Tennis: Hastings take out final

Hastings' Jason Kitching (left) serves while his son Stefan Kitching-Nicholson awaits the outcome during their doubles win in Saturday's interclub final.

HB Men's final Tennis

One had to chuckle at the irony involved with Hastings' victory in Hawke's Bay's premier men's four-man interclub tennis final on Saturday.

"Yes, I'm playing better than I ever have and Craig has to take a lot of the credit," Hastings captain John Francois said, referring to Havelock North captain and No1 Craig Giddy.

Former Hawke's Bay No1 and 16-time provincial residential champion Francois, 51, beat Havelock North No2 Jeremy Pearson 6-1, 6-0 and combined with Duane Redward to beat Pearson and Ian Purdon 6-2, 6-2 in the No2 doubles clash during host team Hastings' 5-1 win.

"Craig has coached me for the past six weeks and he has been brilliant. I'm seriously considering playing in next month's national seniors tournament which is being played here in the Bay," Francois said. He was rapt his team completed an unbeaten run in the competition without one of last season's key players, former Canterbury rep Andy Palliser, who left the Bay before the season started. "We still had plenty of depth including Steve Pollard and Alan Boult who didn't make the line-up for the final.

"We've won the last two four-man competitions and the last two two-man comps.

"I know the boys will be keen to attempt three-peats in both next year but I don't know if I will be available again," Francois said.

Francois was impressed with how the Hastings father-and-son pair of Jason Kitching and Stefan Kitching-Nicholson performed in the No1 doubles role with a 7-5, 6-3 win against Giddy and Ron Garrick. "Fathers and sons don't always combine well. In fact I was a little nervous because they had a disagreement in training a couple of weeks ago and Stefan ended up walking home."

Giddy registered his team's only win with a 6-2, 6-2 victory against Kitching-Nicholson.

"Hastings deserved the win as they played very well. All credit to them," Giddy said.

He pointed out his troops were unlucky to lose the services of Andrew Baker who injured his shoulder during a training session last Wednesday.

"It would have been a lot closer had Andrew played," Giddy added.

When the two teams met in round-robin play Hastings won on a countback. Kitching-Nicholson was unavailable for that fixture.