Eighth time lucky for patient Browne

By Rohan Aldous

Mar 21, 2023

On the side: Harry Crilly and Steve Browne celebrate a point in their doubles win, which was one of eight winning sets for section two premiership team Stanhope.

Grand finals always manage to throw up a Cinderella story or two and in the Goulburn Murray Lawn Tennis Association’s section two grand final, it was Stanhope tennis veteran Steve Browne.

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Browne was chasing his first premiership with the Stanhope club, despite having played in seven previous grand finals.

He lost six of those and in the seventh his team was disqualified after confusion about an eligible player in a season ravaged with washouts.

Browne and Stanhope not only won the section two title, but Brown and another long-time tennis star, Marg Haw, were the pair that put a full stop on the victory.

Their mixed set win secured the win for Stanhope and Browne walked off the court with two set wins from his three sets for the afternoon.

Browne has played with Stanhope for more than 25 years and his team was an 11-game winner of the grand final against Cobram, winning eight of the 11 sets.

Stanhope was favourite going into the grand final, as was the Kyabram-Echuca section one team.

However, Numurkah got its own Cinderella story when it inflicted a first defeat for the year on Kyabram-Echuca.