Cosy Dell won the premier men's final in Dunedin club tennis on Saturday when it beat Eastern Harbour 5-1.
The all-student team, which hails from all around New Zealand, was accompanied by a large, colourful group of supporters, some in costume, and they revelled in the atmosphere. All six of their squad were able to be used in a tie which, while close at first, was eventually was won comfortably.
Harbour "came to the party" early on, when Ryan Eggers took the first set off James Leggett and Mayuresh Prasad had chances before losing a first set tiebreak to Chris McKegg.
Eggers went on to take the second set 7-5, but not before he had seven matchpoints, while Mckegg held on for a second set 6-4 win to level the contest.
Cosy Dell's number two Alex Low used his big serve to set up many points against Phil Mirfin, who provided his share of the entertainment and proved difficult to shake off.
Low won 6-4, 6-3.
At number one, Nick Hornstein was pushed to his closest match of the season by Tauranga student Campbell Higgins and was not allowed to display his full repertoire.
However he was always a little ahead and won 6-3, 6-4.
Although ahead 3-1, Cosy Dell still had to win at least a set in the doubles. The heat went out of the tie when Hornstein and Andrew Baird took the first set off Higgins and Mirfin. To Eastern Harbour's credit, it came back to force a third set tiebreak result.
The other double saw an easier finish, when Low and James Tapper beat Eggers and Mike Smith 7-5, 6-0. Smith had earlier played 90 minutes of football at the nearby Caledonian Ground.
The premier women had agreed to forgo the finals' playoff format, which involved several midweek matches, and the round robin was won clearly by Eastern Harbour. St Clair and Mornington-Roslyn were joint runners up.
• Agnieszka Radwanska, of Poland, used her wits to defeat world No 2 Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-4 and win the Sony Ericsson Open final yesterday, once again denying the Russian, Reuters reported.
Sharapova has now lost all four finals she has featured in at the Miami tournament and all three she has played in this year.
