MONDAY NIGHT - ADULT LEAGUE MIRACLE!!!
Red Hill Roos may well change their name to the Red Hill Cats after the Div 7 Monday night Tennis League team used up at least 9 lives in their heart-stopping Grand Final victory over Kaleen at the ROOS RANGE on Wednesday night.
When the teams were split at 1 apiece after a tight 4-6 doubles loss for Adrian McConnon and Chris Chapman
and a composed, clinical 6-1 singles victory from team no.1 Saurabh Anand their was little sign of the madness to come
This is about the time the full moon shot out above Carey Gardens Village and things got crazy!
Only the most die hard ROOS fans still gave Chris ‘Chappo’ Chapman a hope when he fell behind 1-4 , in the no.2 singles rubber . His Kaleen opponent was seeing the ball like a watermelon, dominating all aspects of the match and was surely thinking victory was a formality…Though Chris grew up on the mean streets of Dubbo, in country western NSW where giving up was never an option and showing any sign of weakness was akin to signing off on your own death warrant. Slowly but surely Chris scratched and clawed his way back into the contest. When the combatants met at the net for the handshake,almost an hour after the 1st bell had rung neither fighter could barely keep their hands up and it was Chris who had prevailed in a tie breaker 7-6!
Next up was Adrian and Saurabh’s doubles. Again the ROOS found themselves 5-6 down and only a couple of points from defeat . Up stepped Club stalwart Adrian McConnon, who showed absolute nerves of steel to hold a wonderful service game to send the rubber into another tie breaker. Adrian was the dominant force in the tie breaker and fittingly it was a McConnan ‘fireball
forehand-drive’ that brought up the victory .
This set the ROOS up nicely with a 3-1 advantage overall. Prompting the words from a mysterious, spiritual member of the Kaleen support crew who had been seated next to Jimmy Thomson and your correspondent “this is all over , I am going inside to pray”. (Club mascot Rupert the ROO’ also disappeared at this point and was later recovered with a number of voodoo needles in his body). The Grand Final momentum flipped in Kaleen’s favour in an instant. Let cords, balls off the back of the line, Roos’ players being blinded by low flying,overhead objects; you name it, everything and anything appeared to suddenly be conspiring against the home team. To the flashpoint where not only had Kaleen erased the deficit, with singles defeat of Adrian, they had one hand on the trophy and their feet firmly on the ROO’s jugular when they shot out to a 4-1 lead in the season defining doubles match v Chris and Saurabh.
1-4 became 2-5 , 0-40 with Kaleen serving for the match, Tennis League title, the trophy - EVERYTHING .
At this moment 2 interesting things happened. The Kaleen supporter left the clubhouse and reappeared on the side-lines, enquiring after the score. And then a ray of sunshine and good vibes in the form of Remi Chapman arrived . When I morosely informed Remi that the ROOS were facing 3 match points and their whole season was riding on the result of this last doubles match, she simply shrugged and said “it’s not over yet Matt”…..
The rest is now history, the results are in and the plaque will sit forever in the clubhouse of the ROO’ RANGE.
Chris and Saurabh basically would not take no for an answer and with no margin for error managed, with EVERYTHING on the line to string 5 games together to secure an unforgettable 7-5 victory and the Canberra Tennis League Championship.
Victory was fittingly secured, at the net from yet another sublime, classy volley winner from Saurabh who along with Chris was just tremendous . They both showed excellent mental toughness , support for each other and a refusal to give up .
CONGRATULATIONS
Adrian,