TENNIS - Heated exchanges, rivalry - but a lot of camaraderie

Mairtown proved their dominance in Northland interclub A Reserve grade men's tennis with a win on countback this week.
The Kensington-based club had five teams entered in the 10-team competition on Monday night.
Organiser Todd Morgan split the draw after the first round of matches into a top five and bottom five.
Mairtown 2 won the round-robin competition on a countback of games won over the whole season, as finals action saw them draw 3-all with Mairtown 1.
"There's a lot of rivalry between the clubs too, though, there were a few heated words exchanged on Monday night," Morgan said.
"But it's a great social atmosphere."
Morgan said the A Reserve players were predominantly former A Grade players returning after several years out of the sport.
A Grade reserve was producing good quality tennis players but, like many club sports, tended to lose promising juniors out of town in their teenage years.
Coaching them to a top club level was important and gave coaches great satisfaction, even if they went on to achieve tennis success elsewhere.
"There's a bunch of young guys, 12 to 15 years old, who are doing really well in A Reserve and we want to push them as far as we can. I'm a coach myself and I tell them that when they get into A Grade, I want them to be able to beat me. Because at the moment I can beat them and I'm an old guy," Morgan said.
Many took up the opportunities of tertiary education elsewhere but few returned to the district.
"We can only do so much. But we supported Jackson Bodle by raising $35,000 for him to attend the academy, and he's played and beaten guys in the Davis Cup team. We're also sending four juniors to France in May," Morgan said.
Results:
KT Mairtown Carlsberg Two 3 KT Mairtown Carlsberg One 3
Jason Searle bt Murray Carter 9/1
Kevin Molloy lost to Willie Rankin 9/5
Kara George lost to Haydn Craven 9/4
Elvis Reti bt Paul Mathieson 9/5
Searle & Molloy lost to Carter & Rankin 6/2 6/1
George & Reti bt Craven & Quaid 6/3 7/6
KT Mairtown Carlsberg One win the match on a countback 45 games to 43 games.