The Southern Lakes tennis team looks set to continue its dominance with the first round of Southern League Division One in Queenstown this weekend.
Southern Lakes have held the Margaret Rennie Trophy for the last 15 years and, with all their big guns available, their main rival Otago will have its work cut out to make an impact.
Other Division One teams are Southland and North Otago but they are expected to also struggle in the event, which will be repeated to complete a double round-robin when they meet again in Dunedin in February.
The presence of Riki McLachlan for Lakes allows their young stars Peter and Thomas Hartono to play in the mid order while experience is provided by Chris Bradley and former world ranked doubles player Lan Bale, who is also a high performance coach for national junior teams. The squad is completed by Josh McDermott.
The top two women are national junior representatives Emilia Price and Ines Stephani and they are supported by very experienced former internationals in Li Ying Moroney and Suma Ito. The squad is completed by Tamsin Smith and Karen Mitchell.
This Lakes team has a strong mixture of talented youth and experience and looks at least as strong as ever.
Otago’s men have a familiar look, with student Charlie Tomlinson being flown back from Auckland to join Paddy Ou, Mitchell Sizemore and Carlos Reid. Jeff Elliotte will coach and may take a partial player role against North Otago, while manager Phil Mirfin is also capable of taking a spot.
Regular representative Ryan Eggers has been struggling with the after effects of shoulder dislocations and will lead the Otago B team in Oamaru.
The inability of Libby Scott to play a full role has weakened Otago’s chances as she is hampered by a long-term niggling hand injury but the transfer of Otago Indoor Open champion Megan Rogers will balance that to some extent.
Georgia Hume, Rileigh Fields and Zoe Berryman are all capable of picking up rubbers and will be needed as the men may struggle more.
North Otago has a strong women’s team with former No 1 Rebecca Dellaway, now residing in South Auckland after a stint at an American College, drafted back in and backed up by the experienced Belinda Hist, leading junior McKenzie Phillips and hard hitting Nicky Wallace.
However, with several men unable to travel, much will depend on Jackson Kerr and Josh Dalziel.
Southland comes back to Division One after a break of several years and is expected to struggle. Former Southern Districts representative Scarlett Cuthill is back and juniors Claudia Smith, Halle Faherty and Holly Munro will have experienced Lynn Millar as a valuable mentor.
The men named are Kerryn Maynard, Louis Tournier, Josh Cochrane and Miles Pask.
The six teams in Division Two will play in a northern and southern split with South Canterbury, North Otago B and Otago B meeting in Oamaru while Lakes B, Southland B and Northern Southland play in Te Anau.
This grade will complete a round-robin in Dunedin in February by playing the teams not met in this weekend’s round.
