Vets lose grip on quad crown

Last year’s champion Nelson veterans tennis team lost their crown following three straight losses at the annual quadrangular tournament played in fine weather in Blenheim at the weekend.

With only five of last year’s 16 players available this year, it was always going to be a tough task for Nelson to defend their title.

However, Saturday morning’s match against Marlborough was closer than the 11-5 loss suggested, with eight of the 16 matches going to third-set super tiebreakers of which Marlborough won six and Nelson two.

The rubber was tied at 4-4 after the men’s and women’s doubles.

After that, though, Nelson could manage to win only one of six third-set tiebreakers in the mixed doubles with the husband and wife pairing of Brett and Marlene Martin beating Hiro Kishida and Roberta Marshall 5-7 6-3 10-3.

Nelson’s afternoon clash with eventual winners Canterbury was also one-sided, with only the bottom pairings in both men’s and women’s doubles securing wins in the 14-2 loss.

Only two matches went to a third set.

A win over Canterbury Country in Sunday morning’s match would have seen Nelson in a three-way tie for second, Nelson eventually losing 12-4.

Again it was Nelson’s bottom pairings who secured the wins with Philip Stevenson and Geoff Nalder winning their doubles and both mixed doubles matches with respective partners Alice Anderson and Denise Marshall.

The number six pairing of Tania Erskine and Sam Piper also won their mixed doubles.