Donna Schoenmaekers
It was finals night on Thursday as the Spring Triples competition reached its conclusion, and it was a night of upsets.
In Section 1 Highton’s Night Owls followed up its win during the season with another 4-2 win over ladder leader Grovedale.
The first two sets were split with Grovedale taking the doubles 6-2 and Brain Spong taking the singles 6-1 for Highton.
Highton followed up taking the second doubles 6-3, but Jared Bromley put Grovedale a game ahead with his 6-1 win in the second singles.
In the final two sets Highton sealed the win with 6-3 and 6-4 wins in the doubles and singles respectively.
Section 2 was billed to be a close affair, with only three points separating ladder leader The Flying Dankanators and Grovedale.
The teams played twice through the season, with the Dankanators winning 5-1 in round three, but Grovedale levelled the score with a one game win after with the sets split in round six.
Thursday’s match started close, with Grovedale taking the first doubles in a tie break, while Tom Wright got the first singles 6-1 for the Dankanators.
From there Grovedale took the final sets sets, but it didn’t have it all its own way with two of the sets going to a tie break.
Tennis Geelong’s Cockatoo’s finished the season two points ahead of second placed All Saints Red in Section 3, but that didn’t stop Red from taking a commanding win five sets to one in the final.
Tom Kouvenoord, James Dat and Elaine Ly stormed through the first five sets, with Hayden Baker taking the one set for the Cockatoo’s in the final set.
The closest final was in Section 4 where the Riatta Bobcats clawed out a one game win while level on sets with Cocobewares.
The Bobcats would have been confident going into the match, with a 5-1 win in their round five match, however, they found much tougher opposition this week.
After the first two sets, the match was tied with David McCollough and James Hayes taking the doubles 6-4 for the Bobcats, while Brad Walker took his singles 6-4 for Cocobewares.
Walker backed up his singles win partnering with Steven Arto to take the second doubles 6-2, giving his team a two game lead, after James Hayes took his singles 6-4 for the Bobcats.
Unfortunately for the Cocobewares, it was unable to hold the lead, when James Hayes and Ambrose McIntyre blasted a 6-0 win for the Bobcats, which was enough to overcome Steven Arto taking the final set for Cocobewares 6-3, to give the Bobcats the win by a game.
Highton scored a second premiership in Section 5, with a 5-1 win over Jazza Gals.
The Highton team was the strongest team through the season, and continued its form into the final, where it proved far too strong for the opposition and lost only eight games for the night.
