17 February 2023 | Tennis Victoria

Picture: Tennis Victoria Country Week 2023 Grand Final Captains 

Tennis Victoria Country Week 2023 has come to an end, and what a week it was. Yarrawonga Lawn Tennis Club, Moira Shire and Yarrawonga Mulwala Tourism played host to a fantastic week of tennis, fun, friendships and sunshine.

On the final day there could only be 26 winners.

Tandara and The Lecontes (Shepparton) went back-to-back in the Women’s and Men’s A Grade Grand Finals respectively.

Claire’s Bears from Shepparton capped off a brilliant week by winning the Gilchrist / Pearce Cup, an award for all 26 grades to aspire to win by having the highest game winning percentage from all round matches.

Pat Flynn, Country Week Legend who has played over 52 events was victorious in the C2 Grade Men’s final. A member of the Wangaratta Legionnaires, Pat was joined by his son and grandson and fellow teammates in claiming the Grade trophy.

After a late night at the courts yesterday for their semi-final that ended in a draw, the BFM’s returned this morning at 8am this morning to finish their semi-final match. Taking on the Grape Therapy team, BFM’s were victorious and went on to meet the Bendigo Besties in the final. The BFM’s took their winning form into the final to take the Special B2 title.

Players travelled from across the country and overseas with competitors coming from Bathurst, Port Macquarie, Devonport, Adelaide, New Zealand, Brisbane, Merimbula and from all corners of Victoria.

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

Women’s Grade	Winner	Runner Up
A	Tandara	Mutton and Lamb
Special B1	Mt Prospect Dashers	Royal South Maffra
Special B2	BFM’s	Bendigo Besties
B1	G Town Girls	Gippy Guns
B2	Group Therapy	Rochester Sweet
B3	The Kelly Gang	Mud Island
B4	Yarrawonga Allsorts	Mt Prospect Angels
Special C1	Slice Girls	Rochester Biscuits
Special C2	Gippy Ads	Highpoint Shoppers
Special C3	The Mumms	Swan Hill Go Girls
C1	Acing Gracefully	Sunbury Ladybirds
C2	Double Tees	Faultless
C3	Keilor East Diamonds	Beavers
C4	Bloomers	Sunbury Sippers
C5	Claire’s Bears	Invy / Won
Men’s Grades	Winner	Runner Up
A	Lecontes	Buln Buln
Special B1	Mud Island	Gippsland Thoroughbreds
Special B2	Kiama	Bendigo TC Beyond Reasonable Doubt
B1	Albury Crocs	Here for the Beers
B2	Coffs Harbour Cruisers	Merimbula Bunnies
B3	South Camden	Kilmore
B4	Port Macquarie Aces 1	Devonport Panthers
C1	The Fentons	Drouin Mates
C2	Wangaratta Legionnaires	Leongatha Slingshots
C3	Karra Bushchooks	Culcairn Silverbacks
C4	Leongatha Beers	Anglesea

Gilchrist / Pearce Cup: Claire’s Bears (Shepparton)

Country Week 2023 – By the numbers:

1293 Players took part in Tennis Victoria Country Week 2023, aged between 15 and 83.

205 Teams competed – 119 female teams, 86 male teams.

There were 26 grades contested over the week.

2,376 Dunlop Australian Open tennis balls were used.

101 grass courts were prepared by club curator Warwick Henderson. This included 23 permanent courts and 78 temporary courts prepared on JC Lowe Oval and the Victoria Park precinct.

85 racquets were restrung by the team from Tennis Lab using 1032 metres of string. Country Week players racquets were restrung by the same team responsible for the racquet preparation of Nick Kyrgios, Ash Barty and Stefanos Tsitsipas.

4 participants were named Country Week Legends. Congratulations to Frank Dekker, Neil Langstaff , Carmel Wileman and Georgina Parker.

Tennis Victoria Country Week is the largest grass court tennis tournament in the world. It will return in 2024 to Wodonga from 11 – 16 February 2024.