James Murphy
THE Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association season tip off is just around the corner, with the first serves of 2022-23 set down for October 14-15.
All signs point towards a successful season, with an increase of player registrations for the first time in a decade.
“It is the first time in 10 years we haven’t reduced in numbers,” Mount Gambier and District Tennis Association president Andrew van den Hurk said.
“We are going in the right direction.”
One grade which boasts a large increase is the Division 1 competition, with an extra two teams pushing the total to six this year.
“We haven’t had more than four teams in there for probably five years at least,” van den Hurk said.
Mount Schank has moved up to the top grade after winning Division 2 last year, while Uniting Church and Gambier have lent some spare players to combine with Centrals for a combined team.
Van den Hurk expects Reidy Park to be a frontrunner in Division 1, while Glencoe will be up there as well.
In Division 2 West Gambier and Glencoe will be around the mark again, while reigning premiers Suttontown Tigers can be expected to remain strong in the Division 3 competition.
In the doubles competitions, Glencoe won both the women’s and mixed formats last season and will look to defend their titles with extra teams in both divisions this year.
Once again all grades will rotate between Friday night and Saturday afternoon fixtures, up until December where there will be no Friday night games.
Looking outside of the mainstream competition, there will be a few tournaments on offer throughout the season.
“January is the Country Carnival and in February we have the Baker and Ey Shield,” van den Hurk said.
The Association has also considered the return of a popular local tournament, which could be played on a Friday night prior to the Christmas break.
“We are half considering bringing back a mixed doubles tournament in December for all divisions,” van den Hurk said.
“Hopefully we can get that going again because we haven’t run a senior tournament at a local level for probably five or six years.
“It was always popular because and is a bit of fun.”
