It was Wimbledon Day in round 6 of the Southern Ports Tennis season with unseasonably warm weather and wind setting the scene for the afternoon.
Top of the ladder Frances/Lucindale Eagles continued their winning streak over the Beachport Pirates.
The Lucindale Koalas kept their season hopes alive with a win over the Robe Rebels, meanwhile Penola Rangers secured the points against the Robe Roosters.
The upset of the day saw Lucindale Wombats find their first win of the season over the Kingston Crays.
In the only match away from Lucindale, an undermanned Naracoorte hosted the Beachport Buccaneers.
Frances/Lucindale Eagles 16-129 d Beachport Pirates 8-102
The Eagles had a comfortable win over the Pirates at Lucindale.
The day started well for the Eagles as they won all but one of the mixed doubles.
The Eagles’ top blokes James Crossling and Tarrant Fudge had a good day winning three sets, as did Eagle Hayley Crossling.
It was wonderful seeing Eliza Handbury back out playing and she teamed up beautifully with Allana Mueller from the Pirates to have a convincing win over the Eagles 1 and 2 ladies Mon Van Dyk and Jane Fitzgerald.
Lucindale Wombats 13-130 d Kingston Crays 11-125
In a super close rubber Lucindale Wombats got their first win of the season over the Kingston Crays.
There were some super close matches, Duncan Ogilvie was down but had a comeback against Lou Leidig to win 7-5.
Sam Crocker and Hudson Menz had a tie break that went to 12-10 in the tiebreak.
Alber Nel and Adrian Maywald fought off a comeback from Lou Leidig and Tim Parker to win in a tie-break 10-9 and the young duo of Katie Rasheed and Jess Zwart had a ripper long one to win 10-8 against Ella Crocker and Lyndal Johns.
Three set winners were Bianca Lawrie and Katie Rasheed for Kingston and Duncan Ogilvie, Adrian Maywald, Alber Nel and Toby Longbottom from the Wombats.
Robe Roosters 7-86 lt Penola Rangers 17-135
The annual Wimbledon (wear your best whites) round held at the Lucindale Country Club saw Penola Rangers verse Robe Roosters in very hot and windy conditions.
At the end of the mixed doubles, Penola led four sets to two.
Paul Rains and Daniel Hackwill provided a great show for the men’s number 1 singles match, and Cate Green proved to be a handy fill-in for Penola at number 3 for the women.
By the time afternoon tea was served and the Pimms started to flow, the men’s doubles consisting of Rains and Peter Obst from Robe versus Penola’s Hackwill and Tom Pearce battled it out in a long match, resulting in Robe winning 10-8.
Robe gained a couple of extra sets due to a forfeit from Caz McGrath, who needed to leave unexpectedly, but Penola proved too strong for the Roosters, ending the day as winners – 17 sets to seven.
Best dressed went to Hackwill for playing the entire day in Dunlop Volleys and Sam McDougal for his sweatband efforts.
Lucindale Koalas 16-144 d Robe Rebels 8-126
It was a hot day for tennis at Lucindale, made all that more challenging with some extremely long and close games as the Koalas came up against the Rebels for Wimbledon Day.
The top mixed doubles was a match of epic proportions with Koalas’ R. Wilkin/L. Graetz getting the win a tiebreak over E. Regnier/L. Hall.
Wilkin and Regnier then went at it again in a great singles display, this time Regnier winning 7-5.
In the ladies, Casey Weaver (Koalas) found a 6-3 win over Kim Austin (Rebels), and Sid Wilkin and Courtney Drabsch fought out a 7-5 battle with Wilkin getting the win.
Three set winners for the day for the Koalas were Leanne Graetz, Jack Grundy and Jarryd Oliver.
Tim Malone was the only three set winner for the Rebels.
Naracoorte Aces 3-80 lt Beachport Buccaneers 21-148
An undermanned Naracoorte side hosted Beachport Buccaneers in very warm conditions with the Buccaneers showing no mercy, only dropping three sets for the day.
Naracoorte could have quite easily secured a few more sets with some great battles being played by top men Daniel Menzel and Noah Lang, with Lang holding on for a 6-4 win.
Buccaneers’ Ty Lang gave Stephen Biggins a 4-love lead to fight back and win in a tie breaker.
On the women’s side the third ladies share the same name and apparently share the same style of game! Lucy Midwinter from Naracoorte could not quite get over the line going down 7-5 to Buccaneers’ Lucy Corman.
The heat obviously did not bother the Midwinter girls with Georgie Midwinter taking it right to Nat Chambers in another great 6-4 battle.
Charlie McCarthy found the only singles set for the day, defeating Maddie Redman, 6-3 – his first seniors tennis win!
Thanks to Naracoorte for providing a good set up outside however the place to be was inside the nice cool clubhouse.
The Buccaneers were easy winners 21 sets to three.
The ladder
The results from Wimbledon Round have certainly tightened the ladder.
Out on top are the undefeated Frances/Lucindale Eagles with 12 points.
Behind them are the Beachport Buccaneers on 11s.
From here the competition tightens as Naracoorte, Lucindale Koalas, Kingston Crays and Penola Rangers each hold six points, only separated by set percentage.
Robe Rebels and Beachport Pirates follow with four points and finally Robe Roosters and Lucindale Wombats.
The Kingston Crays will host Robe Rebels under the lights on Friday night.
Round 7
On Saturday the Lucindale Wombats travel to Beachport to play the Buccaneers, while the Lucindale Koalas will travel to Robe to play the Roosters.
Penola Rangers will host the Beachport Pirates and Frances/Lucindale Eagles host Naracoorte at Apsley.
