Sports Reports: Combined Murray Bridge tennis team loses to Littlehampton

Plus the latest in Murray Bridge golf and rifle shooting.

Sports Reports: Combined Murray Bridge tennis team loses to Littlehampton

This post includes contributions from Graham Buttle, Murray Bridge Golf Club and Daniel Irvine.

Littlehampton has defeated a combined Murray Bridge tennis team in the first leg of the new Little Murray Cup competition. Photo: Murray Bridge Lawn Tennis Association/Facebook.

Last Sunday a combined Murray Bridge lawn and hard court tennis team participated in the inaugural inter-association match against a team from the Littlehampton Tennis Club.

Littlehampton won the first leg 10 sets to eight.

The second leg will be played in late January at Littlehampton.

The winner on aggregate will receive the perpetual Little Murray Cup.

Pennants

Postel (five sets, 41 games) defeated Schools (three sets, 34 games)

Swanport (five sets, 41 games) defeated Sportsmen (three sets, 37 games)

Juniors

Avoca (10 sets, 76 games) defeated Schools (five sets, 61 games); MVPs: Roxanna Tyler, Adhira Murugeswar

Coorong (11 sets) defeated Banks (four sets, 59 games); MVP: Lucy Scalzi

Swanport (10 sets, 68 games) defeated Murraylands (five sets, 55 games); MVPs: Eddie Blucher, Peter Scalzi

Doubles

River Aces (five sets, 52 games) defeated Mobilong (four sets, 51 games); MVP: Steve Manning

Swanport (five sets, 50 games) defeated Twin Bridges (four sets, 47 games); MVP: Deanna Harden

The pre-Christmas season has now concluded with River Aces finishing top on 34 points followed by Twin Bridges on 26 points, Swanport on 24 points and Mobilong on 20 points.

Players from this competition will resume in late January for a more social competition.

Aldridge-Kuchel combination wins on the golf course

‘Tis the season to be jolly.

Jolly was the operative word for acting Murray Bridge Golf Club manager Shane Aldridge and his partner, Ann-Marie Kuchel, who took out a two-person mixed-gender Ambrose competition on Saturday with a brilliant score of nett 60.25.

Not only were they excited to win, Aldridge himself was also over the moon when he holed out on the sixth green.

Runners-up were young local stars Armani and Asia Marsters, who were only a smidgen away with a 61.5 nett.

In third place, on nett 70.75, were Maureen and Graham Edwards; and in fourth place, on nett 71.75, were Coral Smallbon and Grant Brightman.

The men’s two-person Ambrose was won by the very much in form Greg Schmidt and his visiting partner, Jason Norris, with a brilliant nett 60.25; they managed to hold off their closest rivals, Damo Moloney and Trevor “Tina” Turner, with a sound 61.5 nett.

Third place went to Matty Kowald and Brett Altschwager with a net 62.25; and equal fourth place went to Nifty Neville Briggs/Gary Ryan and Nathan/Nicholas King, both of whom scored nett 63.25.

The greenkeeper’s revenge course was set with several very tricky pin placements and interference, with irrigation hoses surrounding greens, which obviously caused some angst with the scores.

Nonetheless, the fun day was a huge success and members and guests also enjoyed a great Christmas luncheon after the game – a very fitting lead-up day to Christmas.

Frank Marshall contemplates his bad luck on the range at Monarto. Photo: Daniel Irvine.

Unexpected conditions ruffle shooters’ feathers

Eleven shooters have competed from 600 metres in the 18th stage of the Murray Bridge Rifle Club’s annual championship, the final round for 2021.

Those who were there were perhaps wished they had stayed home, as to say the weather was a little tricky would be somewhat of an understatement.

Frank Marshall politely described it as “unexpected”.

While the right wind from the lakes did keep the temperature at a pleasant level, it also left shooters scratching their heads as it varied somewhere between one and four minutes of angle in very short spaces of time.

The result was another one of those character-building days, where good scores were hard to find.

Top in a very small target rifle contingent was Andrew Heard, whose 47 in the second round was a welcome improvement on his first round and gave him a modest score of 90 for the day.

The other TR shooter, Daniel Irvine, did not leave empty-handed, once more winning the Magpie Award with a whooping five birds and threatening to buy a rubber stamp to make recording the wins an easier process.

There were plenty of magpies on the day, however, even in F-Class, but Brad Kirpensteyn pipped the others for the F-Class award with three “birds” of his own. In more sought-after awards in F-Class, the top off-rifle shooters were Mark Nesti, whose consistency with a 55 and a 56 gave him the F-Open win over David McDonald, who couldn’t match his own first round of 57, following it with a 51. In F-Standard, Gordon Harrison, who has swapped across from TR in the warmer weather, took out the off-rifle win by a single centre from Ian Taylor, both shooters scoring 102. Mark Nesti’s score also earnt him the handicap win in F-Class.

After the shoot, members and partners shared in their end of year Christmas break-up, enjoying a good meal and good company until late in the evening. Shooting returns on the 15th of January at the close range of 300 metres.


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