Close contests in Soffe Cup

The third round of Taranaki A grade tennis saw some extremely tight contests take place.

South Combined hosted Huatoki and squeezed through by 19 sets to 18 on countback after the match count was all square at eight all.

Hamish Mead made the trip back for his first Soffe Cup appearance of the year, which was a great boost for South Combined. However, South’s number one woman was unable to play, which meant all the women for South Combined were making the step up a ranking place. The result was South Combined dominating the men’s side and Huatoki dominating the women’s side. Dee Werder-McCrea, for South Combined, managed to buck this general trend, scoring a 6-4 6-3 win over Ellen O’Byrne. The doubles were shared evenly and Huatoki won three out of the four combines.

A junior national doubles champion, Mead’s doubles ability was probably what made the difference for South Combined. When all other combines pairings were falling to Huatoki, Meads and Symes managed to stem the tide and contribute the telling blow for the overall win.

Rotokare ran out comfortable winners in a rain-affected contest with Stratford 9-4.

Perhaps the most encouraging aspect of the day was the good form of Courtney Tippett and Michael Boland. Tippett has been known to have good and bad days, so to see her starting to play more consistently for her club is encouraging.

Also, Michael Boland has often demonstrated pure talent but tended to play without control. While he lost narrowly last week, he fronted again this Saturday with a solid effort that ended in a singles win. He could, in fact, be the strong top-order player the club needs, allowing Bruce

Cleland to also pick up wins.

Rotokare had won the tie outright, even though the last three combines were a wash out.

A tightly fought tie saw Pukekura sneak through 9-7 over Oakura. Oakura, once again, suffered without Jaime Simpson in the top men’s spot. It allowed Pukekura to win three out of the four men’s singles, which ultimately gave Pukekura the edge when all other areas of the tie were evenly split. The two telling blows were the 10-8 super tie break win in the men’s doubles for Pukekura’s Mike Erb and Jordan Whittleston versus Josh Walden and Colin Handschuck and the mixed doubles victory of

Walden and Jackie Keenan 7-5 over Pukekura’s David Barnard and Caitlyn Haylock in the tie break. Effectively the tie swung on four points. Pukekura has three wins from three outings.

Pukekura leads the Soffe Cup competition with 42 points from South Combined on 29 points. Oakura are third with 28 points followed by Rotokare 27.5, Huatoki 24 and Stratford 11.5.

In the Wilson trophy, Oakura beat South Combined 12-4, Pukekura lost to Rotokare 9-7 and Waitara lost to Inglewood 15-1.

In the Sumpter trophy, South Combined won by default over Oakura and Huatoki lost to Pukekura 10-6.