Andy Bay and Balmacewen scored resounding wins in the new Dunedin competition on Saturday.
The President’s Cup takes a break until next year and a new pre-Christmas interclub has taken its place.
Balmacewen, St Clair, Taieri and Andy Bay battled it out in a round robin. Each team has four players with four singles and two doubles played per tie.
In the first tie, Andy Bay took on St Clair.
In the top singles, Thomas Hartono (Andy Bay) and Mitchell Sizemore had their first match-up since 2018.
Playing in the Edgar Centre, both players used the fast conditions to hold serve. However, at 4-5, Sizemore got broken to give Hartono the first set.
The second set was more straightforward with Hartono winning the match 6-4, 6-1.
In the other singles, Harrison Young, Matthew Campbell, and Phil Mirfin (Andy Bay) scored straight-sets victories over Jeff Elliotte, Nick Cutfield and Sam Sherburd respectively.
Both doubles also went to Andy Bay, giving it a 6-0 victory.
In the other tie, Balmacewen took on Taieri.
In the top singles, Paddy Ou (Balmacewen) played up and coming junior Max Maclachlan (Taieri), winning 6-1, 6-2.
The No 2 singles saw the contrasting styles of Gerard Farrell (Balmacewen) and Charlie Byers (Taieri) match up.
Farrell’s variety and net play saw him take the first set 6-3.
However, in the second set, Byers started to get her eye in and forced a tiebreak, but Farrell was able to use his experience to get over the line, winning 6-3, 7-6.
The Nos 3 and 4 singles saw Ben Sinclair and Hugo Barsby (Balmacewen) score straight-sets victories against Andrew Aitken and Hayden Young respectively.
Taieri nearly got a consolation victory at top doubles Ou and Sinclair did just enough to beat Maclachlan and Aitken 5-7, 6-1, 11-9.
With bottom doubles also going to Balmacewen, it gave it a 6-0 victory.
It has been another tough week for the women’s competition as rain washes out another week.
In one tie that was played the previous week, Andy Bay 1 took on Balmacewen.
In the top singles, Ayesha Horley (Andy Bay 1) was too solid for talented junior Aminah Ahmad (Balmacewen), winning 6-1, 6-2.
Amy Bucher and Michelle Mitchell then got one back for Balmacewen, beating Molly and Jessica Stumbles (Andy Bay 1) 6-1, 6-3
In the second singles match Bucher was too solid for Molly Stumbles, winning 6-3, 6-2.
Needing to win a set to take the tie for Balmacewen, Ahmad and Mitchell did just that against Horley and Jessica Stumbles, though the latter were able to hang on and win the match 4-6, 6-4, 15-13.
By Paddy Ou
