Section 1 Premiers, Corowa Blue - Rachel Crawford, Claire Davidson, Johnno Keys, Peter Filliponi, Darrell Spencer and Helen Fuge.
The NERTA season culminated in the Grand Finals played at the picturesque Merriwa Park complex at the Wangaratta Lawn Courts for the first time.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
A big thankyou to the Wangaratta Lawn Club for making their courts available at late notice after the Corowa courts were deemed not quite up the standard required. All teams had high hopes of success but unfortunately there can only be one winner on Grand Final day. To the victors go the spoils and to the vanquished goes the heartache of being so close.
Section 1
Section 1 Runners Up, Corowa Red - Amanda Hemphill, Jo Brooks, Marianne Spencer, Scott Francis, Josh Quick and Peter Filliponi.
The match between Corowa Blue (Claire Davidson, Rachael Crawford, Helen Fuge, Darrell Spencer, Jono Keys, Greg Filliponi) and Corowa Red (Marianne Spencer, Jo Brooks, Amanda Hemphill, Scott Francis, Peter Filliponi, Josh Quick) went the distance with the result still in the balance until the last set was completed.
Corowa Blue started favourites with a near perfect season behind them, their only blemish coming in the rain affected first round of the season where Corowa Red took the points.
The match began with both sides trading sets, the Blue men were on top while Red’s women were outstanding. The turning point in the match came when Blue’s Rachael and Helen managed to win the final women’s set and this then ensured that Blue would go into the mixed sets with a 2 set and a 3 game advantage.
Corowa Red’s Scott and Marianne turned the tables quickly with a decisive 8-3 victory to put themselves a game in front and give themselves a chance of forcing a super tie break to decide the Premiership but the Blue team showed why they have been the best team all year as they steadied and won the remaining 2 sets to record a comfortable victory in the end.
Blue’s Greg Filliponi was unstoppable with 3 sets while Red’s Marianne Spencer recorded 3 sets for the runner ups.
Section 2
Section 2 Premiers, Wahgunyah Red - Ethan Palmer, Travis McDonald, Kylie Greig, Jesse Johnston, Mareeta Corcoran, Max Harvey and Sonia Palmer.
Wahgunyah Red (Mareeta Corcoran, Kylie Greig, Max Harvey, Travis McDonald, Jesse Johnstone, Ethan Palmer) have been the measuring stick for the rest of the competition for 2 years and deservedly started this final as raging favourites but Everton Blue (Jo Lucas, Julie Deretic, Melanie Hellebrand, Garry Bennett, Russell Bennett, Alan Wood) weren’t to be taken lightly as they have been peaking at the right end of the season.
The final scoreline is very deceiving as this match was much closer than the 7-2 victory suggests. Everton opened brightly with an 8-1 women’s win while Garry and Russell pushed Travis and Jesse to the limit with a number of deuce games and they were just unable to win the vital points that mattered.
The match was turned on its head when Wahgunyah won a women’s set courtesy of the consistency and brilliance of Max Harvey. He was the difference between the 2 teams.
He then teamed with Kylie and lead from the front with an impressive performance that belied his tender years. Wahgunyah’s confidence was growing and from here they never allowed Everton a chance to recover and ran out convincing winners.
Max Harvey was Wahgunyah’s best closely followed by Travis and Ethan while Jo Lucas, Julie Deretic and Russell Bennett put respectability on the scoreboard for Everton.
Section 2 Runners Up, Everton Blue - Alan Wood, Russell Bennett, Jenny Cooper, Leanne Wood, Gary Bennett, Jo Lucas and Tim Dickinson. Absent from photo: Julie Deretic and Melanie Hellebrand.
Section 3
Wahgunyah Red (Kane Palmer, Ollie Struve, Andrew Palmer, Brett Skinner) went into this final as the only undefeated team in the competition and were always going to be hard to beat but Wahgunyah Blue (Priscilla Hill, Matt Vogel, Corey Hill, Liam Hill) knew the task at hand would take a herculean effort and saw it as a challenge.
Blue began well but were unable to secure the necessary points at the critical times to win games and although the first 2 sets were 8-6 and 8-1 losses, they were always in the contests.
Wahgunyah Red held all the aces on the day and controlled the match and never allowed Blue to settle and ran out comfortable winners.
Wahgunyah Red were the top team all year and were only getting better as the season drew to a close and deserved their victory.
Blue had an impressive season but found the last hurdle was too large and were gallant in defeat. As a side note this was 4th time lucky for Wahgunyah Red’s captain Kane Palmer.
Results
Team Wahgunyah Red: Andrew Palmer, Brett Skinner, Ollie Struve and Kane Palmer.
10°C