It was a huge weekend of Southern Ports Tennis with plenty of Christmas cheer across the venues in the ninth round of the season.
With every week being of high importance, a top six berth to play off for a division title was key and no team wanted to let any win slip as they headed into the Christmas break!
The Lucindale Wombats will be hoping their loss this weekend to the Eagles will not hurt them too much as they have held on to third for now.
The Eagles have overtaken Millicent/Beachport to sit fourth after a surprisingly a comfortable 15 sets to 9 win over the wombats, minus captain Eliza Hanbury.
It was the blunt end of the team that kept the Eagles finals dreams alive after the big hitters of the Wombats dominated early.
Craig Jones won in the singles over Matthew Waugh, while best players for the Eagles were Flo Burgwin, Cynthia Watt, Bob Williams, Angus McTaggart and Sophie Ford.
The Kingston Crays would have been pretty pumped to not only gain the bragging rights over the Kingston Dolphins in the local derby, but also snag their first win.
It was a beautiful Kingston day for the local derby between the crays and dolphins.
The entire Mules family fielded half the Dolphins side for the first time, but the mixed doubles saw the Crays win five out of six sets.
James Lehmann and Nicola Crane won a tie breaker over Rob and Kirsty Starling.
The singles were very even headlined by an hour-long marathon between Angela Lawrie and Erika Watson won by the former.
Promising young boys Jacob Mules and Hudson Menz played their first official match together with the Dolphin winning 6-4 before faced off.
Matt Menz edged out Shaun Mules in an up and down match, while more close games to finish the day off in the doubles helped the Crays seal their first win at home.
The Lucindale Koalas had another comfortable 15-9 win over the Cockatoos continuing to show they are going to be tough to beat and are pulling a few games clear in second spot.
Teams had their number one men out, while the Cockatoos found handy fill in Bradley McCarthy, the Koala boys all had to step up a position.
The day got away to a flyer for the Koalas winning five of the six mixed sets.
The singles was much tighter with a few thrilling tie breakers.
Mitchell Baker won 7-5 in the tie break against Bill Longbottom, while Chandler Smart stepped up to number one and is nipping at the heels of Tim Durik after beating Bradley McCarthy in a brilliant battle.
There was a big upset in the men’s doubles when Chandler Smart and Adrian Maywald wiped Bradley McCarthy and new recruit James Phillips off the court 9-0.
Winners of all their matches for the Cockatoos were Matt Johns and Beth Drew, while Chandler Smart, Leanne Graetz, Adrian Maywald, Kiele Longbottom, Andrea Buckett and Hannah Grundy dominated for the Koalas.
Chandler Smart and Adrian Maywald dropped just seven games each for the day.
Ladder leader Naracoorte had a convincing win over Millicent/Beachport to maintain its perfect record, but it definitely was not a walk in the park with many close results.
The weather turned it on as Naracoorte travelled to Furner and the mixed doubles started with three tight sets.
Beachport’s top pair showed their experience on the court defeating their rivals in a tiebreaker. At the end of the mixed, Naracoorte had the lead 4-2 and stood up in the singles.
Beachport’s Melissa McGrath showed her leadership with a 6-4 win over undefeated Poppy Moyle-Read to gain their third set.
However, match of the day goes to George White and Jake Harris.
Both players stepped onto the court ready to battle and a hard-hitting affair was the result to the delight of the spectators, with White coming out with a 6-4 win.
The doubles kicked off with two comfortable wins to Naracoorte.
Beachport’s top and bottom men’s doubles scores two more sets for their team, while the Moyle-Read sisters put another on the board for Naracoorte.
At the end of the day Naracoorte 18-150 defeated Beachport 6-100 but the score line did not reflect the intensity of the day.
The grudge match for the round was the Robe Roosters and Rebels showdown for the Lewis Ling Cup.
Lewis Ling is a long-time valued member of the Robe Tennis Club and a nine-time Division 1 winner of the Southern Ports, so it was a real honour to be playing for the cup on Saturday.
After entering two teams into the competition this season, the club knew from the start there was going to be a hype around the day we played each other.
A few tight mixed doubles started the day but Andrew Brown and Isabelle Sneath worked very well with each other to win six games in a row after losing the first to get the Rebels on the board.
Tim Malone also dug deep being 3-5 down to win 7-5 against the big serve of John Agnew.
The Roosters had a 10-8 lead going into the doubles where Emma Vasek and Lisa Hall had a great battle just getting over the line 9-7 to Isabelle Sneath and Lucy Perkins.
The last doubles of the day was the top ladies clash and it was a ripper with the Rebels girls winning 9-7.
In the end the winner of the Lewis Ling Cup was the Robe Roosters 14-10.
With only six games remaining after the Christmas break the fight for ladder positions three to eight is going to be a great tussle in the new year and will be dependent on who can consistently fill their normal line ups.
The Southern Ports Tennis season resumes on Saturday, January 22.
