By Luke Voogt
Tennis Geelong has cancelled its winter finals with Victoria’s COVID-19 restrictions continuing to prohibit community sporting competitions.
The organisation had planned to postpone finals, which were initially scheduled for late August before regional Victoria plunged into its most recent lockdown.
But last week’s easing of restrictions only allowed training for community sport, preventing the men’s, senior mixed and junior finals from going ahead.
“This winter season has been incredibly difficult for everyone involved, especially when finals had to be cancelled with only 12 hours’ notice,” Tennis Geelong president Donna Schoenmaekers said.
“Tennis Geelong had every intention of seeing the Saturday winter season to its conclusion, but with so many anomalies and the inability to play finals, this was just not possible.”
Tennis Geelong decided against awarding premiers based on season ladders, declaring restrictions had forced the cancellation of too many rounds for the ladders to be “truly representative” of each section.
Teams in various sections missed up to six matches resulting from restrictions and weather.
In six sections first and second did not play each other during the season, with two sections having two teams undefeated.
Three sections had the top two teams equal on points and separated by percentage only, while in 11 other sections the top two were less than four points apart.
“[These] factors meant that the ladders for most sections do not provide an accurate reflection of the team positions within the sections,” Schoenmaekers said.
“This is an unfortunate way to end the Saturday winter seasons, however, we believe that it’s the fairest outcome.
“Tennis Geelong has the Tuesday midweek competition on-hold, and is awaiting advice as to when this may resume.
“We have an increased number of teams registered for the upcoming Saturday summer season, and we are hopeful that this will be able to start on time on October 9.”
The organisation has pledged to waive team entry fees for 2021-22 summer season due to the cancelled winter season.
