Boys win First Final

Well, the fairytale story of the Albert Park Men’s Grade 9 continued over the weekend.

Having finished on top of the section, the team earned the right to play at home and posted a great win against the young guys from 4^th placed Narre Warren North TC.

Narre Warren TC made us earn the win and we lost 2 singles with a knee injury to our No.2 Nosti and then a gruelling 3 set match for no.3 Dennis.

But good wins to Nick & Dean (No.1 & No.4), tied the rubbers at 2 – 2 going into the doubles. With the outcome still in the balance, the pairings of Nick & Nosti and Dennis & Alan stepped up and won both doubles rubbers in straight sets to move the team into Tier 2 finals.

What was especially pleasing was the fantastic support the team got from our local club members who came down throughout the day to cheer us on. On behalf of the whole team, our thanks to everyone who came down to watch and especially to the Albert Park Lawn TC Club Committee who kindly paid for the BBQ food and drinks after our great win. It was much appreciated and a really great afternoon.

Onto this week. The draw for this weekend’s next stage of finals will be released tomorrow afternoon (Tuesday arvo). As soon as I know the draws and our times and locations, I’ll send them through.

What I can tell you at this stage, is that there are now 8 remaining teams in Men’s Grade 9. (FYI 2^nd place beat Ringwood Catholic who finished in 3^rd place, so they also go through).

Because of the way the 8 remaining Grade 9 teams are now seeded, we will not meet Dunstan Park TC again until potentially the Grade 9 Pennant Flag Grand final, if either team gets that far.

I can also confirm that the team WILL be playing this Saturday afternoon (15^th August) at a neutral venue and it will be the same format as our first final and is of course elimination.

I will make final team selections later in the week (before 9am Friday 14^th August) after consulting with team members and of course factoring in practice on Thursday night starting at 7.30pm, for those that can make it (which I cannot due to a work commitment).

So – well done to the team on last week. It only gets harder from here, but I think we can still go allot further. Another update on the way soon !