Juniors fly flag in loss
BARWON HEADS solidified its place in third position on the Tennis Geelong Section 1 ladder with a convincing 6.0.37 to 0.0.16 away win over Wandana Heights on Saturday.
The home side was always going to find the going tough without its coach, James Brushfield, but the competitive nature of youngsters such as Lachlan Hanson and Jack Henry ensured Barwon Heads was made to earn each of its six set victories.
Barwon Heads captain Ben Dew said credit had to go to his opponents, who had played competitive junior tennis on Saturday morning before fronting up in the heat of the afternoon.
“Their top junior players were the ones who played on Saturday, and I think it was the same thing last time we played them as well, so we’ve been fortunate both times that James hasn’t been available,” Dew said.
“Those boys are going to be good players and they played juniors in the morning and then seniors in the afternoon.
“It’s a lot of tennis so I’m sure they would have just wanted to step off the court by the time we were playing (in the afternoon), but they’re going to be around playing tennis for a very long time, so that is good.”
Tennis Geelong will take a break until next February, with the Victorian Grasscourts Championships, Australian Open and regional AMT events to keep local players and fans busy. Dew said he was looking forward to a break but anticipated the competition would heat up again quickly next year ahead of finals.
“It’s close around the third and fourth mark and Newcomb (first) is head and shoulders above at the moment but we didn’t play them with our best team so it will be good with the team we had on Saturday,” he said.
“I feel that is probably our strongest combination, and even St Mary’s (second) is another one we went down to but we won four games in the last two sets so we kind of choked.’’