St Patrick's Tennis Club has claimed its third consecutive summer pennant premiership flag in a men's division one final which went down to the wire.
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Taking on Albury Warriors' Nick Vicary, Brock Dixon, Stuart McCardy and Anjya Zazulak, St Patrick's Jade Culph, Mark Shanahan, Adib Golshan and Mark Sawyer found it all came down to the final match of the day.
Dixon started the Warriors off on the front foot after toppling Shanahan 8-3 in a singles clash, with his serve and forehand winning him crucial points throughout the encounter.
Vicary and Culph then found themselves locked in a one hour 45 minute epic, in which Culph triumphed in a tiebreak.
It then went back and forth in the doubles rubbers, with Albury claiming the first, St Patrick's claiming the next two 8-5, before Albury levelled the score at three rubbers each with a 8-4 doubles display.
Dixon and McCardy then found themselves with a 3-0 lead before Shanahan and Golshan levelled the score and continued the momentum to steal the set 8-6 in a crucial match, leaving the score at 4-3 with one rubber to be played.
Crowds gathered at the Albury Tennis Centre as Vicary and Dixon and Culph and Shanahan played out the decider, with the latter managing a 8-4 victory to seal the deal for St Patrick's - five rubbers 47 games to three rubbers 51 games.
St Patrick's have now won three Saturday summer division one men's pennant premiership flags in a row after dominating in 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24, with Culph and Golshan featuring in the team consistently.
Attention now turns to the winter pennant competition, which will start after the NSW school holidays have concluded.
