However, with four points for a team win, and one point per rubber, St Clair — unbeaten after two wins and a bye — trails by only five points, after beating the Tertiary team 4-2. It also beat Balmacewen 4-2 in the first round so remains well-placed.
In the other tie, North Otago beat Eastern Harbour 4-2.
Taieri has fallen from title-winner last season to failing to register a point after two rounds.
At No1 Paddy Ou was pushed for a time by Darryl Paterson before dominating the second set in a 6-2, 6-0 win.
Shaun Paringatai, returning to competition, took some time to adapt to playing outdoors, but he, Henry Neas and Campbell Hodgson were dominant, dropping only six games among them.
The recent win by Mitchell Sizemore (St Clair) against Aaron Hicks (Tertiary) in the Otago Indoor Open was turned around when Hicks was the more consistent in his 6-4, 6-2 win in the top singles.
A similar pattern emerged when Hamish Low beat Jeff Elliotte 6-4, 6-4 but a major turnaround occurred when St Clair took the top doubles 6-4, 5-7, 10-7 after being down a break in the second, levelling at 5-5, only to drop again and need a match tiebreak.
Veterans Robin Versteeg and Tony Ryder held on to win the bottom half though Versteeg had to go the distance in his 6-4 third-set win.
North Otago got on the board with its win through having more depth than Harbour, although Ryan Eggers had influence at No1, when he beat Robin Jamieson 6-2, 7-6 in the latter’s first match of the season, then combined with Gavin Mockford for a 6-2, 6-1 doubles win in a contest which looked closer than the score suggested.
Josh Dalziel, Matt Howard and Jackson Kerr, returning to match play after playing for Southern at junior level, were able to take the remaining rubbers, although Dalziel was taken to three sets by Leon Jiang.
