Windy conditions across the coast made for some interesting tennis in round 4 of the Southern Ports Tennis Association.
Home grounds certainly held the advantage with four of the five home teams taking the win.
The round started with Penola Rangers hosting Beachport Buccaneers on Friday night, the Buccaneers continued their dominant form.
Wins also went to the Kingston Crays, Naracoorte, Robe Rebels and the Frances/Lucindale Eagles.
Check out the captains’ reports below
Penola Rangers 7-103 lt Beachport Buccaneers 17-134
The Penola Rangers were hitting up sideshow ally on Saturday at the Penola Show, so they hosted Beachport Buccaneers for a Friday night game.
What a great evening it was – Penola supplying a sausage sizzle and there were some great matches played.
Penola’s Lachlan Haysen and Catherine Kidman had a great match, both losing their single to come out and win their mixed in a tie breaker against Gerard McGrath and Sara Scott.
Beachport’s Maddie Redman prevailed 7-5 in a great battle against Michelle Coomans while the match of the doubles was the middle men’s double where Beachport’s Benjamin Lang and Gerard McGrath won 9-7 against Tom Pearce and Lachlan Heysen.
The Beachport Buccaneers were too strong in the end however winning 17 sets to seven.
Three set winners for the day were Alice Auld from Penola and Benjamin Lang, Maddie Redman, Melissa McGrath and Joey Chambers from Buccaneers.
Thanks for a great night, Penola!
Kingston Crays 14-126 d. Beachport Pirates 10-115
It would not be tennis in Kingston if there’s not wind circulating around the courts, making things tricky for all players.
Kingston started the day off strong, winning four of the mixed doubles.
Close doubles at the top end of the table with Beachport’s Cade Kelly and Jorja Mitchell just getting the edge over Kingston’s Matt Menz and Bianca Lawrie in a tiebreak, and another close doubles at the bottom end of the table with Tim Parker and Stacey Daniel getting the win 7-5 over Beachport’s bottom pair.
Beachport then made amends in the men’s singles, taking four of those wins.
A great game between Matt Menz and Cade Kelly was on the show court, at 5-5, Kelly just got the edge to win, 7-5.
Tim Loveday and Darcy Bateman had clean sweeps over Steve Edwards and Lou Leidig, but then James Lehmann and Tim Parker got revenge and both won their singles 6-0 to make it closer.
The Kingston women helped Kingston take the lead winning four of the singles.
Kingston’s up and coming juniors Hudson Menz and Jessica Zwart faced off against each other in what was a great game with both kids showing a lot of talent, Hudson getting the win in a tiebreaker.
At the end of the day Kingston sealed the deal winning four of the doubles.
Three set winners for Beachport were Cade Kelly and Tim Loveday, and for Kingston Jacob Mules, Hudson Menz and James Lehmann.
Naracoorte – 18-152 d. Robe Roosters 6-97
A warm, blustery day made for an interesting afternoon of tennis at Naracoorte.
This week, the Naracoorte men led the charge in the singles, winning 5/6 sets.
Standout matches included the top two men’s singles with M Malone (N) defeating Paul Rains (R) 6-3; and P Obst (R) defeating J Grundy (N) 6-4.
The ladies singles went much the same, Naracoorte securing 5/6 sets.
The match of the day was between Jane Haynes (R) and Katelyn Baker (N).
The trying conditions saw Haynes take the lead early, getting up 5-2, though Baker made a comeback, drawing the games square and sending the match to a tiebreak.
But it was Haynes who was too good, 7-6 (8-6).
Though the day was squared away to Naracoorte, everyone hit the court for the doubles.
Rains/Obst (R) proved too strong a pair for Malone/Grundy (N), 9-7, while H Agnew/Bainger (R) put up a fight against M. Moyle-Read/Meseldzija, 5-9.
Three set winners for the day for Naracoorte were Tash Meseldzija, Steve Biggins, Max Lush, Norbert Wende, Lucy Midwinter and Jasper Whitehead.
For the Roosters it was Jane Haynes.
A shoutout to Naracoorte juniors Charlie McCarthy and Ashton Reti, who played their first senior matches, and Sam Baker all supporting the Roosters team.
Robe Rebels 20-149 d. Lucindale Wombats 4-85
Warm conditions with a strong northerly breeze did not make it the easiest weather to play tennis in.
