Yarrawonga Lawn Tennis Club has been named as a finalist as the Club of the Year for the prestigious Tennis Victoria Awards. Other nominations for this section are metropolitan clubs Fawkner, Hume and Viewbank.
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To be nominated for such a reward is recognition of all of the hard work by the club members led by a dedicated committee.
Year in year out, the award-winning Easter Tournament caters for over 1200 players, the junior program is the envy of clubs throughout Victoria and the courts continue to be renowned throughout Australia.
On top of the regular tournaments and events held every year, last year the club also hosted the Victorian Inter-Regionals Country Championships and Tennis Victoria’s Country Week.
These tournaments are the jewels in Tennis Victoria’s crown and Yarrawonga hosted them both.
If Yarrawonga wins it will be fantastic. If another club wins, then good luck to them as all clubs are run by volunteers.
Kids having a ball
Saturday mornings juniors were back, and it was terrific to see the kids on the courts enjoying themselves. With 205 players signed up for the various programs it is going to ensure a great season.
The Hot Shots program is designed for novice players aged between 5 and 7. The kids learn the fundamentals of tennis on small courts with low compression tennis balls.
Minor games and skills are combined in the 40-minute sessions designed to keep the kids entertained whilst learning new skills. The kids really enjoyed their first morning under the tutorage of current Club Champion Lucy Bassett and assistants Emily Linehan, Hayley Bennett and Tess Bassett.
The assistance of parents for this program is essential and it was great to see everyone getting involved.
The coaching program is the next step on the Saturday morning coaching journey and is aimed at players between the ages of 7 and 11.
Club Coach Greg Duns oversees this area and he has had to be very creative with around 30 players in each group. As usual Greg will design programs that are both entertaining and appropriate for player development.
With gun juniors Jack Bassett, Fraser Bennett, Ella Rhodes, Jess Linehan, Mekaylah Duns and Laynee Rhodes also lending their knowledge to this program it is evident that these juniors will rapidly improve.
The players that will play matches were part of a fun game of ‘Up and Down the River’ that ensured everyone in attendance hit a maximum amount of balls whilst they were there.
With many kids starting off a little rusty, it didn’t take long for rallies to become longer with some awesome shots being played. Nearly every court was filled to capacity which was awesome.
Whilst the numbers for the Saturday junior program have been overwhelming, the club has taken positive steps by ensuring there is a lot of coaches to ensure as many balls are hit each morning as possible.
There are still positions available and anyone interested are encouraged to contact Greg Duns, Lisa Linehan or Jason Bassett as soon as possible to join the fun.
A junior squad program has commenced on a Thursday afternoon. Squad is overseen by experienced Club Coach Greg Duns. Greg provides a range of drills to ensure stroke and tactical development.
Greg and his coaching team also provide junior group coaching sessions on Wednesday and Friday afternoons.
These sessions are great fun and to improve at tennis it is recommended that a weekday practice session coupled with Saturday morning matchplay is a perfect combination. For younger players the more tennis sessions the kids do the better they become.
Wilby Tennis Competition
Round one of the Wilby and District Tennis Association commenced on the weekend. It was fantastic to see all of the teams back on the court.
With a mixture of youth and experience in all teams, each encounter is played in great spirits.
Tungamah Green hosted Burramine in a replay of the last year’s Grand Final. Tungamah unfurled their premiership flag in front of a huge crowd on the banks of the Boosey Creek.
The men’s matches were extremely close with both teams winning 3 sets each with Jason Bassett claiming all of his sets.
In the ladies Burramine’s Lucy Bassett, Tess Bassett, Narelle Bassett and Kirsty Skene demonstrated strong early form to win all 6 sets.
Burramine also claimed all the mixed sets to claim the most games on the night. Overall Burramine 6 points to 2 points.
On the grass courts Telford hosted Savernake. Many predict this could be the top two sides of the season.
Telford’s men continue to be very strong and they won 5 sets to 1 with Andrew Brew and Andrew Banks winning each set.
The ladies could not have been any closer with the sets split and both teams winning 25 games. Sandra Banks was the best lady with 3 wins. Telford finished the night strong winning all 4 mixed sets. Telford claiming the win 7 points to 1.
