Tungamah Tennis Club proved they are the dominant club of the region claiming both the A Grade and B Grade Premierships in the Wilby and District Tennis Association.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Having said that, they certainly didn’t have it all their own way in either grade.
Telford in A Grade and Wilby in B Grade were gallant in defeat and both finals were fantastic contests.
In A Grade the two sides that were dominant all year faced off. Tungamah Green and Telford have both had excellent seasons.
Tungamah started off strongly winning 4 sets to 2 in the mens division. Veteran Josh Buerckner was best on court winning all of his sets.
The scoreline was reversed in the ladies with Telford claiming the 4 sets. Angela Mitchell was the star for Telford being undefeated.
Going into the mixed doubles Tungamah were leading by 5 games. The mixed was split 2 sets apiece but Tungamah claimed this section by 6 games.
Tungamah Green winning the title by 11 games. Tungamah Green have been the powerhouse of the competition and once again claimed the silverware.
The B Grade clash was between Tungamah Gold and Wilby. Both teams have been evenly matched during the year.
Wilby began strongly winning the mens division 4 sets to 2. Russell Whinray winning all 3 sets was crucial in their great start.
Tungamah’s ladies bounced back strongly and won their section 5 sets to 1 with Danielle Lawrence winning all of her matches.
Tungamah also won the mixed doubles 3 sets to 1. Tungamah Gold crowned the B Grade Premiers winning by 17 games in a great night of tennis.
At the conclusion of the evening the Most Valuable Players were announced. The mens award was shared between Wilby’s Mike Lairson and Telford’s Andrew Brew.
Both players are previous winners of this award and are genuine legends of the competition. The ladies award was won by Burramine youngster Tess Bassett. Tess is a very promising junior who is deserving of the award.
The Junior Encouragement Awards were the final awards presented for the night.
These awards were won by Mulwala Gold’s Ava Cox and Wilby’s Viktor Lairson. Both of these juniors have had outstanding seasons and are renowned for their fair play and fantastic attitude.
Congratulations to everyone involved with the Wilby and District Tennis Association.
A special thanks to the eight team captains who were able to ensure teams played each week. The competition will be back in 2025/26 and another sensational season is guaranteed.
Premier League
The third a final week of Premier League was completed on Saturday morning. Premier League has involved four teams of 13 players competing against each other.
With a few absences this week a few younger players were called upon and this willingness to have a hit was appreciated.
In the first match Eagles took on Suns. This match had some tremendous tennis with rallies being very impressive. Eagles were able to defeat Suns 14 sets to 10 which moved them into second place in the competition.
Hudson Matthews, Riley Wallace, Ernie Inchbold, Ella Knights and James O’Kane all won three sets for Eagles. For Suns Billie Buerckner and Natalie Linehan were both undefeated.
Crows and Dockers were the combatants in the second match. This was a close encounter in most matches with Crows just winning 13 sets to 11.
This meant that Crows were the winners of the Premier League competition. For Crows three set winners were Kiera Buerckner, Jimmy Robinson, Ella Smith and Eliza Lawrence.
The final ladder was Crows 67, Eagles 51, Dockers 44 and Suns 38. Well done to all players who participated and congratulations to the winning Crows team consisting of Kiera Buerckner, Maya Isaac, Milla Cox, Eliza Lawrence, Anthony Nieuwenhout, Noah Cox, Ernie Buerckner, Jimmy Robinson, Alec Hemphill, Tully Ellis, Braeden Coates and Lenny Robinson.
Saturday morning tennis
The Saturday morning program continued to provide the opportunity for kids to learn a skill for life whilst establishing new friendships.
The number of Zooper Doopers distributed were at an all time high and clearly a valued finale to each session. Both the Hot Shots and coaching groups are really enjoying their tennis and the coaches are very pleased with the players progress.
The younger match play participants had some excellent matches and they enjoyed themselves. The winners of the groups were Beau Lawrence, Mackenzie Winters, Alex Mulquiney, Winnie Cooper and Alice Withers.
There will be no junior tennis this weekend as it is the long weekend.
After this there will be two more weeks with the last morning on Saturday, March 22.
Club Championships underway
Most of the Club Championship events have been completed. The last few will be completed this week.
A full report of the championships will appear next week.
Thursday Ladies Tennis
Unfortunately, Thursday Ladies tennis was cancelled last week. Following the Tennis Australia guidelines the temperature was predicted to be 38 degrees and therefore no play was allowed.
Play will resume this Thursday.
Tuesday Mens Tennis
The final round of the mens competition was played in beautiful conditions last week. Many matches were extremely long indicating how close the night was.
Nadal were in good form against Borg winning 5 sets to 1. Nadal were led by the pairing of Grant Lewis and Simon De Oleveira who didn’t drop a set.
Top side McEnroe had a close battle with Agassi before sneaking away 4 sets to 2. Arron Robinson was best on court winning 3 sets.
The scoreline was repeated in Lendl and Connors with Connors winning the 4 sets. Scott Jaques was again in career best form dominating the court to be undefeated.
Djokovic’s team of Daryl Bennett, Andrew Banks, Rob Evers and Mitch Moore combined well to win all 6 sets against Laver. Laver were very unlucky as every set was 6/4 or closer.
Edberg and Becker had the match of the night with each team winning 3 sets each and Edberg sneaking home by 2 games. Youngster Thomas Lawrence was undefeated on the night.
In the final match of the night Federer played very well to win 5 sets to 1 against Wilander. Damian Cook and Gareth Oughton were the best for Federer winning all of their sets.
The final ladder is McEnroe 73, Federer 65, Nadal 65, Laver 56, Lendl 52, Agassi 51, Edberg 49, Connors 46, Sampras 45, Borg 45, Djokovic 44, Becker 42 and Wilander 39.
This week in A Grade McEnroe will play Laver and Federer take on Nadal. There are also B Grade and C Grade semi-finals to ensure everyone continues to have a hit.
Goulburn Murray Tennis
The first weekend of Goulburn Murray Tennis Association’s finals was played over the weekend. Five players from Yarrawonga were part of the Division 1 Numurkah team.
Yarrawonga’s contingent were Ellen Bruce, Grant Chappell, Jack Bassett, Lucy Bassett and Tess Bassett.
On Saturday, Numurkah played Nathalia at Cobram in the elimination semi-final. Numurkah started well started well to win the first three doubles and take a 12-game lead.
This lead was further enhanced when they won four of the six singles matches to extend their lead to a strong 21 games.
Nathalia fought back to win the last three doubles matches but Numurkah were home by 14 games. For Numurkah Jack Bassett, Grant Chappell and Lucy Bassett won 2 sets whilst Ellen Bruce won 1 set.
The team had to back up on Sunday to play Shepparton at Numurkah. The first three doubles sets were very close with Numurkah winning 2 sets to take a 7-game lead.
The singles sets were shared 3 apiece but with very strong wins by Jack Bassett and Tess Bassett the lead was extended to 13 games.
Again, Numurkah won 2 of the 3 doubles matches to finish with a 20 game win. All players making a significant contribution.
The Grand Final will be played on March 15 between Numurkah and the other team from Shepparton.
Numurkah will be the underdogs but with a strong finish to the season a close match is predicted.
Yarrawonga Chronicle