Peppin Planners were the winners on Wednesday (Back, from left) Mel Anderson, Hannah Nisbet, Mackenzie Cheeseman, Hayley Denny, Zac Pearce, Haydn McKay, Andrew Smith and Jamie Chadderton; (front) Jack Fitzpatrick, Chris Champness, James Sandford, Donna McCluskey, Clive Gow, Jack Eastman and Rowan Frazer.
There was a no-holds-barred clinch between Mitre 10 and Peppin Planners on Wednesday night for the Deniliquin Lawn Tennis Club’s twilight competition decider.
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However, the clinch was at a distance as the teams were playing for supremacy over eight rounds of tennis, each round being a match of 26 sets of tennis between two teams, each with 15 players.
Mitre 10 was nine sets behind after seven weeks of tennis, and Wednesday evening was their last chance to pinch the lead from Peppin Planners.
Mitre 10 chose their strongest possible line-up with all their gun players.
Indeed, they had a successful night, winning 17 sets, 123 games against Legal Eagles, nine sets and 110 games.
A strong result could have proved a winning score.
It was not to be.
Peppin Planners kept their cool and the lead through the evening and had a strong result, mimicking Mitre 10 in winning 17 sets 130 games over Deniliquin Newsagency nine sets 98 games.
So the result at the end of the evening was that Peppin was able to maintain their nine-set lead and won the autumn Twilight Tennis comp - a relief to the 21 players in the Peppin team.
A special word for Jack Fitzpatrick, who had been traded to Deni Newsagency for the night.
Jack drew the in form Haydn McKay to play against.
Jack stuck to his tennis and, although claiming to have won three sets, in fact, did win one set against Haydn.
Not a bad result against the player with the best win-loss ratio out of the 80 players. Haydn was a three-set winner four times over the comp.
He won 105 games out of 108 games he played.
The grading committee will pay special attention to a re-grade for the next comp.
Jon Gatacre, also playing for Peppin, was second in the men’s best ratio, scoring 17 games out of 18 each time he played.
Rowan Frazer snuck into with the third-best ratio.
In the ladies’ ratios, Jemma Smith had the best ratio and was a three-set winner four times in the five rounds that she played.
Serrin Canfield was the second-best scorer, and new chum Ruby Hicks had the third best ratio.
Three set winners for Peppin were Hannah Nisbit, Donna McCluskey (C), Rowan Frazer, Zac Pearce and Clive Gow.
For Deni News, Henry Osborne and Eric Moore were three set winners.
Jamie Chadderton, for Peppin, had the job of taking on Eric Moore, and he kept at the task all three sets but lost the three sets; however, he took eight games away from the night.
Jack Eastman, for Peppin, had the task of neutralising the dangerous Benjy Pisasale and was mostly successful in taking two sets of Benjy.
The Deniliquin Newsagency team (Back, from left) Isabella Gow, Meghana Shanbhag, Georgia Booth, India Hicks, Eric Moore; (front) Danyon Barnes, Henry Osbourne, Michael Williams, Benjy Pisasale, Rob Wettenhall, Rich Larcombe and Steve Perry.
The Legal Eagles team (Back, from left) Brad Aitken, Ruby Barnes, Aidan Dellar, Steve Lowry and Peter Rae; (front) Lane Lakey, Felicity Dye, Miranda Rose, Michael Pisasale, Adrian Dunmore and Ric Bond.
Mitre 10 were runner-up: (Back, from left) Jon Sibree, Nick Bliss, Serrin Canfield, Jemma Smith, Mary James, Taylah Gow and Praveen Kotholla; (front) Rob Brown, Adam Menadue, Jack McGrillen, John Henderson, Jacob Bulmer, Andrew Ritchie and Mick Farley.
DLTC president Nick Metcalfe with women’s three-set award winner Jemma Smith.
DLTC president Nick Metcalfe with men’s three set award winner Haydn McKay.
The Peppin Planners: (Back Left) Rowan Frazer, Carl Wenke, Haydn McKay, Jamie Chadderton, Clive Gow, Chris Champness, Jack Eastman, (Front left) Donna McCluskey, Hayley Denny, Mackenzie Cheeseman, Zac Pearce and Andrew Smith.
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