Wodonga Tennis Centre, 14 February 2020 | Tennis Victoria

Tennis Victoria Country Week 2020 has come to an end, and what a week it was. Wodonga Tennis Centre and Albury Tennis Association played host to a fantastic week of tennis, fun, friendships and community.

On the final day there could only be 27 winners.

Boosey took the A Grade Men’s title for the third year in a row while the Maryborough Missiles took the A Grade Women’s title for the first time since 2015. The Missiles also capped off a brilliant week by winning the Gilchrist Pearce Cup, an award for all 27 grades to aspire to for achieving the highest game winning percentage from all round matches.

Wodonga local Sandra Allen capped off a wonderful week taking the title with the Wodonga Whiskas in the Special B2 Women’s grade. Named on Monday as a Country Week Legend, Sandra was busy on court playing while also managing the catering in the canteen at the club. Sandra is a true Legend!

The Match Makers again made the trip down from Brisbane for the second time to take the title in the Women’s B1 grade. This was their second win in a row. Complimenting their opponents today, and all week, the Match Makers were adamant they will be back next year and commended all players for the sportsmanship, comradery and sense of community that the Country Week event has.

The full list of Country Week Winners and Runners Up are:

Women’s Grade	Winner	Runner Up
A	Maryborough Missiles	Geelong Mixtures
Special B1	Shepparton Sistas	Shepparton Bluebirds
Special B2	Wodonga Whiskas	Corowa
B1	Match Makers	Wonni Wonders
B2	Double Bubbles	Inverloch Gulls
B3	Gippy Guns	More Double Bubbles
Special C1	Wellington Warriors	Euroa Purple
Special C2	Yarra Ladies	The Mumm’s
Special C3	Swan Hill Go Girls	The Originals – Shepparton
Special C4	Bacchus Marsh Highly Strung	Leongatha
C1	Cobram Mojitos	Rushy Gippers
C2	Rosemore Girlfriends	St Monica’s Tightly Strung
C3	Sunbury Sippers	Inverloch Cannons
C4	Broadford Bluebells	Bacchus Marsh Blue
C5	Shepparton Clare’s Bears	Invy / Ads
C6	Leongatha Parrots	Burratons
Men’s Grades	Winner	Runner Up
A	Boosey	Dubbo Demons
Special B1	Beaconsfield Battlers	Mud Island
Special B2	Interstate	Border Warriors
Special B3	Leongatha Lumberjacks	Albury Crocs
B1	Maffra Sam	Wangaratta Lime
B2	Mt Prospect Hackers	Albury Rockets
B3	St Arnaud Bye	Cobram Tigers
C1	Kilmore	Jindera The Fentons
C2	Petard	Burra Longshots
C3	Drouin Roosters	Gippsland Studs
C4	Traralgon Gippers	Kelly Gang

By the numbers:

1356 players took part in Tennis Victoria Country Week 2020.

217 teams competed – 128 female teams, 89 male teams.

There were 27 grades contested over the week.

Over 3592 eight game sets were played.

1800 Dunlop Australian Open tennis balls were used.

99 pristine grass courts were curated and prepared by Shayne Ried across Wodonga Tennis Centre, Kelly Park and Albury Tennis Association. This included 55 permanent courts and 44 courts prepared on the soccer fields.

44 tennis nets were produced by Henderson’s of Bendigo. The temporary court nets are then available for purchase by participating teams to take home to their clubs.

4158 court lines were marked using 300 litres of line marker.

73 racquets were restrung

540 egg and bacon rolls were eaten by weary morning participants.

Over 700 Powerades and 2400 bottles of water kept players hydrated.

7 participants were named inaugural Country Week Legends. Congratulations to Sandra Allen (Wodonga), Eric Salter (Kilmore), John Tadd (Macedon), Joanne Dow (Inverloch), Kay Hanrahan (Yarrawonga), Narelle Maxted (Shepparton), Neil Mitchell (Walwa Jingellic)

There were 4 (much needed) rain delays across the week giving the region some welcome rain relief.

Over 60 hardworking volunteers from the Wodonga Tennis Centre and Albury Tennis Association, working together with Tennis Victoria, contributed to the wonderful event presentation that the club displayed.

Wodonga and Albury teams had the shortest drive to get to Country Week. Others had a bigger trip with players travelling from as far as Brisbane, Merimbula, Launceston, Rockhampton, Port Macquarie and Darwin.

We hosted 3 community support organisations. Thank you to the EJ Whitten Foundation, Beyond Blue and FARA Australia for their support of Country Week.

The greatest community sporting event may have come to an end for another year but it will be back again in 2021 from Sunday 14 to Friday 19 February when it heads to Swan Hill.

Finals presentation images: https://flic.kr/s/aHsmLoi5eQ