The project has been two years in the making, Kyabram tennis coach David Starling having played the past two seasons with Echuca because of his coaching connections at the Echuca club.
“We really only had two permanent men last season and we were getting emergencies every week. Even then, we still made the finals,” Starling said.
Rich River has withdrawn from the Goulburn Murray section-one competition, which is expected to have six teams involved in the October 15 start.
Three Shepparton teams are likely to contest the section-one premiership, along with the combined Kyabram-Echuca team and teams from Numurkah and Yarrawonga, negating any bye scenario.
“We didn’t quite have enough playing in Kyabram to form a section one team ourselves,” Starling said.
“So we decided to put put our resources together with Echuca. Looking forward we could have our own team in years to come.”
The Kyabram-Echuca team will play some matches at Kyabram and the remainder in Echuca.
“It has been a number of years since we have had the top standard of Goulburn Murray tennis in Kyabram,” Starling said.
“The last time we had a team (in 2013) we won the premiership.”
That team consisted of Starling, his wife and two of his children — along with Justine McConnell and Greg Tarrant.
The 2022-23 squad will include six Echuca players — Deagan Tomkins, Gen, Pip and Ed Bush, Jordan Godfrey and Deagan Tomkins.
“They are all pretty young, aged from 16 to 21-years-old,” Starling said.
“We (Kyabram) provide the experience.”
The Kyabram members of the squad are David Starling, Brooke Starling, her partner Ryan Pool and Regan Moore.
“We could have one more player to add to the squad,” he said.
Weekend play will involve 12 sets and teams of four men and two women, who will each play singles, a set of doubles and mixed. All sets will be to eight games.
Kyabam will also field teams in the section two, three and four competitions, with all sections starting on October 15.
∎ Junior tennis will also start on October 15, a meeting earlier this week expected to allow for the competition draw to be finalised.
“There will be somewhere in the vicinity of 25 teams in the competition, which is across five sections,” Starling said.
They will represent Kyabram, Girgarre, Tongala, Stanhope and Kyvalley clubs.
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