Had it come down to a countback, he said, the Bay would have prevailed because they were well up on sets.
"Manawatu certainly knew what the rules were. They said, 'You guys have to win 13 [matches] or more', so that's how it works."
Cooper said one could say it came down to the last match for the Bay but he was reluctant to divulge details or single out players.
The teams were 6-6 after the singles matches then the hosts went up 10-8 after six doubles matches with four wins but the visitors clawed their way back to reverse the result by the same margin in the six mixed doubles matches.
"It was very even. I tell you there was just nothing there," said Kim. "We had a lot of three-setters but, I guess, we were just unlucky."
He rued the numerous opportunities the Bay had to wrest the momentum from Manawatu but didn't.
"I think at the end of the day we were just happy that we had a team who were competitive and that was the main thing because it's been years since we've had that."
Cooper said many spectators had turned out at the club on an ideal day for playing tennis in overcast, muggy conditions punctuated by slight breezes.
"It was as close as you can possibly be without winning, you know, only a few points away, really."
His understanding was Manawatu, who won the cup from Taranaki last year, are likely to be defending it against the same opposition before Christmas.
Cooper ruled out the possibility of the Bay having another challenge early next year should Taranaki prevail.
"Taranaki say they can't fit us in this year [because] we haven't established fixtures yet. We haven't been playing much rep tennis."
He said the Bay had enough male players but were short on females to make the full complement.
"We have some competitive women now who can play singles so that's good so we'll just need to establish these fixtures again," he said, suspecting the opportunity to play Taranaki would arise next season as they rebuild on the foundation of an influx of promising young blood.
Last season the Bay were part of a quadrangular tournament with Bay of Plenty and Waikato at Rotorua so that provided the platform to reignite their CD interdistrict campaign.