Leonie Meredith and Keiko Pogoni.
Peter Hooper and Jono Boundy.
After being cancelled due to Covid-19 last year, an over-35s tennis tournament was “resurrected”, with 80 players from Northland, Auckland, North Shore and Mahurangi competing.
The 36th annual Lower Northland Seniors Tennis Tournament was held at both the Warkworth Tennis Club and Mahurangi East Tennis Club in order to cope with bumper numbers.
Lower Northland Seniors Tennis secretary Bev Billington said it was a case of “two out of three ain’t bad” for Warkworth Tennis Club members in the premier division.
“Both the Warkworth men’s and women’s pairings reached their finals after two good wins, but crashed out in their third and final match,” she said.
Warkworth Tennis Club captain Jono Boundy and his doubles partner, Peter Hooper, couldn’t quite match the Auckland pairing of Peter Stokes and Grant Waller in a fierce final.
Meanwhile, after surviving two thrilling tie-breakers in earlier rounds, Keiko Pogoni and Leonie Meredith found that their luck had run out.
They conceded defeat in an amazing third round tie-breaker final against Northland’s veteran six-time-winners Raewyn Heywood and Maryanne Rogers.
However, Billington said Warkworth players in other divisions “balanced the books” with wins in the Men’s A division and Women’s B Division.
“The experienced old heads of David Theyers and Blair Martin were too canny for the rest of the field and were never really pushed, even in their final.
“Anette Goetter and Pam Cartmell became increasingly confident as they worked their way through the field, winning their final match comfortably.”
