Green Island claims tie of day

Gavin Mockford
Gavin Mockford
Top-grade interclub action resumed on Saturday after the recent break for representative fixtures.

The tie of the day was between third-placed Green Island and second-placed Andersons Bay Rennie. Several matches could have gone either way, the scoresheet being peppered with super tiebreak deciders before Green Island came out on top.

Green Island’s Mackenzie Phillips and Ayesha Horley resumed their keenly contested rivalry at the top of the women’s order, Phillips claiming the result 10-7 in the super tiebreak to reverse the result of their previous meeting.

Jordyn Phillips also had to go the distance against Andersons Bay’s Mya Haigh, coming away with the win after a topsy-turvy super tiebreak in which Phillips trailed 4-7 before reeling off five straight points to get herself within a point of victory.

Haigh fought back though, taking the next two points before Phillips regained her composure to take the decider 11-9.

At the top of the men’s order, Green Island’s Mat McCutcheon served as well as he has for some time to secure a come-from-behind win against Gavin Mockford, who finally succumbed 11-9 in the super tiebreak.

Green Island player Zane Gray returned to form with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Daniel Lund, while Anderson Bay’s Makayla Ramage won her singles and doubles matches, combining well with Horley in the women’s doubles to edge the Phillips sisters 11-9 in the third.

The unbeaten Balmacewen combination was able to stretch its lead at the top of the table with a 6-3 win over Andersons Bay Guthrie going into the Christmas break.

The match of the day was the No2 men’s singles clash between Max Gaffaney (Balmacewen) and Anthony Mirfin (Andersons Bay Guthrie).

Mirfin maintained an edge in the second stanza and had four match points to finish matters off, but could not quite shake off Gaffaney who won the set 7-5.

The disappointment of having the second set snatched from his grasp understandably weighed on Mirfin in the super tiebreak, which went the way of Gaffaney who completed a remarkable comeback.

The tie was still live after the singles matches were completed at 4-2 in favour of Balmacewen, leaving Andersons Bay with the tough task of effecting a clean sweep of the three doubles matches.

Andersons Bay started well with a straight-sets mixed-doubles win to top doubles exponents Heike Cebulla and Phil Mirfin over Charlie Byers and Gaffaney.

The women’s doubles was a match in which Annalise Wilson and Laura Hamilton might have fancied their chances for Andersons Bay, but the match play and experience edge of Jackie McCutcheon and Ilana Goossens saw them home.

The icing on the cake for Balmacewen the men’s doubles win.

 - Fraser Richardson
 

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