Dunedin club tennis, which begins today, will have more teams and improved depth as a result of a large number of student recruits from around the country.
A new format sees five weeks of the championship being played on Saturdays, then suspended until the students return in late February, followed by five more weeks and playoffs.
The clubs will revert to two-person teams during the intervening weeks and play for the President's Cup.
The men's teams will increase from five to six and the women from four to six. The women will also go back to teams of four, up from two last season.
Although this means that at the lower level there may be a lesser standard, there was a feeling from club delegates that two people was hardly a "team".
In the men, new teams are Cosy Dell, which contains students from Wellington,Canterbury and Nelson, all of who were highly ranked juniors, and John McGlashan, led by national junior representative Harry James, backed up by Southern Districts representatives.
Mornington-Roslyn reverts to one team having lost its top two players, Oliver Cuthill and Shaun Paringatai, but will field a solid group of recent juniors.
Last year's champion Eastern Harbour is again strong, having retained its squad and will use Paringatai as cover. Balmacewen makes up for the loss of Conrad Wong to Wellington with the gain of Sam Poulter from North Harbour. Poulter made the Otago Open final in February and was rushed into the Otago No 1 spot.
Taieri has gained Wyatt Purdon and retained the core from last season.
A large number of students from Canterbury are among the additions to the women's scene and there are others from Southland, Wellington and Auckland.
As in the men, Eastern Harbour looks very strong with some nationally-ranked juniors.
Mornington-Roslyn and Taieri both have two Canterbury students, with Taieri's back-up coming from very young players and Mornington's from older members.
Balmacewen will have two teams. One will be led by Heidi Blackburne, a Canterbury player who has debuted for Otago already. St Clair is expected to gain Southlander Scarlett Cuthill, but much will depend on whether Sian English continues to travel to Christchurch for club tennis.
The prospects for Harbour will depend greatly on whether Hanna English and Georgia Hume also take that path.
Play begins today at 1pm in the Edgar Centre.
