Team Mgeni doubles up for seniors tennis victory
Players enjoyed the event and hoped Uvongo Tennis Club would be tasked with hosting it again next year.
WINTER ‘flu and some financial constraints resulted in the Uvongo Seniors Tennis Tournament not having quite as many entries as expected this year.
One of Uvongo’s stronger players, Neil Perry was unfortunately involved in a recent motorbike accident and required leg surgery so was unable to play.
Organisers also needed to find replacements for registered entrants who had a change of mind at the last minute and decided not to play.
Fortunately, there were several players in the area who could be called upon at short notice, plus a few regular holidaymakers who had been keen to play but had missed the cut-off date.
Roland Murray, Ian and Sharon Turnbull, regular visitors from the Barkly East area, made themselves available to play as reserves.
Willem Erasmus was also on standby if required.
All teams were named after rivers in KwaZulu-Natal, with A Section team of ‘Mgeni’ beating the team of ‘Mvoti.
Players were divided into two sections, each with four teams of six players, who played doubles matches with each of the other members of their team against the correspondingly ranked players in the opposing team.
On Saturday in the A section, Tugela beat Mfolozi in a very tightly fought matches, while Mgeni had a relatively easy win over Mvoti.
In the B section, Mzimkhulu beat Mkomazi, and Mpenjati beat Mtamvuna by a very narrow margin.
On Sunday, shortened matches had to be arranged for the play-offs because of the threatening weather and fortunately, enough games were played to give Mgeni the win over Tugela and Mzimkhulu the win over Mpenjati.
There was a very high standard of tennis in the A section with a number of national and provincial past and present playing.
Ian Ackerman, playing for Tugela has just gained entry to the South African team in the 60-plus age group.
Players came from all over KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape for the event, with Lusikisiki, Newcastle, Richard Bay and Barkly East being the further places.
In the B Section the ‘Mpenjati’ team was narrowly beaten by the ‘Mzimkhulu’ team.
Thanks were extended to the various sponsors, including Ugu South Coast Tourism, Marik’s, SANBS, Luckys Manaba, Chubb Security, Coca-Cola, Doug’s Hardware and Spar in Uvongo and Manaba.
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