Lonsdale Reserve was packed to the rafters with the battle of Mulwala taking place. Mulwala Gold got the early jump in the men’s section with Damian Cook and Jason Cox undefeated leading the way to win 5 sets to 1.
Mulwala Maroon fought back in the ladies and after the sets being shared 3 apiece, Maroon won by 4 games. Mulwala Maroon won the mixed section 3 sets to 1.
Overall Maroon Gold won on the night by 14 games with the points shared 4 each.
The final match on Saturday was between Wilby and Tungamah Gold. With the Wilby drag races in full swing next door, it was a great atmosphere although hearing line calls was problematic.
Wilby’s men started strongly winning 5 sets to 1 with Craig Prescott and Russell Whinray undefeated. The ladies section was extremely tight with each team winning 3 sets with Kayla Whinray winning all of her sets.
All of the mixed matches were close with Wilby winning 3 of the sets. Overall Wilby won by 18 games and claimed the day 6 points to 2.
After round 1 the ladder is Telford 7, Burramine 6, Wilby 6, Mulwala Gold 4, Mulwala Maroon 4, Tungamah Gold 2, Tungamah Green 2, Savernake 1.
This week Mulwala Gold host Tungamah Green, Burramine will take on Telford, Wilby will make the trek to Savernake and Tungamah Gold will welcome Mulwala Maroon.
North East Veterans Tournament
Yarrawonga hosted the first tournament of the year in the North East Veterans series. This series is for players aged 30 and over and during the tennis season there are 16 tournaments across the region.
Around 30 players blew the cobwebs off their racquets and many displayed some good form. It was pleasing to see so many local players supporting the event.
Amy Lairson played extremely well to win her division narrowly from clubmate Ellen Bruce. Mike Lairson also had a good day finishing second on his card.
Goulburn Murray Tennis
The Goulburn Murray Tennis Association commenced round 1 on Saturday. Local clubs Numurkah and Cobram have been very generous in the support of Yarrawonga players keen to play at a higher standard.
In Division 1 Numurkah had a great battle with Nathalia with the rubber shared 6 sets all with Nathalia coming out on top by 11 games. Jack Bassett won 2 sets, Lucy Bassett 1 set and Liam Williams making a tennis comeback also winning a set.
In Division 2 Numurkah also took on Nathalia with Numurkah winning 7 sets to 4. Ellen Bruce and Tess Bassett both played really well to win all of their sets.
Cobram hosted Kialla and had a strong 8 sets to 3 win. Daryl Bennett won 2 sets and Hayley Bennett had a singles win.
Fast Four is back
The interest in the Wednesday Social Tennis has been an initiative over the past few seasons.
The competition will be very social and run on Wednesdays during November commencing on November 8.
Spectators including kids are more than welcome. This will certainly ensure a great atmosphere.
The Fast Four Tennis will be fun with teams pitted against line-ups of similar abilities. At the conclusion of the bar will be open to continue the socialisation process.
Teams can be entered by contacting Jason Bassett.
Thursday ladies competition
The Thursday Ladies teams competition will commence on Thursday, November 9. If anyone is interested please contact Gert Brunner or Narelle Bassett.
Teams are created from individual names entered. This ensures that opponents are evenly matched and new players can easily find a team to play in.
The competition organisers are looking at having two shorter seasons to hopefully suit the needs of the ladies playing.
Tuesday mens tennis
The Tuesday Mens competition will begin on Tuesday, November 14. Organiser Ash Wheaton has commenced taking names and is keen to hear from any new players that might be interested in playing.
Entries are made individually with evenly matched teams created. The season runs until early March and is always great fun.
Rock up and play sessions
The YLTC holds social aggregate style tennis at four different times during the week. Each of these events provide the opportunity for new players to come and trial tennis prior to committing to becoming a member.
The main aggregate night is Friday night and this night will commence after the Melbourne Cup weekend.
Other times where anyone can simply sign-in on the day are Saturday at 1pm for all players, Tuesday morning commencing at 9.30am for ladies and Wednesday at 1pm for mens social hit. There is no compulsion to attend each of these on a weekly basis although once you have tried it once it will be hard to not keep going back.
Yarrawonga Chronicle