Tennis: Wanganui club goes so close in Manawatu Interclub final

Wanganui Tennis Club team that played the Manawatu Interclub finals weekend. From back left, Steve Brown, Ivan Southon, Deb Munro, James Baker. Front row: Mike and Rachel Cronin.

They have spent a number of years in the tennis wilderness, but the Wanganui Tennis Club's return to the Manawatu Saturday Senior Interclub competition this summer all but saw them upset the proverbial apple cart.

WTC suffered a narrow loss in the finals to defending champion Manawatu LTC Blue recently.

The 12 week season attracted four Palmerston North club teams, plus another from Feilding and WTC.

Matches were played from October through to finals day on March 24, with WTC going into the Christmas break riding a high, having had just one defeat.

Ultimately they finished third at the end of the round robin and faced Manawatu Red in the semifinal on March 23, where they had to go into overtime games to eventually win the playoff six matches to five.

The final was held the following day at the Feilding Tennis Club, with WTC facing a tough ask as they had previously lost to Manawatu Blue 7-2 and 6-3 during the regular season.

The WTC lineup for the day saw doubles wins go to the Mike Cronin-Ivan Southon combination and the Rachel Cronin-Deb Munro pair, while the Steve Brown-James Baker pairing was beaten.

After the singles draw, WTC were trailing 5-4 following wins to the Cronins, with Rachel Cronin having a great battle to overcome Manawatu stalwart Lynn Beale.

This forced a play-off under finals rules, with two mixed doubles played to settle the tie.
Brown and Munro easily overcame their opponents in straight sets to level the tie at 5-5 and it was left to Southon and Rachel Cronin to play the decider.

The match went to a super tiebreak, after Manawatu came back from one set down to level the match, and then after some very tense play in fading light, they took out the tiebreak 10-8.

Mike Cronin said it was a very relieved Manawatu captain who paid credit to WTC team for taking it to the wire.

"He added that the presence of a Wanganui team added new status to the competition, taking it beyond the Manawatu boundaries.

"With the finalists separated in the end by just two tiebreak points, the competition could not have been tighter or more exciting."

The summer-long competition comprises four men and two women teams, but the WTC captain Munro said it takes a much larger squad to make the team successful.

For example, Manawatu Blue had ten members in their squad and all of them played a part in the finals weekend.

Munro paid tribute to the full WTC squad who played the season in the Cronins, Brown, Baker, Southon, Richard Muraahi, Lee Wainhouse, Hayden Pudney, Terry Wright, Tara Butters, Dale Turner, and fill-in reserves Jeff Te Huia, Revel McIntyre, Paula Fore, Mary Stobbe, Helena Ferguson and Kate Davy.

"We like the format, playing new faces, visiting other clubs, and bringing Manawatu teams over to our courts, as it all adds interest to the game," said Munro.

"Next year we would like to see at least one Whanganui team entering, but if player interest is sufficient we may look at more teams going over.

"Who knows we might even take out 1st place next time," she added.