Leongatha Beers are 2023 Country Week tennis champions at Yarrawonga

COUNTRY Week tennis in Yarrawonga was a great success, with 205 teams competing over 26 grades and an incredible 101 grass courts in use, and the highlight of the week from our region was the triumphant C4 team.

It featured Leongatha’s Cameron Stone and Luke Bowman, Outtrim’s Nick Beale, Jacob Byrnes of Stony Creek and Korumburra’s Ray Pickering.

“It was a tension filled match,” newly named Country Week Legend Frank Dekker of Leongatha said of the grand final.

Byrnes held serve to take his side to the five games required in the final set against an Anglesea opponent.

Leongatha Slingshots was the other team from the region to taste grand final action, finishing runner-up to the Wangaratta Legionnaires in Men’s C2 competition.

The beaten grand finalists consisted of Paul Ramsbottom and Patrick Biro of Ruby, James Sage from Korumburra and Neil Van Der Geest, originally from Stony Creek but now living in Wodonga.

“They were going well until James Sage came down with a groin injury,” Dekker said of the grand final defeat.

Of 10 teams from the Leongatha area, seven made finals in a strong display of tennis.

Yarrawonga’s club curator Warwick Henderson did a commendable job, adding 78 temporary courts to the 23 permanent ones.

J C Lowe Oval and the Victoria Park precinct housed the additional courts.

The Tennis Victoria Country Week is the largest grass court tennis tournament in the world.

Wodonga plays host to the next edition of the tournament, running from February 11 to 16 next year.