Wanganui youngsters head Manawatu in tightest of clashes, with countback needed
Wanganui's age-group representative teams battled it out with their counterparts from Taranaki and Manawatu last weekend, with the highlights being Wanganui's overall win in the under-16s and some depth starting to be established in the under-10s.
In the 16 and under age group, Wanganui claimed the silverware, beating Taranaki 9-3 and then sneaking away with a down-to-the-wire countback win over Manawatu, 6 matches each, 12 sets each, 105 games to 99 in Wanganui's favour.
Everyone in the 16s line-up contributed in some way Kyle Butters was only available for the match against Taranaki but thankfully Tim McKenzie returned early from the North Island track meet to reinforce the team against Manawatu.
Similarly Shannen Cummins came in to bolster the girls' line-up for the decider.
Against Manawatu, the Wanganui girls were dominant and almost put Wanganui into an unassailable lead.
Paris Butters, Gabrielle Hiri, Cummins, and Libby Twiss all won their singles matches convincingly, just as they had against Taranaki.
Kate Russell had stood in for Cummins for the Taranaki match and proved to be a fine replacement winning her singles and her doubles with Twiss.
Paris Butters and Hiri, although only 14 and playing up an age group, were standouts and went undefeated at the top of the line-up.
With the girls putting Wanganui in a strong position, all the boys needed was one win to tie the scores, and two wins to seal it.
The first win came at the top doubles, through McKenzie and Phillip Sanders, but the second win never came despite their best efforts.
Bradley Wallis was agonisingly close versus Kurt Amey of Feilding.
Wallis had three sets points in the first-set tie-breaker before going down 12-10, while the second set also went to a tie-breaker.
It was a gripping finish for everybody present and it epitomises what team tennis is all about.
The team aspect in this usually unforgiving individual sport is brought out by close finishes in junior rep tennis, schools tennis, interclub, senior reps, and at the international level the Davis, and Federation cups.
Reps, schools, and interclub is where tennis can compete with the camaraderie and social appeal of playing a sport like cricket, when you are not just playing for yourself.
There were three matches remaining and they were all going at it on adjacent courts, side-by-side, digging it in for their teammates to get a high-pressure win to seal the cup for Wanganui.
Wallis on one court, next to him Mckenzie and Sanders, all bearing the burden equally.
In the end all three lost in close affairs to send the scores to 6-all draw and force the countback.
You could tell the boys were gutted, but in the final tally because of the dominance of the girls and the closeness of the boys' matches, the 105-99 countback win on games went to Wanganui.
The score in Palmerston North, where the under-12s and the under-10s played, were not as close. The Wanganui youngsters struggled to win many matches against their more match-hardened neighbours.
But the fact that we had a full squad without loan players and with lots of new kids competing for a spot in the representative line-up for the 10 and under age group was something that was encouraging for next year.
The best-performed of the Wanganui team in Palmerston North were Basia Sosnowska from St John's Hill Hotshots and Aleesha Duxfield from the Turakina Taniwha.
The pair clicked well as a team to pick up a 6-1 6-2 win over the top Manawatu pairing and lost a nail-biter 2-4 4-1 12-10 to the top Taranaki pairing.
Without a strong 10 and under age group, Wanganui will not have a strong flow-on into the older age groups, so we have an initiative to award squad coaching scholarships to our most promising. There are six 10-and-under girls and six 10-and-under boys who have been picked for the funded coaching with head professional Victor Romero during Term 2.
I foresee great strides in their development from this initiative.
Six 12-and-under players have also been picked for a similar scholarship with Romero to boost the level of the next stage of player.
With the season drawing to a close, there is one more representative fixture, on April 20-21, for the top player in each age group.
And there is one more round left in Saturday's Primary and Intermediate Schools League who will finish in the Top 3 and can any of the teams catch the Turakina Taniwha?
The Wednesday Junior coaching wraps next week with a fun day, as well as finals day in the Junior Club champs.
Match-ups in the semifinals include Kevin Kim v Justin Ferguson, Henry Strang v Tony Gilbertson in the boys, and Tessa Strang v Ella Towers, Emily Kim v Piata Turia in the girls.