By Sam Campbell
THE Silver City was well represented at the weekend as a squad of Broken Hill’s finest tennis players ventured over the border to Red Cliffs near Mildura for that club’s annual lawn tennis tournament.
Historically, the event takes place primarily on the Saturday with both singles and doubles competitions across the whole day.
A stifling 40-degree forecast saw the doubles fixtures moved to early Saturday morning, with singles comps played on the cooler Sunday.
Broken Hill’s top two players in Nathan Crabb and Patrick Reincke went into the championship doubles looking to make it three-in-a-row.
And the pair did just that, winning all five of their matches to sweep their opponents and clench the hattrick.
They started their campaign with a 6-2 win over former Broken Hill resident Hamish McLean and his crafty partner Keitan Rigg.
Reincke’s solid groundstrokes and Crabb’s formidable net play proved to be tough to handle for many as the duo won their next three matches in dominant fashion.
Their last match was their hardest, coming up against Troy Kelly and Tague Morris.
Crabb and Reincke broke away to a 5-2 lead before Kelly and Morris broke Crabb’s serve and held their own to close the gap to 5-4.
Reincke served out the match and the pair finished with 30 total games won from a possible 30, dropping only nine games.
Mildura’s Zac Galbraith and Nathan Swaeney were runners-up on 26-16.
While all that was happening, Jack Woods and Ken Caldwell were in fine form in the B2 Grade.
Woods and Caldwell were stingy in their tennis, conceding 13 games over their four matches.
They faced stiff opposition from Richard Campbell and Vishal Kapadai who finished on 21/18.
However, Woods and Caldwell were not fazed, finishing on 24-13.
In the other fixtures, Brady Wauchope and Dale Dodimead finished fourth overall in the A1 Grade.
The pair seemed right at home with the low-bouncing grass as both players love a flat forehand here at home.
It was tight at the top, with just five games separating the top four teams.
Father-son combination of Dale Pascoe and Corey Pascoe were in the same table, but they couldn’t best their Broken Hill compatriots.
Geoff Spangler and his partner Chris Verrall fought gallantly in B1, but couldn’t jag a set.
It wasn’t all bad for Spangler and Verrall though, as they came runners-up in the Friday night Veterans B2 group.
Staying on Friday night, before partnering with Reincke and Dodimead respectively, Crabb and Wauchope teamed up in the Friday A2 and also claimed runner-up honours.
Moving into Sunday, the wins for Broken Hill kept coming.
Corey Pascoe had his name down for the A1 Singles and claimed an absolute nail-biting victory.
Pascoe won four out of five matches which included gutsy 6-4 wins over both Hamish McLean and Cameron Johns.
When the games were tallied, Pascoe and Johns were tied on 27 total games apiece.
Johns had given away 22 games, Pascoe did one better at 21, securing him victory.
Meanwhile, Crabb had a red hot crack in the Championship Singles.
Two grinded wins over Jack Burford and Troy Kelly had him in good stead but losses to Zac Galbraith and Keitan Rigg saw him finish fourth.
