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Round 17 Wrap – 2/3/09

Written By - Andrew Webster
A strong message has been signaled to the rest of the competition as Spring Gully Mozzies taught South Bendigo a lesson in tennis. The rest of the competition will now have to step up as they witnessed an impressive display of power and control as the Mozzies now look favorites with finals just 1 week away.

In what was expected to be a tightly contested match, the Mozzies were never really troubled for the entire match.
South Bendigo are now holding on grimly to third place and are in danger of slipping further down the premiership ladder unless they can somehow manage some form reversal.

South Bendigo 44-1-1 lt Spring Gully Mozzies 92-11-11

The return of Paul Condliffe to the Mozzies line up seemed to provide an additional spark which resulted in a clean sweep of the opening matches. Uncharacteristically, South lost their opening 3 sets 5-8, 4-8, 5-8 which is a first for the season.

Jamie Brown was again in devastating form as he outplayed South’s Grant Leader. Brown never looked troubled as he broke the normally solid serve of Leader twice to take out the set 8 games to 4.

The one shining light from South Bendigo was Corbin Flemming winning what would be the only set for the day, 8-4 against Arnold from Spring Gully.

The day was over for South Bendigo before going into the final 3 sets, with Spring Gully making a clean sweep 8-4, 8-3 and 8-0 and consolidating their position on top of the ladder.

This loss for South will serve as a reminder that they must bring their A game every week, especially against a team like the Mozzies.

Bendigo Lawn76-7-7 df Strath Park Storm 62-5-5

Bendigo Lawn had a close call against Strath Park Storm but it was the Garwood brothers that were again the difference on the day, being undefeated in all their matches.

Curt Garwood is perhaps in career best form, winning 8-1, 8-5 and 8-2, with probably the most impressive win being against Terry Smith who just could not match the fitness of Garwood.

Tamara Wright and Courtney Jarman found the going tough against the ever reliable Tova Smith and Michelle Rodwell. The Storm girls showed the value of experience and placement over the harder hitting of Jarman and Wright taking out their singles 8-2 and 8-4 respectively.

In a surprise upset Michael “Tiger” Nihill narrowly lost his singles to Michael Hogan, but that seemed to provide the motivation as Nihill won his next 2 sets, 8-4 and 8-6 which proved to be the difference on the day.

Strath Park 96-12-12 df Castlemaine 43 -0-0

With the season effectively now over for both these teams it was a battle for the wooden spoon.
A disappointing Castlemaine could not mount any sort of attack against Strath.

The Baker boys ripped through Castlemaine easily accounting for all their sets and Strath’s women of Robbins and Long were as equally impressive.

Castlemaine are now left languishing at the bottom of the ladder after beginning the season with expectations of playing off in this season’s finals.

Certainly with players of the caliber of Hartland, Burke, Harris and Cole, Castlemaine should have been eyeing a top 4 position but instead are looking back now on missed opportunities.

Best players were Jack Baker and Heather Robbins.
 

Section 2

Spring Gully New China 10-81 df BLTC Green 0-28
Spring Gully Blue 8-78 df Epsom 2-59
Spring Gully Sensation 8-72 df BLTC Bronze 2-37

Section 3
BLTC Rafa 4-55 lt Strath Park Symmetry 6-69
BLTC Red 6-61 df BLTC Blue 4-49
BLTC Federer 3-53 lt-BLTC Gold 7-66