Otago heads to Wellington this weekend for fixtures against a Wellington selection, Kapimana and Hutt Valley.
This out-of-season event has come about to meet a need to keep players beyond the juniors age of 16 motivated and to provide a variety of opposition.
The three-day weekend is being used to give three full ties and is able to avoid a busy summer calendar.
The opposition selections closely mirror the ranking bands of the Otago group and will give meaningful matches against fresh faces.
In recent years, in the absence of a national senior teams' event, which was dropped about seven years ago, there has been a significant drop off in numbers of talented players once they turn 17 or leave school events and national junior fixtures behind.
Three years ago, Otago played only one team, home and away against Southern Lakes.
North Otago then joined in but Southland and South Canterbury have been unable to provide a competitive Division 1 team in the Southern League.
In addition, the leading players have been confined to playing one another several times a season in club tennis and have had few chances to vary their opposition.
A recent survey of player profiles found that players' reported best experiences were in team tennis.
The institution of a South Island teams' event at Anzac weekend in the last two seasons, involving Canterbury Town and Country, as well as Tasman, has further enthused the players to train on.
Georgia Hume returns this weekend, after a break of two years, and Jessie Stevenson, who has had a limited role, also resumes.
Rileigh Fields and Abby Edwards complete the women's squad, while the men, Aaron Hicks, Paddy Ou, Mitchell Sizemore, Ryan Eggers and Carlos Reid, are unchanged from Anzac weekend.
All team members are under the age of 23 and have kept up a training regime into winter.
- Dennis Radford
