Champ serves up surprise

Harriette Baxter was one of the stars of the Northland Primary and Intermediate Tennis Championships at the Thomas Neale Centre this week.

Glenbervie's Baxter was the primary school champion, beating Hurupaki's Mandy Ross 31-23 in the final, but also surprised by making it through to the intermediate competition final.

The promising 10-year-old was allowed to compete in the older age group for experience and progressed through to the final, where she met her match in Huanui's Zoe Dykzeul, who defeated the young pretender 31-16.

The seedings proved to be largely correct in the boys' competition, with Matarau's Liam Mortimer beating Matiu Baker 31-10 to win the Northland intermediate title. Mortimer had easily beaten Harrison Clayton 31-15 to reach the final, but Baker edged out Can Burkhardt-Hick in an epic semifinal battle, 31-29.

Another rising star, Morningside's Daniel Hammond, won the primary school boys' title, beating St Francis Xavier's Rufaro Manjala 31-26 in a close final. Hammond, one of the few Year 4 entrants, was too strong for Ruakaka's Liam Lichfield 31-7, while Manjala beat Hurupaki's Julian Roberts 31-25 in his semifinal.

Tournament director Wendy Sykes said while the standard of play was high, there were only 62 entrants on the day, a number slightly down on last year - something they would take steps to rectify next season.

"I'm not sure what happened to some schools who normally participate. Kamo Intermediate for example, usually send a big group of players, but this year there was no one at all - and there was no one from the Kerikeri area either, and they've got a professional coach up there so that's hard to understand," she said.

"I think there's been a bit of a communication breakdown, we'll have to make more of an effort to communicate with the right person at each school - a sports co-ordinator perhaps - rather than the school in general because that doesn't seem to be working," she said.