The return of Taieri's students saw a major turnaround in Dunedin club tennis as the side beat Balmacewen 4-2 on Saturday.
In the previous round, Taieri suffered the ignominy of a 6-0 loss when Charlie Tomlinson, John Vogel and Carlos Reid were all unavailable. All three were No1 for their schools when they competed at national finals in earlier years.
Tomlinson was top player for Auckland Grammar, Vogel held the same position for national title-winning Scots' College, and Reid was the captain for national semifinalist John McGlashan College.
Vogel and Reid were easy winners on Saturday but Tomlinson, still struggling for the form that brought him the Otago Open title in March, went down 6-3, 6-1 to Paddy Ou in an error-ridden display.
Ou combined with Nick Cutfield to take a surprising straight sets doubles win and gain Balmacewen's other bonus point.
Anderson's Bay, formerly known as Eastern Harbour, maintained its unbeaten record with a 5-1 win against Otago Boys' Blue.
In the top single, Ryan Eggers, still struggling with the aftermath of a dislocated shoulder, was able to fight back to beat Thomas Chiang, who himself was battling a leg injury, in three sets. Although Eggers had little power in his serve, he gradually asserted himself as Chiang needed injury breaks and the 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 scoreline told the story as Chiang faded.
Veteran Phil Mirfin was too consistent for leading junior Zane Gray, dropping only two games and showed his nous in the doubles game to help substitute Simon Bell to a tight 6-4, 7-6 doubles win against Gray and Henry Dickson.
St Clair, back to full strength, beat Otago Boys' Blue 4-2, but Mitchell Sizemore at No 1 was made to work for a time in his 7-6, 6-1 over promising junior Ayoub Ahmad. Ahmad had been playing at the national age group finals and other tournaments, while this was Sizemore's second match for the season and the lack of match-play showed in his error count.
Jeff Elliotte was efficient in downing George Alexander 6-1, 6-1 and contributed well to the top doubles win in a 6-4, 6-4 score.
Veteran Robin Versteeg found Mat McCutcheon's mixture of power and judicious drop shots too much as
he lost 1-6, 3-6, while fellow veteran Tony Ryder beat schoolboy Angus Faulks 6-0,
6-4 and combined with Versteeg in a three-set doubles win.
