Kooyong Lawn Tennis Club has hosted some of the modern greats on its surfaces, but at the weekend, a little club from the Goulburn Valley sent a shot across the bows which even the peerless players would marvel at.
That club is Shepparton North, now with a fresh grand final winner tag to its name.
It may not have been on the emerald plateau of Kooyong’s grass court, but the club’s glory-soaked 3-28 to 1-25 premiership triumph over East Malvern in section five of the State League Championships was the stuff of dreams for North player Dean Pritchett.
“As a mad tennis person, you always dream of playing at Kooyong – we weren’t necessarily on the hallowed turf of the grass courts there, but we were in the complex itself playing on en tout cas there,” he said.
“When we played at Melbourne Park we were playing on clay which was imported from France, so it was pretty good stuff.
“Even playing at Royal South Yarra, it’s a pretty prestigious club with massive clubrooms and everything.
“We were on an en tout cas or clay the whole time, so it’s not bad for a group of hard courters down here.”
En tout cas – the fancy French phrase for an all weather synthetic surface – was fairly alien to the North crew, as were the clay courts they’d play on, with Clark Pettigrew, Louise Dwyer, Helen Jackson, Evan Cooknell, Kellie Crosier and Pritchett getting their bearings upon arrival.
Pritchett said the group had to adjust, doing ‘‘wheelies on the spot’’ when judging their footing in practice.
But once the first serve went over the net, North was on the ball.
The Shepparton District Tennis Association premier breezed past Cambridge Tennis Club by two sets in Saturday’s opener at Melbourne Park, backing it up with an eight-rubber victory over Bendigo Tennis Club Heat that afternoon at Royal South Yarra.
Following on, North trounced Macedon Ranges 4-32 to 0-7 to set up a grand final against East Malvern on Sunday, where the side made history at the first instalment of the tournament.
“Everything was close except for the first game we played on the Sunday, but they had a husband and wife that had to go home which might have weakened them off a little bit,” Pritchett said.
“They were the only team we played who actually had women in it, the other three teams we played were full of men.
“The first two sets (of the final) sort of cancelled themselves out which was good, and those four guys, their club was only 10 minutes away from Kooyong and they play on an en tout cas all year.
“I think they probably would’ve been pretty confident going in, but we stuck to our guns and got over the line in the end.”
North dropped the first set in the grand final, but bit back to win the second, with Pettigrew and Cooknell edging the following set 8-7 to set the platform for Dwyer and Pritchett to bring it home in the last.
Though Jackson and Crosier sat out the final, the bond shared between the tight-knit group from the 3634 meant the spoils ― and friendly jibes ― were shared in equal measure.
“Everyone got a game which was nice, but in the final we decided as a group instead of rotating to put our best team forward,” Pritchett said.
“That meant two people missed out and they weren’t too unhappy about it, they just wanted us to do our best.
“I think what we pride ourselves on in our little team is we all get in and play our role, we have a bit of a crack and hang a bit of crap on each other.
“I think that’s what makes us play our better tennis, we can do that and still get out there.
“I think it showed down there; we were all running around having a laugh and a joke and the other teams were pretty serious.
“I don’t know whether they were looking at us thinking ‘look at these country hobos’ or whatever.”
Whatever preconceived idea others had of Shepparton North were abolished when the team began swinging racquets, showing the city slickers that these hardcourt hitters pack a punch.
They also weren’t the only Goulburn Valley sides to feature.
Nathalia was entered in division seven, winning two of its three games to narrowly miss out on finals, while division six entrant Tatura Tornadoes gave a good account of themselves despite not picking up a result.