Starting with the mixed doubles the Rebels got on top early with 5/6 sets.
The men on the Robe side continued their form winning all six sets with a thrilling 7-5 on centre court from the number 6s Harry Austin and first time player Brendan Voss.
As the day went on Robe kept the foot on the pedal to have a good team win.
Well done to the eight Rebels on winning three sets for the day and to Clare Garner from the Wombats taking home her three sets.
Frances/Lucindale Eagles 16-136 d. Lucindale Koalas 8-100
The Eagles started the day well by winning five out of six mixed doubles matches.
Full credit to Leanne McCarthy and Lachie Grundy (Koalas) who had a convincing win over Craig Jones and Jane Fitzgerald 6-2 to win the first set for the Koalas.
Koalas captain Mitch Baker played a top game to beat Tarrant Fudge 6-3.
Three set winners were all from the Eagles with James Crossling, Oliver Close, Flo Burgwin, Bob Williams and the ever reliable Angus McTaggart.
Round 5 Preview
In Round 5 the Lucindale Wombats will be seeking their first win against Penola’s Rangers.
The Lucindale Koalas will travel to Millicent to play the Beachport Buccaneers, while the Beachport Pirates will host the Robe Roosters.
There will be two matches to watch this week.
The Robe Rebels will host the Francis/Lucindale Eagles, where the top men’s double is sure to be a thriller; the Regnier brothers take on James Crossing and Tarrant Fudge.
The Kingston Crays will be on the hunt for another win, but travelling to Naracoorte could be a tough ask – the top ladies single between Bianca Lawrie and Poppy Moyle-Read is sure to thrill.
Ladder Points: FL Eagles (8), B/port Buccaneers (7), Naracoorte (6), Robe Rebels, Luc. Koalas, B/port Pirates, K.
Crays, (4), Penola Rangers (2), Robe Roosters (1), Luc. Wombats (0).
JUNIOR GRADES
Naracoorte Red d. Millicent 49 -22
Naracoorte Red defeated Millicent convincingly, however, the scores do not reflect the level of good competitive tennis.
Louis and Fliss Orton defeated Hazel and Harvey 6-0 in the second doubles, but there were many games that went to deuce and advantage.
Louis was up 4-0 in his singles, and Hazel with great consistency, came back to win 6-4.
Naracoorte Yellow d. Borders 1 52-46
The theme for the morning was tie breakers and Maggie, Harry, Reggie, Patrick and Samuel from Borders 1 were the winners.
Alice from Naracoorte was the player of the day.
Special mention to Eva, the Brodie Brothers, Angus, Sandy and Annika for their excellent display of fair play and tennis etiquette.
Naracoorte Yellow won the day 52 games to 46.
Kingston Lobsters d. Lucindale Roos 50-35
A great morning at Lucindale started out chilly but the north wind soon whipped up and warmed us up quickly. There were some fabulous matches and the match of the day would have to be Sam Rasheed vs Rebecca Clothier. Sam fought back from 5-3 down to get to a tie break and clipped a winner over the net to win 9-7. Jack had a comeback against George, winning 6-4 after being 1-4 down early in the match. Vander served up a storm and had a great match against Katie.
Cody and Harry had some tight rallies, but Harry was too strong.
Annie had her first singles win for the season and had some great rallies with Darcy, both showing excellent sportsmanship.
Rylan and Issy had a long match, with some great lobs.
Well done to Harry, Issy, Sam and Annie for winning both singles and doubles.
Kingston Lighthouses d. Lucindale Cockatoos 50-30
It was a chilly start to the morning with plenty of wind pushing balls around the court.
Top players had great wins for the day and there were sSome tight games and tie breakers between the young players.
The game of the day was between Frankie and Celia.
Well done on the win Lighthouses.
Naracoorte Blue dr. Naracoorte Green 39 all
Warm and windy conditions at Naracoorte saw Blue take on Green.
There were some great match ups – with Harry Miller in his first game, just going down to Aston Gale in a tie break.
Matilda Lush had a solid win over Ashton Reti.
Harrison Andrews and Gus Brooksby were a good single to watch.
The teams ended up drawing.
Naracoorte White d. Borders 2: 42-39 games
