With just two weeks of tennis left before the traditional two week break for Christmas and New Year, the season is
slipping by very fast indeed.
It seemed just a few weeks back that we were just getting started, but here we are at week seven already and almost approaching the half-way mark of the season.
Christmas time is always interesting when it comes to the make up of tennis teams, with most teams changing from week to week and the exact line ups not known right up until 1pm on Saturdays.
Just ask Allan Manfield, who had the job of finding 17 fill-in players for five senior tennis teams from the Railway Pennant Tennis Club last weekend.
After about 50 odd phone calls around the town, and several visits here and there, the 17 spots were eventually filled, and a week later it starts all over again.
Let's hope for Allan's sanity that his job is a whole lot easier this week.
Not knowing who's in and who's out, the task of tipping a winner in the Doubles match of the round between Wandearah and Uniting Green is a hard one.
Mark Murphy, Graham Ford, Chris Keane and Mardi O'Brien formed a strong steam in last Saturday's game against sister side Uniting Blue (the golden girls plus one gent), and if the same Green team hits the courts against Wandearah, the pendulum may well swing in its favor.
The Wandies team is capably lead by Jack Keain who goes about winning games without too much fuss. He had a pretty good team on paper last week also, and they got up in a thriller against Trinity 3-29 to 3-26.
Brenton Ferme is as strong as it gets at number one position and he could well be the 'cat amongst the pigeons' in this weekend's encounter against Uniting Green.
Pirie's neighboring country teams, Napperby and Wandearah, clash in the Division 2 match of the weekend.
Allan Munn's form has been pretty good of late and last week he claimed the scalp of U13 junior talent Tom Madigan (7-6 in a tie-breaker).
If Munn lines up for Napperby at number two this weekend, his game against Jason Kirk should be a beauty.
Neither player will be prepared to give an inch, so it will be battle royale right until the bitter end.
Trinity will want to make it back-to-back wins this weekend in the Div 2 comp after beating Napperby at their home courts last weekend in a close game (9 sets to 7).
The men's line up for Trinity differs each week, with the Madigan twins alternating between Div 1 and Div 2. I'm not sure just whose turn it is this week to play Div 2, but whoever it is will make life difficult for Railway's number one player Ian Turner.
Emma Scarman and Julia Footner are a formidible combination at one and two for Railway Green and will provide a huge challenge for their opposition this week, Lauren McCulloch and Monique Holze.
Napperby can rest up this week in the Div 1 comp, while the other four teams slog it out on court. We could be in for a hot one, so the fitness of Andrew Waters may come in handy for Railway Yellow's game against Trinity's Dennis Buchanan who has been in good form recently and could turn the tables on Waters this weekend.
Number one player for Railway Yellow, Jess Germinario will be missing in action against Trinity, and so too will Trish Lloyd, so it could be a rather sad score come 5pm on Saturday for the bottom team who are still yet to win a match this season.