Balmacewan maintained the lead but St Clair kept the pressure on when both took the maximum 10 points in the post-Christmas Shield competition in Dunedin club tennis on Saturday.
With two weeks to go, Balmacewen remains unbeaten on 26 points and St Clair has 20, while Taieri, which was also unbeaten, had an injury crisis this weekend and had to default. It was worsened by the return to Germany of Lucas Walser.
St Clair earned its points on court with a 6-0 win against OBHS, which was missing Manawa Rakete-Shea and Mat McCutcheon to early-season rugby. There were few highlights as St Clair took a series of straight-sets wins.
In the other tie, Eastern Harbour moved to 12 points with a 4-2 win over John McGlashan, to leave the school-based team on 10 points after it also suffered defections. McGlashan coach and old boy Carlos Reid was pushed to three sets by Wellington student Michael Wilson after falling to a 6-1 second-set loss, before finishing with a stronger 6-3 third set in the top single.
