A thrilling finale to the Ararat and District Tennis Association

The match, held at Buangor, was fiercely fought out between reigning premiers Elmhurst-Amphitheatre, and the challenging Landsborough side, the long awaited "Landshurst" final.

The day kicked off at 12.30, with Josh Barker and Trevor Field of Elmhurst taking on Aiden Lee and Linden Murray of Landsborough.

Josh and Trevor got Elm-Amphi off to a flyer, winning in convincing fashion, 8 games to 3. Concurrently, over in the Ladies section, Mel Murnane and Sally Roberts of Elmhurst had a much more difficult task coming up against the hard hitting Christiana Henke and Courtney Ellen of Landsborough. And it was the Landsborough duo, fighting tooth and nail to keep their side in the hunt, that got the job done in a very tense tiebreaker, 9 games to 8.

The men changed over and it was Darryl Driscoll and Will Edgar's turn to take the torch for Elmhurst Amphitheatre. Up against Karl Scott and Theo Browne, the Elmhurst side delivered another damaging blow, winning 8 games to 4.

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Another Elmhurst win in the Men's draw, mirrored by a ladies win for Landsborough on the adjacent court. Claire Monaghan and Emma Bourke stepped up to the big moment with a big 8 games to 3 win over Aimee Harrison and Heather Driscoll.

And with a third of the games down, it was Elmhurst with the slight overall edge.

Que Josh Barker and Darryl Driscoll. The Elmhurst Amphi lad's stepped up for their side in the most important match of the year, and produced a resounding 8 games to 1 victory over Aiden Lee and Karl Scott to really give Elm-Amphi a huge lift.

Meanwhile, Christiana Henke and Claire Monaghan for Landsborough fought back, all but squaring the ledger with an 8-2 win over Mel Murnane and Aimee Harrison. The final games of the men's and ladies sections were doozies!

In the men's, Linden Murray and Theo Browne mounted a fightback, falling agonizingly close of securing the only Men's victory for Landsborough, going down 8-6 to Trevor Field and Will Edgar, while on the Ladies court, Sally Roberts and Heather Driscoll successfully bucked the trend and secured a victory for Elmhurst, defeating Courtney Ellen and Emma Bourke 8 games to 3.

At the end of the first 2 sections, it was Elmhurst Amphitheatre, 2 points, 54 games to Landsborough, 2 points 42 games. This was going down to the wire!

The mixed. Ever the decider of matches...or seasons, and 'boy oh boy' did they produce the biggest nail biter of the year.

Both sides played around with combinations all year, only to hit their stride at the right time of the year. Landsborough promoted Aiden Lee and Claire Monaghan to the number 1 slot, and cometh the moment, cometh the combination. Up against the Elmhurst number one's in Josh Barker and Sally Roberts, Aiden and Claire started the Landsborough fightback in emphatic style, winning 8 games to 4 to leave Landsborough with an 8 game deficit.

This blew back out to 11 when the experience of Trevor Field and Mel Murnane took out Linden Murray and Courtney Ellen 8-5.

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Karl Scott and Christiana Henke took to the court for Landsborough, claiming a gritty 8-3 win over Darryl and Heather Driscoll to put Landsborough within striking distance. Needing to win 8-1 for a monumental Landsborough victory, Theo Browne and Emma Bourke had a huge task ahead of them, taking on Will Edgar and Aimee Harrison...

And they won...

But, in a wonderful display of tennis, the final match was almost taken all the way to a tiebreaker, with Landsborough holding on for the win 9 games to 7. The Elmhurst side, although down overall in sections, had secured the win by a meager 4 games, and were crowned the Back-to-Back Champions of the Ararat and District Tennis Association.

Congratulations to the Elmhurst Amphitheatre side on a wonderful year, and to the Landsborough side on such a valiant and thrilling performance.

The ADTA would like to thank all players, spectators, committee members, volunteers and sponsors for their ongoing commitment and support of tennis in the Ararat region.

We encourage all prospective tennis enthusiasts to get involved in your local clubs and competitions, and urge you to get in touch with clubs to have a hit and get involved for next season and beyond.

Bring on the 22/23 season.

Can Elmhurst Amphitheatre make it a three-peat? Can Landsborough fight back and claim top spot? Will Ararat or Crowlands go one better and feature in the final next year? Or can Buangor leap into premiership glory? We shall see...

Until next season...

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