As you can see from the posts below, it had been a long road to the final and we really hadn't expected to make it. Whatever happened we had Premier 1 Promotion league tennis to look forward to after Xmas and a princely sum of $125 prize money (between us)!
Unfortunately we'd still be in the red as we needed to order new team shirts, as Richard didn't have one. Controversy reigned as Kris pushed for bright red muscle tops while others favoured a "less aggressive" design. In the end Thump Sports came up with some discount Nike tops for us at short notice, which were white with a black collar. So we all looked smart though a bit on the traditional side for the red muscle top fans.
This time we were indoors on the excellent Rebound Ace courts at the Renouf, with an 8:30am start. Richard kicked off the day in traditional fashion by jogging up to the car 10 mins late swearing he'd received a different email to the rest of us, and we were on our way!
I was a bit concerned that the French guys would be a little better on hard courts in perfect conditions, than astro in the wind and drizzle. This turned out to be the case, with Kris and I playing some decent stuff but failing to win the big points and hold enough of our own service games as we lost 6-4 6-3 to Herve and Julien.
Richard and Chris 'Epic' Patete put in a heroic effort against Patterson and Garnham, taking the first set but eventually going down 4-6 6-4 7-5. So things were starting to look a bit bleak for taking the title.
Matters weren't improved by an unrecognisable tennis player, wearing Julien Bourdry's face, showing up for the top singles. I played a reasonable first set but lost it 6-0. There were lots of good rallies and close games, but on every big point Julien was finding great shots and sneaking forwards to end the point with angled volleys. The match was briefly competitive around the start of the second set but then Julien went up a gear again and won it 6-2. I had no complaints after losing to such an impressive display. Well, my only complaint was that Julien told me he was quitting after our last match!
Herve put in an equally impressive display against Kris. There were lots of great rallies and close games but Kris wasn't in quite the same form as his previous encounter with Wellington and went down 6-0 6-1. He will be back with a vengeance after Xmas!
Richard put in an excellent performance against Patterson, and had him cramping near the end, but was edged out 7-6 6-4. Richard's forehand was dominating proceedings at times but Patterson was as steady as ever.
Brian had another very entertaining game with young Kiranpal Pannu. He looked at his best when storming forwards and bouncing smashes over KP's head. But in the baseline rallies KP just proved too consistent again and came through 6-4 6-3.
So we had to take a whitewash after all our hard work to get there but it was against a quality Wellington side, the top two of whom were both new for this season. Julien would have played Premier 1 if not for all the South Americans drafted into that team! Runner-Up was a great result for us and we are looking forward to what will be some very challenging tennis in the Regional 1 Promotion league.
Well done to everyone involved in this season's effort. We think it's probably the best ever finish for Thorndon's second men's team, which reflects the standard of tennis being played at the club.
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