Wild skies and wonderful results in tennis

Wet and Wild Wednesday Night by Amy Les THREATENING skies building over the afternoon broke just in time for the 7pm start. The variety of shots displayed on all courts rivalled the weather pattern of the night. With some last-minute change ups on the card for Out of the Blue, Joe Kelleher stepped in to support the night. The pairing of Chris Hewlett and Steph Herridge locked in an awesome first set battle with Brown Sugar’s Nick Ferguson and Kimberley Marsden, who were triumphant in the end. Will McAllister and Joe Kelleher brought the card back to even for Out of the Blue with a win over the Brown Sugar combination of Mick Davis and Leonie McLaughlin. The remainder of the card was played in high spirits with Out of the Blue winning the night. A quote from David Mims ‘saw Crimson Souls under crimson skies’ start the night with passion. David and Suzie Wellborne played a tightly fought set against Peter Scales and Kate Les with True Colours just chalking up the win. Father and daughter combination Rob and Amy Les took to the court against Simon Young and Helen Knight with the end score evening up the card. Crimson Souls, David and Helen picked up the next battle over Peter and Amy, with Kate and Rob holding up against Simon and Suzie. Four sets in and points were even. Although weather interrupted the final sets, True Colours managed to finish the night with a win. Red Roses combinations of Emma Kay, Claire Zhang, Robert Williams and Alice Kilpatrick triumphed over Burnt Orange’s Warren Medcalf, Abbey McConnell, Chelsea Dean and Anna Francis. The score board did not depict the competitive spirit of the games played and the noise from the courts far outweighed the thunder being heard in the distance. Despite ominous skies and weather interruptions all teams managed to finish their sets, with the ladder as follows. Wednesday Ladder: Out of the Blue 21, Brown Sugar 17, True Colours 17, Red Roses 15, Burnt Orange 8, Crimson Souls 6 Thankful on Thursday night by Ilena Meek THURSDAY night consisted of many fill ins this week and happy to say that this is a great result for the club with so many people helping each other out. Awesome! Come Together’s Rhonda and Bob were replaced by Laura Gosney and Jenny Bell, Night Fever’s Ben Nally was replaced by Suzie Wellborne and Let it Be’s Agnes Kay was replaced by Loretta Armitage. Changes Jason O’Brien was replaced by Bill Jones and Smooth Operators brought in Max O’Loughlan for Bec Studds. The only complete team was Let’s Dance with newbies led by their knight in shining armour Michael McCormack. They have something to share with Mansfield Tennis Association this week. ‘On behalf of Let’s Dance we are very new to tennis, and this was only our third game ever. We would just like to say that everyone has been incredibly encouraging and supportive within this competition by giving us coaching tips along the way: how to hold the racquet, how to volley and smash, and yup we need to move our feet. Not to mention all the great laughs. We are pleased to realise we are improving every week. So, thank you from Zoe, Bec, and Naima.’ One team from each match managed to take every set off their opponents for the evening. Nevertheless, these matches weren't won lightly. With lots of amazing net shots, smashes, and hard hitting, everyone fought hard to get points on the score card. Bron Sly even used her trick shot routine returning the ball to bounce once on the opponent’s court and return straight over the net. Unplayable. From coaching lessons on courts one and two and in between sets, it was Let it Be who won against Night Fever 36 to seven. Come Together took the chocolates from Changes 36 to 18 enjoying the only two tiebreakers played for the entire evening, and Smooth Operators took the win from Let's Dance 36 to nine. Juniors by Jo O’Brien A BIG shout out to the female Junior Tennis competitors this week showing for sure that #ThisGirlCan. The Mansfield Tennis Association is thrilled to have 18 girls on our Junior Competition List and work with our newly appointed Club Coach, Liam Delany to secure funding from Tennis Australia to run a free #NoLimitsGirls Squad training program this season. It is wonderful to have our female participation increase and see the girls improve their skills, grow in confidence and have fun together. Congratulations to all our section winners this week. Eadie Hostetter, Edwin Morphett, Jack Stevenson, Henry Yencken, Harrison Bergsma, Angus Speirs, Patrick Delany and Wilfred Hostetter. Coach Liam Delany delivered four red ball sessions for Hot Shots on Saturday morning developing the youngsters’ skills. Groundstrokes, serves, rallies and court movement were covered with players showed noticeable improvement during their sessions.

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