WHILE winter arrived across the district, tennis women found a way to warm up on a cold cloudy day last Monday week.

Mansfield hosted Wappan at home for their match and Wappan’s Anna Speirs, Liza Karras, Jenny Bell and Rhonda Carpenter brought determination to their contest in both openers.

Anna and Liza went game for game against Michelle Pigdon and Keira McDonagh in lengthy baseline rallies until the pair pushed through to win 8-6.

On the adjacent court strong serving and court placement allowed Jenny and Rhonda to secure theirs 8-2.

Sophie Yencken and Clare Beecham found their way in to pick up some late games.

Mansfield’s Keira and Clare won theirs 8-5 and in an exciting and energetic set to finish Michelle and Clare found their best form, owning the net and finding the baseline.

Multiple shot rallies and hard-hitting balls were a feature of this fantastic final set.

Mansfield took it 8-4.

Wappan won the day 4/41 to 2/30.

In Benalla, Kate Campbell, Claire Sharp, Maus Jewell and Deb Siggers faced Creighton’s Creek.

Marja Wondergem and Gayle Furphy took it to a tie breaker in their opener, and Erica Mercer and Lisa Krepp were competitive in all the other sets.

Benalla, however, won them all 6/48 to 0/29.

In Euroa, Moglonemby shared sets with Euroa 8-1 each way for their openers.

It was a typical, long day for the teams, with Euroa edging out their opponents by only six games, four sets to two.

With team captain and number one player, Karyn Fraser, fighting a cold, Delatite put the call out Sunday morning for help.

Mary Kelly from team Moglonemby kindly put her hand up and met the team she was helping in Terip Terip.

Natalie Bergsma, Loretta Armitage and the two Debs, McCormack and Mims, left a cold Mansfield to arrive at an even colder Terip Terip with the fire roaring in the clubhouse.

With Deb Mims still coming back from injury and being the fifth wheel she was only too happy to stay in the warmth, keeping the fire roaring, and cheering through the closed doors, waiting for her turn.

Natalie and Mary paired up against a strong team of Cindy Hayes and Bec Lyttle, while Loretta and Deb McCormack took on Frances Lawrence and Jenny Martin.

Despite the score of 1-8 and 4-8 respectively the players felt that the score should have been much closer due to the length of the games.

That final elusive point that gives you the game is so hard to get.

With the comment that Terip still had their jumpers on, and the Mansfield girls had removed theirs, showed how hard they were fighting.

Mary Kelly showed she was made of strong stock and was the bravest with a skirt and short sleeves throughout the day.

Straight back on to play so no one cooled down, Delatite went down with another score line of 1-8 and 4-8.

And now it was Deb Mims turn to remove herself from the warmth of the clubhouse, with Deb McCormack taking over her role.

Mims took her place alongside Natalie against Cindy and Jenny.

Deb and Natalie fought hard and were not going to concede easily but went down 5-8.

Next door Loretta and Mary fought hard but were happy to make it into the warmth of the clubhouse.

With going down to top team, Terip six sets – 0, 48 - 16 games, the comment was made that it did not feel like we had been beaten by that much.

As usual, a delicious afternoon tea with lots of chatter and laughter followed, before heading back to Mansfield.