A number of athletes from Salmon Arm have been hitting the tennis courts competitively this season.
West Martin-Patterson, who recently moved to Salmon Arm from Sicamous, and his teammate, Jeremy Bell from Vernon, are currently the reigning champions for the current tennis season.
Their most recent win was the Alpha-Zulu tournament, held July 18 to 20 in Kelowna. It was the team’s fourth time playing and they came out with another win.
Martin-Patterson and Bell played against two other Salmon Arm men, Winston Pain and Bob Langford. The results were a 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 match for Patterson and Bell.
“We almost beat them, it was very close,” said Pain.
But close wasn’t good enough and Alpha-Zulu became another tournament win in Patterson’s season roster.
“We’ve won nine tournaments in a row,” said Patterson, who has been playing tennis for 25 years.
Patterson and Bell were also victorious at Lakeview Heights in May, the Hankey Cup in Vernon and the Sunshine Open in Kamloops.
Over the weekend, the Salmon Arm Tennis Club hosted the Miele Interior Team Tennis playoffs.
Sixty-five players showed up and Salmon Arm had six local teams play against teams from Kamloops, Vernon and Kelowna.
One Salmon Arm team will be heading to Provincials, even though they didn’t get a chance to play. Marianne VanBuskirk, Cynthia Langford, Shirley Knorr, Shannon Hecker, Mariejie Duplessis and Loree Boyd, who make team Slammin’ Arm, were the only team registered in the women’s 3.5-4.0 division, which gave them an automatic victory.
They will be heading to Whistler on Aug. 22 for provincials.
VanBuskirk, president of the Salmon Arm Tennis Club, said the team has been training for two years in order to be able to play at the provincials, and they will be the only team from Salmon Arm competing.
String Theory placed second in the Men’s 3.5-4.0 division. Detlef Doose, George Elamatha, Dan Wark, Robin Wiens and Ken Hecker were on the team. The Flyswaters came in third in the 3.5-4.0 division. Steve Bradwell, Carl Bannister, Ian McHarg, Malcolm Shattock, Tyler Shattock and Scott Steward were on the team.
David Askew, Mick Ford, Randy Arsenault, Les Heron and Lyndon Shipowick, made up the Hotshots and placed third in the 3.0-3.5 Men’s division.
Carol Ross, Myrna Calver, Sue Ford, Marg Heron, Dee Dee Shattock and Cathie Pain made up the Slice Girls and came in fourth in the 3.0-3.5 division. Ashley Bradwell, Myra Elamatha, Lisa-Marie Martin-Patterson, Kristen Steward, Wallis Thomson and Joan Van Niessen made up the team the Pink Pretties, and came close behind by placing fifth in the 3.0-3.5 division.
