Horsham Lawn's Mitchell Crough reaches for a backhand at the weekend. Picture: EMMA COUTTS
St Michaels has all but sealed the Central Wimmera Tennis Association pennant minor premiership with a win over Horsham Lawn Savage at the weekend.
The Saints remain one game ahead of second-placed Drung South on the ladder after their 9-109 to 5-91 win, and now have a 24 percentage point lead with only one round remaining in the season.
St Michaels will take on third-placed side Kalkee in the last round, while Drung South will face a Lawn Savage team which is perilously close to dropping out of the top four.
The Saints had to fight for almost every rubber on Saturday, as Lawn Savage refused to give up.
Jessica Cannane played a large part in her team's overall victory, picking up a vital set with partner Di Hayes when Savage led two sets to one.
Cannane also won her singles rubber 9-0 and picked up the final doubles match 9-6 with partner Ange Nitschke.
Cherie Wood never stopped trying for Savage, recording the only singles win for her team and taking out a 9-8 tie-break win in the doubles with Maree Thompson.
St Michaels secretary Di Hayes said the match had produced some high quality tennis from both teams, and said her team was happy to secure the minor premiership.
She said the Saints would not get ahead of themselves however, after previous minor premiership years failed to produce a grand final victory.
"It's great to get top spot, but there's lots and lots of work still to be done," she said.
"We've finished on top lots of years and haven't followed through with it, so we know we still have a lot of challenges left."
In other pennant matches, Central Park Red continued its last-ditch push towards the finals with a hard-fought eight-sets-to-six victory over Central Park Blue.
Central Park Red has won its past two matches to sit just two points behind Lawn Savage.
The final spot in the top four will be decided at the weekend when Central Park Red takes on Horsham Lawn Bardell and Lawn Savage plays Drung South.
A win for Savage would guarantee them a place in the post-season, while a loss would likely mean they miss the finals.
The final two pennant matches saw Drung South comfortably defeat Lawn Bardell, while Haven forfeited to Kalkee.
In A Special tennis, Drung South increased its stranglehold on the competition with a 12-sets-to-two win over Horsham Lawn O'Connor.
Central Park blanked last-placed Noradjuha, while no result was awarded in the match between Horsham Lawn Massey and Brimpaen.
St Michaels guaranteed itself a second minor premiership at the weekend this time in A Grade competition with a 12-108 to 0-36 destruction of Homers.
Kalkee beat Laharum, Horsham Lawn lost to Quantong and Drung South easily accounted for Haven in other matches, while Central Park had the bye.
Horsham Lawn blew Laharum Blue away 12-108 to 0-47 in B Special competition, while Haven Green defeated Laharum Red.
Natimuk won comfortably over Haven Black, while Brimpaen again failed to enter a match score in its encounter with Drung South-Horsham Lutheran.