It has been 13 years since Joeys last won the GPS Seconds Tennis Competition and with Kings, Shore and Newington having very strong Firsts and Seconds squads, our boys certainly entered the season as the underdogs. The problem with this theory was that someone forgot to let the boys know this. From the first competition game late last year, this team had a genuine belief that they could give their more fancied rivals a “shake”. Indeed this is what they did.

They couldn’t have started the competition any better than defeating their Sydney Boys’ High School opponents 12-0 and hence going into the Christmas holidays with great confidence. The much anticipated match against Newington was disturbed by rain, however, on the back of strong doubles results, the boys won in a wet and nail-biting 7-5 scoreline. Shore and Scots were also close victories for us before we were totally washed out against Kings. The important victory of the season was definitely against Riverview which our boys won 9-3 while the rest of the GPS sat around courts unable to play due to rain. This victory put our boys in a strong position leading into their final match. The scenario was that if they were to win (by any margin) against Grammar in the final round then even if their closest rivals Newington won 12-0 we would still finish ahead.

It was certainly a nervous day for the boys and with Jarrad McAuliffe (Cherrybrook) being injured, it was always going to be a tough day. Newington did all that they could and defeated Scots 12-0. This really put the pressure on our boys. They handled this pressure exceptionally well, defeating Grammar 10-2.

As it turns out, the Joeys Seconds team led the GPS competition for the whole season. At times this was by the thinnest of margins and in the end, Joeys finished on 60 points with Newington on 58 points. Considering the maximum number of points to be scored is 72 … you can appreciate how close the season was.

Congratulations to Jack Larkin (Geurie) and Jarrad McAuliffe (Cherrybrook) as well as their team-mates and coach Mr Gavin Pitt-Ware for bringing the GPS shield back to Joeys!

Photo: Liam Dougherty, Jarrad McAuliffe, Tom Fahey, Mr Gavin Pitt-Ware, Ben Spencer, Nick Keighley, Jack Larkin and Joe Flannery.