Tennis Geelong’s Saturday Junior and Senior Pennants begin tomorrow.
The junior fixture will feature 12 boys’ sections and seven girls’ sections, totalling 134 teams from across the region, with Geelong Lawn and Wandana Heights having the best representation at 16 and 15 teams respectively.
The season will be a difficult one to predict with the change to the player lists from summer and with COVID playing havoc with team entry and then the cancellation of the last winter season.
It is good to see the elevation of Surf Coast and Ocean Grove back to Section 1 Boys and Highton to Section 1 Girls.
Week two will also see the start of the shorter format Orange ball competition. This competition is proving to be a great introductory program for younger participants to get a taste of what competition is like, but on a smaller court.
The senior competition will start tomorrow with 75 teams playing in 11 sections – five men’s and six mixed.
Section 1 Mixed will be the pick of the top grades with Newcomb looking to defend its title from 2019 and will welcome Denise Airey and Bread Tresidder to the line-up.
Barwon Heads, the 2019 runners-up, will be hot on Newcomb’s heels, especially with the addition of some younger blood, in Liam Digby and Jordyn Aitken.
Grovedale will also pose a threat with a team comprising members of the premiership Section 1 teams from summer – Jai Bosnjak, Dave Meehan and Bianca Duff.
The undefeated premiers from Section 2 Mixed in summer, Ocean Grove, will also be in the mix, as it has flirted with the step up in previous seasons.
With the extra experience of the summer season, this could be the breakthrough year for Grove.
St Albans and Highton make up the balance of the teams and will also be competitive, but it will be hard to see them getting past the three frontrunners.
