It is a big week for Tennis this week with the return of Tuesday Women’s at Round 10 and new seasons starting for Monday Women’s, Thursday Triples and Junior and Senior Saturday Pennants.
Monday night kicked off the week with Summer’s Section 1 grand finalists Grape Therapy and Rust-eze, posting comfortable wins with the latter accounting for Summer’s Section 2 premiers Lara while close rivals Smash Hits will take the court next week after having the bye.
Section 2 saw Western Warriors face newcomers Winchlesea, sneaking over the line by one game, while last season’s runners-up Highton took a 3-1 win over club rivals Long Shots.
Wandana Heights also joined the section, but enjoyed the bye this week.
On Tuesday morning, the winter season resumed with few changes to the ladder over the seven sections, however there were several upsets and teams pulling closer to rivals.
In Section 1 Surfcoast Black Torquay (7th) upset Geelong West (2nd) with a 4-2 win.
Highton (6th) almost pulled off the upset of the round in Section 2, just falling short on games to ladder leaders Point Lonsdale with the teams drawn on sets.
Ocean Grove moved into the four in Section 3 with a win over second placed Highton while Teesdale took top spot in Section 4 by percentage ahead of Drysdale.
Portarlington kept in touch with the four with a 5-1 win over Clifton Springs in S6 and in S7 Anglesea has a chance of finals with a win over Leopold Gold while Leopold Green almost pulled off a win over ladder leaders St Mary’s, going down by just five games.
Pennant started on Thursday with a record 43 teams to take the court with Moolap’s Two Phones Chol going for a 10th premiership with some new opponents in Bannockburn, Here for the LOLs and Highton Net Results mixing things up.
Moolap also has its Zing Kings back to defend the Section 2 crown. Leopold’s Deuce of Hazard and All Saints Work In Progress are back again to duke it out in Section 3, with a number of new teams to also test their skills. Highton has a number of teams listed for this season, including Kiss My Ace and Flyers – winners of last season’s Sections 4 and 5.
Saturday will see both Junior and Senior Pennants kick off with Juniors in the morning and Barwon Heads and Grovedale looking to back up their winter wins in the Boys and Girls Premier sections.
The competition is growing from the ground up with 16 Orange Ball teams and a record eight Green Ball sections looking to improve their skills and knowledge of the sport.
Senior Pennant has seen a number of player and team moves at the top end. Last Summer’s Open 1 premiers Highton is back to defend its title while runner-ups Wandana Heights have added James Brushfield to its ranks. Lara has a new team while Nicole Mullen, Ryan Lee and Olivia Ryan have joined forces at Waurn Ponds in a new combination.
Jackson Varney and Matt Hicks have cohorts of experienced young teams for Surfcoast and Geelong Lawn, Barwon Heads is always in the mix with a reliable line-up and the move of Lachie Hewitt to Newcomb will see it do well in what should be a competitive section.
The number of mixed teams has increased this season and last summer’s Section 1 premiers Bannockburn will be looking to go two in a row, however this season the opposition looks a little different. While Moriac remains relatively unchanged, Grovedale has a few changes with Jared Bromley, Brent May returning from Men’s and Zoe Duff from Newcomb and newcomers Michael Best Mia Dementiev joining Abbie Walker for the Black team while Yellow is a combination of last year’s third and fourth placed teams.
Winchelsea has shades of St Alban’s with Ange Oldham, and Matt and Fletcher Allen joining Leslie Matheson in the club’s first foray into mixed competition in some time. Surfcoast’s Section 2 Winter Men’s team moves into mixed with a couple of additions.
St Leonards, on the back of a good performance over winter, has progressed and Western Heights is backing up in summer with the addition of Jayde Kelly.
