sonny Duval winning the first 6-2 while Peter Davis and Harry McKellar had a tough time in the second, eventual winners 7-5. Escaran, Duval and Davis followed up in the singles, giving Barwon Heads an unassailable lead while Bob Yi took the only set for Wandana.
Bannockburn were hoping to continue their good form against Grovedale, and after two 4-2 wins, would have been confident going into the match.
They got off to a great start with Fletcher Altmann, Mitchell Showler and Zac Ironton winning their singles, but Hayden Cox kept Grovedale in the match with his tight 7-5 win over Thomas Crossley.
In the doubles, Ironton and Crossley won through in a tie-break while Altmann and Showler took their set 6-2, but credit went to Ian Hwang (Grovedale) for shot of the day – an angled back spinning drop shot volley that spun back over the net and out of reach of the opposition.
At the end of the day, all ladder positions remained the same with only half a point still separating Barwon Heads and Bannockburn, but with the Heads set to face Geelong Lawn and Bannockburn hosted by Wandana Heights, this could be reversed.
Highton and Grovedale will be playing for fourth and with 3.5 points separating the teams, Grovedale will need a 4-2 result to knock them out.
