Six podium finishes at Inter-Regional Country Championships

It is the teams third consecutive sixth placed finish at the tournament, while Goulburn went home winners for the third straight year.

There were some excellent performances from the Wimmera team with one win and five second-placed finishes across the tournament. 

Wimmera team manager Sandra Casey said it was encouraging to see a strong team performance.

“The team hasn’t performed as well in the past as we did this time around,” Casey said. “We’ve just improved every year which has been great to see.” 

Phillippa Bush and Logan Casey came home winners in the 12-and-under mixed doubles, winning an epic final 0-4, 5-3, 10-8.

Bush performed excellently across the weekend in the 12-and-under age-group, earning a podium finish in every event she entered. In the singles she won her way through to the final with two impressive wins before losing 6-3, 6-2 to the tournaments number one seed.

Bush and Libby Heard also performed excellently in the 12-and-under doubles, losing only one game in the round-robin to finish runners-up.

“She is just an absolute gun,” Casey said. “That was unfortunately her last time representing the Wimmera as her family has moved away. We were very lucky that we had the whole Bush family come through and play for us this year – Edmund and Genevieve played also – so that was great of them.”

Marli Pymer and Tahlia Thompson also made it to the final in the 14-and-under girls with a great 7-6 victory getting them there. The girls just lost to the top seeded team in the final 6-4.

In the men’s doubles ages 35-49, experienced duo Peter Hayes and Ian Nitshcke won their way to the final and lost in a close match with the final set going to a tiebreaker, 4-1 5-4(5). Hayes and Nitschke defeated the second seeded team in the first round 5-3, 4-1 before winning their way into the final with an epic 1-4, 4-2, 10-8 win in the semis.

Barb Crough and Deb Lawson also won an epic semi-final in the 50+ women’s doubles, earning their spot in the final with a 1-4, 5-3, 10-5 win. The pair finished runners-up after losing in straight sets in the final.

Temperatures of 43 degrees forced play to be rescheduled on the first day of competition on Friday, with play abandoned for several hours during the hottest period of the day.

A plummet in temperature and rain on Saturday provided more complications for the tournament, with players forced to deal with the full spectrum of conditions.