Second-placed Balmacewen made up ground on leader St Clair with a 4-2 win in Dunedin club play on Saturday.
Both teams were weakened by absences at the Southland Open and other unavailability, but Balmacewen was able to find greater depth in the level of replacements as it swept the lower order.
Jeff Elliotte, promoted to No 1 in the absence of Mitchell Sizemore, was the only singles winner for St Clair when he beat Jack Kos, replacing Paddy Ou, 6-2, 6-2.
Nick Cutfield battled to a 6-4 third set win over Tony Ryder, who was struggling in the hot, windy conditions after claiming the first set.
Fraser Richardson held on in the tight spots at the end of each set to beat Damian Hill 7-6, 6-4 and Jessie Stevenson dropped only two games to Gary Smyth.
Although St Clair got close, losing the bottom double 10-8 in a match tiebreak and winning the top double 6-2, 6-2, it could not bridge the margin.
North Otago beat Taieri 6-0. Shaun Paringatai and Josh Dalziel dominated the top half against Phil Williams and Craig Buskin respectively, giving up only two games each in singles and taking the doubles 6-3 6-1.
David Woodward and Eliza Booth put up more resistance in the lower order but lost in closer straight sets scores against Mackenzie Phillips and Nicky Wallace and were able to win the first set in the doubles 7-6 before conceding 5-7 and dropping the match tiebreak 2-10.
The Anderson’s Bay tie against Otago Boys’ was held over until next week by mutual consent.
Points, with ties played in brackets: St Clair 51 (7), Balmacewen 45 (7), Anderson’s Bay 36 (6), OBHS 27 (5), North Otago 25 (7), Taieri 13 (7).
- Dennis Radford
