St Andrew’s tennis firsts win Settlers Cup

St Andrew’s College 1st tennis team won the 2017 Settlers Cup Quadrangular, an annual event between St Andrew’s, Kingswood, Graeme and Union High 1sts.

Teams compete in singles and doubles, on the same day.

“It usually becomes a survival of the fittest contest and this year proved no different,” said Walter Eksteen, head of tennis at St Andrew’s, as temperatures on court were “in excess of 45C due to the humidity”.

In their first game, St Andrew’s dropped a set against Union, before going on to win the match. They then faced defending champions, Graeme. The sides were neck in neck until St Andrew’s won by 7 matches to 5 due to a good team effort. Scott Cuthbert and Dylan Bowker came from behind to win their doubles game and “seal the deal”, added Eksteen. The pair were trailing 3-7 but came back hard to take the match 8-7 in the tie breaker.

Due to the extreme heat, the afternoon’s matches were shortened and St Andrew’s beat Kingswood by 8 matches to 4. Noteworthy performances for St Andrew’s were Ryan Stoddart and Ignus Potgieter who were unbeaten in their singles matches, while Dylan and Christian Roebert were unbeaten in both singles and doubles.

Graeme was second, with their top performer, Chris Gleaves winning all his six matches.

Kingswood finished third, ahead of Union High.

Photo: Supplied The St Andrew’s side that won the Settlers Cup over the weekend are, from left to right, Scott Cuthbert, Gareth Sparks, Ignus Potgieter, Christian Roebert, Murray Breetzke, Ryan Stoddart, Connor Wishart and Dylan Bowker.