COONAWARRA is the 2012-13 Penola and District Tennis Association premier.
The final score in the grand final played at Penola on Saturday was Coonawarra 7 sets 51 games to Monbulla Tigers to 5 sets 53 games.
The weather conditions on Saturday were almost perfect for players and spectators, the only problem was a gusty breeze later in the day but it had little impact on the quality of the tennis.
The first rubber decided was the doubles between highly rated Kerry DeGaris and Nicole Clayfield of Coonawarra who were far too strong for the Monbulla pair of Judy Goodes and junior player Brad Tregenza.
Monbulla reversed the result in the top doubles with Steve Mitchell and John Tregenza defeating Sam Davidson and Trent McShane 6-2, 6-1.
The middle double between the Tigers pair Bryan Randhawa/Tim Goodes and Mike Redman/April Kuhl of Coonawarra was a closer affair with some great team play seeing the Coonawarra pair taking it out 6-4, 6-4.
This put Coonawarra in a strong position leading the match 4 sets to 2 with six singles sets to be played.
The singles started well for Coonawarra with Kerry DeGaris defeating Goodes and Clayfield had a win over young Tregenza. Brad is a junior and it was a great effort by him playing in his first senior grand final.
He has been playing senior tennis all season and is improving every week. He is a player to watch for the future and has a great tutor in his father John.
Coonawarra was now in a very strong position and had an almost match-winning lead 6 sets to 2 but there were still four singles to be decided.
The Coonawarra team only needed to win one of these to take out the title. The next three singles to come off the court all went the Tigers' way, led by a 6-0 win in the top single by the ageless and talented John Tregenza who was too good for the Coonawarra captain McShane.
Bryan Randhawa defeated Mike Redman and Tim Goodes had a win over April Kuhl. Kuhl was making her 10th grand final appearance between netball and tennis and had never won one, with the match sitting 6 sets to 5 Coonawarra's way there was no guarantee on this occasion either.
The only set still in play was the number two singles between Coonawarra's Sam Davidson and Monbulla's Steve Mitchell. Monbulla was leading the game count 49 to 45 games so whoever won this single set would be premiers. This match saw some great tennis from both players.
Mitchell had the upper hand early holding a 4-2 lead but Coonawarra's Sam Davidson lifted after some encouragement from the spectators and took out the set 6-4 and got the Coonawarra Reds over the line to take out the premiership in their first year back after the club had a few years out of the competition.
It was great tennis by both clubs and was good to see the match go down to the wire which kept interest in the match right to the end.
Following the match presentations were made at the grand final dinner held in the Prince of Wales Hotel dining room. A good crowd saw the premiers presented with the shield and winner's pennant.
The association's best performing players for the season were presented with trophies. The most consistent male trophy went to Peter Bissell from Monbulla and Nicole Clayfield from Coonawarra picked up the trophy for the most consistent female.
It was great to see junior players playing in most teams of the senior competition this year and the top performers among these were awarded the most consistent junior trophies.
The winners of these were Sony Randhawa from Monbulla and Heidi Kain from Wattle Range.
The association president thanked players who represented Penola in the Ey shield competition at Lucindale and the junior tennis organisers Robin Ey, Peter Ey and John Tregenza.
This brings the tennis association 2012-13 season in Penola to a close but players are looking forward to the next one which will start in October.
