Close matches and high quality play

Tuesday night by Mark O’Loughlan ANOTHER beautiful night for tennis saw some high-quality play and some close matches. Murray defeated Crockett four to two Alex Macphee and Tony Canterbury had a really tight win in a tiebreaker over Jason Blake and Daniel Dundas to give Crockett the early momentum, but Murray came back strongly to win four of the next five sets. Jason Blake and Andrew Downey avenged the earlier tiebreaker loss to salute over Alex Macphee and Rohan West, while Tony Canterbury and Al Crockett managed to take the final set over Daniel Dundas and Michelle Pigdon. McDonagh defeated Aldous four to two McDonagh needed a fill-in this week and drafted in the indefatigable Erich Schneider, who showed that age is no barrier, combining with Glenn Fox to beat Brandan Grant and Fiona Lindsay six to one. Greg McDermott and Keira McDonagh also had a solid win over Michael Whytcross and David Aldous to keep the ball rolling for McDonagh. Aldous managed to pick up a couple of sets to eventually go down four sets to two. O'Loughlan defeated Blackall six to zero Guy Taylor and Sarah Fox got the ball rolling for O'Loughlan with a solid six to three win over Max Ree-Goodings and Dion Theodossi, with Mark and Max O'Loughlan following suit with a six to two win over Anna Speirs and Jemma Blackall. O'Loughlan managed to win each of the remaining sets on the night, but the matches were all closer than the scoreboard indicated, with many, many games going to deuce. Tuesday Ladder: Murray 16, Yencken 12.5, O’Loughlan 12.5, McDonagh 11.5, Hutchison 9.5, Crockett 8, Blackall 7.5, Aldous 6.5 Wednesday night by Kimberley Marsden LOP-SIDED scorecards didn’t reflect the fierce on court battles as teams jostled for the major match points last Wednesday night. Lengthy sets played out in the match between Crimson Souls and Red Roses and in one set every service game went to deuce. Coming back from injury for his first match of the season Dave Mims got through unscathed. Robert Williams and Sean Pitchford took their first set in a tiebreak with Sean’s weird wrist action working out for a few winners. Suzie Wellborne and Jane Swinburne took their set six to two for the Crimson Souls but Red Roses Emma Kay, Alice Kilpatrick, Robert and Sean won every other set to get six match points. Brown Sugar’s Peter Hood and Kimberley Marsden were a good team out of luck in their contest against True Colours. Leonie McLaughlin held up her end of the bargain in her debut, winning the team’s only set with partner Mick Davis who was jumping for joy, and giving the integrity of the fence a test. Scoring was easy as True Colours Peter Scales, Rob, Kate and Amy Les were strong in all the other sets and picked up six match points. Out of the Blue’s Chris Hewlett, Matty Lowe, Steph Herridge and Kelly Purcell were in fine form against Burnt Orange. Newcomer Chad Owens combined strongly with Warren Medcalf, Abbey McConnell and Melanie Kormoczi who gave their all, ultimately unlucky to lose a tiebreak, but gained kudos by winning a final set pairing six to two. Out of the Blue picked up six match points. Wednesday Ladder: Out of the Blue 16, Brown Sugar 15, True Colours 12, Burnt Orange eight, Red Roses eight and Crimson Souls four. Thursday night by Bron Sly THURSDAY night saw players escape the hordes of trick or treaters and retreat safely to the tennis court. First up on court one and two was the battle between Let’s Dance and Let It Be. Michael McCormack and Naima Crisp from Let’s Dance gave it their all against Let It Be’s Natalie Bergsma and Agnes Kay. The set was close the entire way with Natalie and Agnes victorious seven to three in the tiebreaker. Let’s Dance’s Zoe Richards and Rebecca Wardenaar put on a great show against Tim Vardy and Jodie Morrow, unfortunately going down zero to six. Members from both teams demonstrated their eagerness by undertaking some training sessions between sets. Michael and Rebecca were up next against Natalie and Jodie. The set was well matched with some exciting points, the ladies from Let It Be taking the honours six games to four. Zoe and Naima fought valiantly but ended their set scoreless against Tim and Agnes. The final sets saw Natalie and Tim claim victory over Michael and Zoe six to one while Agnes and Jodie defeated Naima and Rebecca six to four. Let’s Dance ended the night with 14 games while Let It Be had a clean sweep with six sets and 36 games. Courts three and four were home to a showdown between Come Together and Night Fever. Come together featured Shane Richards, Kassy Thomas and Rhonda and Bob Carpenter while Jenny Bell once again joined Night Fever’s Bron Sly, Chelsea Dean and Courtney Purcell. The first set saw the Carpenter duo take on Bron and Courtney, some great rallies were had, Rhonda and Bob took the set six to one. On the other court Shane and Kassy faced off against Jenny and Chelsea, Come Together taking the set six to three. Bob continued to bamboozle the opposition with his ambidextrous hitting, this time partnering with Shane to claim victory over Jenny and Courtney six to two. Next up was Rhonda and Kassy against Bron and Chelsea, both teams had some great shots as well as a few lucky net cords! Rhonda and Kassy coming up trumps with six games to four. Kassy and Bob finished their evening off strongly with a six to one win against Chelsea and Courtney. The last set of the night was hard fought with Shane and Rhonda taking on Jenny and Bron. The set was full of superb rallies and skilful cross court shots, scores remained close until a break in the ninth game allowed Jenny and Bron to claim victory six to four. Come Together ended the night with a convincing 34 games to Night Fever’s 17. The final matchup of the night saw Smooth Operators featuring Arthur Gerrans, Brendan Purcell, Bill Jones and Suzie Wellborne take on Liza Karras, Jo O’Brien, Cathie Anderson and Les Kerr from Changes. The first set between Arthur and Brendan and Liza and Jo went down to the wire, with Changes taking it out in a tiebreaker seven to zero. The next three sets were won by Smooth Operators. Bill and Suzie, filling in for the night came out swinging, taking their first set against Cathie and Les six to two. Arthur and Suzie came together against Liza and Les, winning six to two. Bill and Brendan battled against Cathy and Jo with both teams demonstrating their prowess with some powerful shots. Bill and Brendan took the set six games to four. The last two sets were hard fought, long rallies seeing the teams last out on the courts. Arthur and Bill paired up for a long set against Liza and Cathy; it was a close competition with Arthur and Bill prevailing in the tiebreaker seven to four. Brendan and Suzie won the fifth set of the night for Smooth Operators against Jo and Les six to four. Smooth Operators claimed victory with 35 games, jumped into the third place from bottom spot, and Changes won a strong 23 games to round out the top four. Thursday Ladder: Come Together 18, Let it Be 14, Smooth Operators 10 Changes nine, Night Fever seven, Let’s Dance five,

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