Grand curse finally broken

MINCHA West has snapped a grand final losing streak by de feating Loddon Valley Tennis Association powerhouse Calivil North in Saturday’s final.

The two had clashed every year since 2019 but fortune changed for Mincha West when it took out the final mixed set at Dingee

Meg Stewart, Pete Gargen (Mincha West), Daniel Rogers and Ava Maxted (Calivil North) were unaware of the margin when they went out, but once all the other mixed sets had finished, it was calculated that Mincha needed a score of four to draw and five to win. The crowd was silent during the set and the Mincha West duo won 7-3.

Earlier in the day, Mincha men came out firing and won all of their sets 42 to 26.

In past grand final meetings, it had been the Mincha women who struggled to win games against duos Michelle Balic and Christie Rogers, who are just usually way too strong and dominating.

However, this year the Min cha women won two sets and 30 games total to Calivil North’s 37.

Mincha was nine games up be fore the mixed sets where both teams had wins.

The new premiers had a very different line-up to previous years with player injuries, retirements and players leaving the district.

Captina Jeannie Wagner said: “No one from the Mincha team thought winning was going to be an option, so instead of strategising and working out how they were going to win, the at- would each Saturday, have fun, and then enjoy the after party together with good food and good company.”

“Mincha suffered some losses of strong players from last year’s grand final with Chelsea Mann and Tom Walker (moved away), Tim Wagner and Brodie Wagner (ankle & knee surgery).

“On top of this, Mincha West also had losses this year, with the finals, Trista Wagner off to universirty in South Australia, Riley Wagner on a leadership program & Chris Mann having a foot operation.

“This left Mincha with the bare minimum number in the ladies, with no emergencies to call upon.

As well as this, on grandfinal day our top lady, Em Prout was playing at 30 weeks pregnant,