Soffe Cup tosses up interesting matches

Soffe Cup bounces on this weekend with some interesting match-ups to wet the palate of tennis aficionados across the province.

Stratford will be competitive against Rotokare, but will certainly need some upsets to to see the tie go their way.

Bruce Cleland, Grant Kite, Hasely Lobb and Paul Waite will take on Rotokare’s Blair Crowley, Scott Campbell, Shane Devlin and Baxter Rogers in the men’s, while Lynn Stanners, Katie Stanners, Mylie Thwaites, Courtney Tippet and Anna Hutterd line up in the women’s against Karen Cranston, Chantelle Peters, Tania Atkinson and Helena Goodin.

Pihama will be fighting for every win they can get against last year’s champions Pukekura.

In the men’s, Rob Haveswood, Kyle Crowley, Sean Edmonds, James Padilla and Patrick Stevenson will take on the formidable quartet of Brady Simpson, David Barnard, Michael Erb and Meto Snegirev, while Ngakuira Osbourne, Grace Kelly, Brianna Matthews and Georgia Smith take on Nikayla Barnard, Linda Reid, Caitlin Haylock and Alison Gadsby.

Huatoki will be hoping that tight results fall in their favour against Oa¯ kura this weekend, as they are bolstered by the return of Jayden Harrison at the top of the order, which gives the whole men’s line up a much more formidable feel than last week.

Oa¯ kura’s top man Jamie Simpson will need to be right on his game if he wants to topple Harrison.

The match ups se Harrison, Alistair Nairn, Murray Keast and Luis Silva take on Simpson, Graeme Mitchell, Andrew Hood and Matt Stringer, with Marcella Jones, Tracey Old, Chris Wilson and Jae Wilson taking on Oa¯ kura’s Sue Oldfield, Ana Spurdle, Jackie Keenan, Poppy Mitchell and Becky Bruckner (doubles specialist).

Okaiawa/Manaia has the bye.