Ross Truscott and Clare King wrap up summer tennis league in style, overall series champions announced

The sixth and final leg of the Albany and Districts Tennis League wrapped up with strong competitor numbers and featured double matches at Lawley Park Tennis Club on Sunday. The final event of the inaugural league was set to be played on March 22 but was postponed for 2½ months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But the wait did not dampen the enthusiasm of players as a total of 52 took to the courts. The men’s A-grade played round robin matches amongst a very competitive field. Ross Truscott and Nelson Stanborough were the perfect combination winning all four of their matches to defeat Jordan Heil and Les Bairstow, who won three matches with their only loss to Truscott and Stanborough. One impressive highlight was Heil and Les Bairstow coming back from 6-3 down, to defeat Vincent Brochard and Sam Graham 7-6 to ensure they finished runners-up for the day. Clare King continued to impress in the Great Southern, notching up another win this season, as she teamed up with Michelle Watson to win out the ladies A-grade final. King and Watson had a fantastic day on the court winning all their matches before defeating hard-hitting pair Kym Bairstow and Jackie Brennan 6-0 in the final. Alexandra Riggall and Deb Mancini defeated Kellie Bairstow and Sam Lee 6-2 in the third and fourth play-off. In the men’s B-grade decider, young guns Nathan Crudeli and Zak Wilsher won a classic final that went down to the wire over Trevor Scott and Greg Cook. After a number of superb rallies and all players holding their serve throughout the set, a tiebreaker was needed and Crudeli and Wilsher prevailed 7-4. Mark Wilsher and Joe Ellis defeated Will Emery and Gerry Skinner in the men’s B-grade consolation final, 7-5. Points earned over the six legs were tallied up to decide the individual standings at the conclusion of Sunday’s event. Truscott played some fantastic tennis throughout the league to finish first in the overall men’s standings ahead of Brochard, Les Bairstow, Barry Atkinson, Scott and Heil. King along with young gun Lily Wilsher-Saa had brilliant summers that led to them tying for first place in the overall ladies’ standings. Riggall finished in third spot while Mancini, Katie Stan-Bishop and Kym Bairstow rounded out the top six. On court tennis event organiser Brochard thanked the league sponsors for their wonderful patronage of the inaugural summer tennis league and also acknowledged all the players for their support. The league is set to start again in October.