St Clair and Eastern Harbour continue to set the pace in Dunedin President’s Cup club tennis after further wins to both on Saturday.
Both teams started the day on 19 points but St Clair took all 10 points by beating Taieri 6-0 while Harbour downed Balmacewen 4-2 to finish on 27 to St Clair’s 29.
Several leading players were missing and teams called on their depth but St Clair was able to cover its lower order while Taieri’s top two players were unavailable.
Mitchell Sizemore, warming up for the national junior titles this week, and Jeff Elliotte were comfortable for St Clair against Graeme Clarke and Lucas Walser, and substitutes Damian Hill and Toby Black held out Thomas Kirk and Ryan Rosevear in much closer results in the lower order.
Eastern Harbour, without Ryan Eggers, and Balmacewen, without Paddy Ou, fought out an even contest in the absence of the respective No 1s, who are recovering from injuries.
Gavin Mockford beat Matt McCutcheon in the top single by being a little more consistent at the end of each set to take it 6-4, 7-5.
Lachie Kenneally, recently named in the Southern junior team for the nationals, had a similar result against Otago Open women’s titleholder Rileigh Fields, winning 6-4, 7-6.
Nick Cutfield claimed Balmacewen’s only single when he beat Henry Hailes 6-4, 6-3 and William Muller took the bottom singles for Harbour 6-4, 6-1 from Tom Russell.
The doubles were split but McCutcheon and Fields turned their singles results around by winning a 10-8 match tiebreak third set.
