Cosy Dell suffered its first loss in two seasons, in a clash of unbeaten teams, defeated 5-1 by Eastern Harbour in Dunedin men's club tennis on Saturday.
Harbour, reinforced by the addition of Aaron Hicks, an Auckland student, has the luxury this season of playing former Otago player of the year Campbell Higgins, a Tauranga student, at No 2.
Cosy Dell, having released George Milne to go skiing, then lost replacement Andrew Baird to illness and was forced to forfeit two lower order rubbers.
Alex Low used his big serve and occasional net raids to overcome Hicks, who relied on court speed and a counterpunching style, but was always in contention before going down 6-3, 6-4.
However, this was Cosy Dell's only success. Higgins and Ryan Eggers took straight sets singles wins and Eggers partnered Hicks to an 11-9 third set doubles result.
McGlashan Red also remained unbeaten and claimed all six against Mornington-Roslyn. Kyu Kim continues to raise the bar, and beat former nationally ranked junior George Wigley 6-3, 6-0. He also confirmed that he would continue to be available for the school team which went to the national finals.
Paddy Ou and Carlos Reid were convincing winners and Mitchell Sizemore (14) battled to a marathon 7-6, 2-6, 6-3 win over Ollie Scott. Ou and Sizemore then completed the shutout when they took until 14 -12 in the third set tiebreak to seal their doubles.
McGlashan Blue used former pupils Tom Beamish and James Reid with success in the lower order against Balmacewen after James' son, Oliver, was injured.
They won 4-2.
Harry James had a hard hitting top single against James Bourne but was more accurate, winning 6-1, 6-3. James is to try out for the University of New Mexico and hopes to take up a scholarship in 2013.
The women were scheduled to play outdoors but encountered delays and completed results were not available.