Sport
15 November, 2021
Pittsworth Tennis Club’s champs decided
Pittsworth Tennis Club’s annual club championships finished last week with nine players sharing the 10 trophies on offer.
The most topsy-turvy event was the men’s singles, which featured plenty of upsets before Phil Thompson emerged as the 2021 club champion.
He overcame a first-up 5/6 loss to Aaron Watt to finish top of his round robin group, after Aaron went down 3/6 to Con Shayler.
In the other group, Shaun Dolley upset three time champion Glen Featonby 6/5 to move through to the final, after both accounted for Kurt Dillman in their head-to-head sets.
Neither Phil or Shaun has been club champion previously, and they played a fittingly tight final before Phil emerged 6/5 victorious.
The ladies’ singles played on the same evening was sadly hit by misfortune when 2019 champion Lisa Frank had to withdraw mid-match to help a family member who suffered a medical episode while spectating.
This left just two ladies in the event, Megan Smith and Rebekah Watt, both past champions, who were asked to play a two-set match.
Defending champion Megan prevailed 7/3, 7/3, but sustained a calf injury which forced her to withdraw from the
following night’s mixed double event.
Glen Featonby and Amy Speck won the annual Ivan Mahoney Family Shield event, undefeated on 21 games, ahead of runners-up Con Shayler and Chris Gordon on 19.
Kurt Dillman and Deanne Olischlager were also undefeated in the Reserve Grade mixed doubles, with Greg Gordon and Kate Fogarty runners-up on 19 games.
The ladies’ doubles was won by Julianne McEwan and Rebekah Watt, with Sue Hass and Megan Smith runners-up on a countback from Dusanka Peck and Lisa Frank, with both pairs finishing with 18 games.
Congratulations to club vice-president Errol McEwan who ran a well-co-ordinated and seeded tournament across the three nights.
As usual, he did a good job of pairing players of varying standards to produce competitive matches in the doubles events.
Along with trophies, this year’s winners were presented with caps featuring Pittsworth Tennis Club’s brand new logo.
Fixtures resume this week, weather permitting.
With just three weeks left of the year-long season, Cyclones on 54 points are guaranteed a place in the December 7 final.
Tornados and Typhoons, both on 49, will meet in the preliminary final on November 23.
Hurricanes on 40 points have missed the finals.
