It’s been another busy week for the members of the Lakes Entrance Tennis Club.
Five members (Cameron, Tony, Alexis, Wayne and James) joined head coach, Mike Spuzen, to represent Bairnsdale Tennis Club (BTC) at the Sale Tennis Club recently as Bairnsdale tried to wrest back the annual challenge shield which Sale has held since 2020.
Each club fielded 32 players, a combination of juniors and seniors, with players competing on behalf of their club and town.
Like the Davis Cup, each town has a captain, being the respective club professional coaches, Jason Yap from Sale and Mike Spruzen from Lakes Entrance, who pick the overall teams and individual match ups.
The competition started with a round of doubles for both the juniors and the seniors. The juniors relished the chance to showcase their skills and the standard of tennis was a credit to them all.
The Sale team found the early doubles matches tough work, however held its own and as the matches progressed finished round one with an overall lead.
The next round was a singles rubber for the juniors, the youngsters relishing the challenge, showing the benefit of the hard work they have been putting in over winter.
By the end of round two Sale was able to open up a decisive lead.
The final round saw the teams mixed up with the Sale and Bairnsdale players joining together for a last doubles rubber. The opportunity to play alongside a player from another club is a unique experience for many and a wonderful feature of a “friendly” challenge.
At the conclusion of play Sale was declared the winner and will now hold the challenge shield for another year.
Bairnsdale Tennis Club president Marg Supplett thanked the Sale hosts, the coaches, the players and the parents who made the trip to Sale.
Sale president Robin Lowe was on hand to accept the challenge shield and to thank Bairnsdale and Lakes Entrance for their friendly competition and the players, coaches and volunteers who helped with organisation and catering.
The best and fairest awards for Sale were presented to Iris Fyfe, Isaac Lazzaro and Damien Theobald.
Last week saw the culmination of the Tuesday night tennis for term three, with term four starting on October 8.
Last season saw six teams play each week, with all players guaranteed three sets of tennis and some pizza.
