Saints top ladder

St Michaels sits atop the Central Wimmera Tennis Association pennant ladder after previously-undefeated Horsham Lawn lost a thrilling encounter with Drung South at the weekend.

Lawn and Drung South finished locked at seven sets apiece, with the Drungsters coming out ahead on games 98-82.

The Friday night match-up see-sawed throughout, but Drung South always managed to be competitive in sets it lost.

The four singles rubbers were a microcosm of the overall match. Lawn’s Jae Mcgrath defeated Drung South rival Dylan Emmerson 8-6, the same score Lawn’s Cherie Wood beat opponent Georgia Mclennan by.

Drung South claimed the other two singles rubbers more comfortably, with Ben Brooksby and Kate-lyn Perkin downing Hayden Farlow and Bridie Freehan respectively 8-3.

The Drungsters needed to claim three of the final four doubles rubbers to draw even on sets.

The team’s women stepped up, with Perkin and Romi Miller combining to beat Freehan and Rachel Mckinnon 8-4, and Mclennan and Sandra Casey downing Wood and Tanya Sudholz by the same score.

St Michaels is now the lone undefeated team after cruising to a 12-106 to 2-40 win against Telangatuk East.

While the match was one-sided, Telangatuk East had plenty of reason to celebrate, with four members of the same family taking to the court for the home side.

Peter Rogers and his children Leigh, Kate and Daniel made up half of the Telangatuk East team.

Peter and Daniel got Telangatuk East off to a good start with an 8-3 doubles win against St Michaels’ Ian Nitschke and Steffi Mcdonald before the Saints got on top.

Kalkee worked hard for an 8-86 to 6-61 win against Haven to stay in the top four.

Horsham Lawn and Haven will now battle for top spot when they play on Saturday, with Drung South to host Haven and Telangatuk East travelling to Kalkee.