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There are just three rounds remaining in the Deniliquin Lawn Tennis competition before the finals on December 15 and local teams are starting to pick up the pace.

On Saturday in Section 1, Robbo’s Raiders/Mundiwa continued its good run at the top of the table by defeating third placed Pastoral Times/Legal Eagles 8 sets to 5.

The match was dominated by a strong showing by the Raiders men who won all five sets, 40 games to 24.

Pastoral Times’ ladies have not been match winners in rounds to date but really stepped up on Saturday, taking four of the six sets, winning 44 games to 32.

The return of Steph Calder from an overseas trip has added strength to the Pastoral Times ladies team. She was matched against fill-in player Eliza Smith and both ladies were evenly matched, setting a high standard of attacking tennis.

Eventually the Raiders coasted home winning 84 games to PT’s 82.

Rob Sobolewski was a three-set winner for Raiders and Janine Lowry was a three-set winner for the Pastoral Times.

In the match between Rockets/Globe Hotel and TA Maher/Riverina Watermatic, there were three Rockets men winning their three sets - Dean Irwin, Lachlan Campbell and Ken Smith.

This set up a 7 sets to 3 win for Rockets.

The TA Maher ladies were stronger on the day than their opponents but were not able to reverse the men’s losses.

For the losing team, Victoria Gatacre was a three-set winner.

In Section 2, the matches both resulted in 9 sets to 4 scorelines.

Peppin/Landmark won against Agspares/Taskers Titans with the Peppin ladies winning five of the six matches they played.

Jenny Hogan and Georgie Murray were both three-set winners.

It was a strong performance from the Peppin team who generally lead the way with strong men’s wins proving they will be a force as finals approach.

In the match between Menadues/Mitre 10 and Elders/Burchfields there was a win to Menadues 9 sets to 4.

Again the score sheet shows a dominant men’s team for Menadues but a strong ladies team in Elders.

There was a fair degree of feeling in the 8-nil result between Nick Bliss with Adam Menadue versus Rick Bond with Mitch Tuck. Fortunately there was no sign of the traditional salute.

Three men in the Menadues team were three-set winners. They were Nick Bliss, Martin Liebenberg and Michael Morona.

The Tennis Club committee is looking for input on the new competition which is due to start in February.

The first Saturday after the Christmas school holidays is Saturday, February 2.

There are eight Saturdays between Feb 2 and March 23.

The committee is yet to decide if the competition will continue after Easter and is wanting feedback from local players.