With the decider played in beautiful conditions at Benalla Lawn Tennis Club, Benalla gained an early lead over their rivals, winning three of the first four matches to yield a three-game advantage.
But Avenel, who finished atop the ladder following a 15 round regular season, weren’t a team to be put away so easily, nudging ahead with victories in the final men’s and women’s matches.
With the match separated by a single game ahead of the mixed doubles, both teams put in resounding efforts to score wins in the next two games, including a dominant 8-3 victory by Avenel's Gen Gordon and Peter Bath.
With the contest coming down to the final match of the day - and with one game still separating the teams - all Avenel’s Ben Bath and Yvonne Maxwell had to do was avoid a lopsided loss.
But by making sure the results were beyond doubt, the pair bagged the rubber, 8-4, to cement an overall five-game win for the team.
Avenel team member Ben Bath said his team was ecstatic to bring home a win in the biggest game of the season.
“The competition is getting harder every year,” Bath said.
“We’re pretty happy. It’s always good to finish the season off with a win.”
With Avenel and Benalla facing off twice this season prior to the grand final, Avenel came into the clash with the upper hand after winning both clashes, by three and one game respectively.
But with the biggest reward on offer this time around, Bath said his squad didn’t focus too heavily on game-plans ahead of the match.
“It was more ‘take it as it comes’ and see how the day goes,” he said.
“If we needed to have a talk about something we would, but it rolled along well today.”
Though his side failed to bring home the trophy, Jewell said he was proud of the performance Lawn put in.
“It was fairly even, our two teams have been very close (all year),” Jewell said.
“They (Avenel) thoroughly deserved it though.
“But I’m pretty proud of our team, too, we’re not that far off them.”
Following the grand final, Avenel’s Gen Gordon was awarded Best on Court in the final, while teammate Yvonne Maxwell won the best women's player this season. Benalla Lawn’s Peter Jewell picked up the same award in the men’s section.
