Taieri beat Balmacewen, which was missing top man Paddy Ou, without dropping a rubber, but it was taken to three sets in three of them.
St Clair was without Jeff Elliotte and the tie with Harbour took six hours and 20 minutes, despite having an extra court, when the average is normally about four hours.
In probably the best match of the club season, Mitchell Sizemore (St Clair) found extra at the end to hold out Ryan Eggers 5-7, 6-3, 7-5.Sizemore fell behind a break early and was down 1-4. He fought back to level and 5-5, but an inspired returning game by Eggers enabled him to break again for the chance to serve for the set. Both played with aggression and intensity.
However, Eggers relaxed his grip in the second, but the standard and intensity returned as both produced some sparkling rallies and, at 5-5, it was anyone’s match. Eggers had had a chance to serve for the match but Sizemore found another gear and, in the words of a team-mate, "blew him away".
"I don’t know how I won that," a relieved Sizemore commented later.
"I thought it was going to be his day."
With both doubles going to match tiebreaks and being split it was a key win to junior Lachie Kenneally (16) against veteran Robin Versteeg, 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, which tipped the balance, and Georgia Hume and Henry Hailes also contributed.
Taieri’s No1, Carlos Reid, beat Matt McCutcheon, promoted in the absence of Ou, in a power-hitting shootout in which he was able to find the court more often and win 6-3, 6-3.
Both doubles went to Taieri at 10-7 in the third, and Lucas Walser battled to a three-set win over Nick Cutfield, while Jessie Stevenson and Rileigh Fields, after a strong performance in doubles, found Darryl Paterson and Graeme Clarke respectively too tough in singles.
