St Clair kept its unbeaten record in Dunedin club tennis and moved to the competition lead in a closely contested top order with a 4-2 win against North Otago in Oamaru on Saturday.
Eastern Harbour, which is yet to have the bye, lies two points adrift of St Clair, while Balmacewen, which had the bye this week, is a further point back.
Harbour took a narrow two-game win on countback after rubbers and sets were tied in its match with McGlashan and Tertiary kept Taieri on the bottom with a 6-0 score.
St Clair’s Mitchell Sizemore and Jeff Elliotte claimed comfortable wins over Robin Jamieson and Josh Dalziel respectively but were pushed to a 10-8 match tiebreak score in the doubles.
Jackson Kerr, whose return has been a real benefit to North Otago, beat Tony Ryder 6-3 in the third set and partnered Matt Howard to a tight 7-5, 7-6 doubles win against Ryder and Robin Versteeg.
Eastern Harbour relied on a true team contribution but veterans Kobus Faber and Gavin Mockford were a key part.
Mockford used the wind better in beating leading junior Lachie Kenneally 6-3, 6-2 and Faber pushed Jake Ellis to the limit, coming back from 2-5 down in the third set to draw level at 5-5 and 6-6 before dropping the tiebreak.
In such a close contest overall, the comeback proved vital.
In the top single, Carlos Reid (McGlashan) went up 5-0 against Ryan Eggers only to lose the next five games and eventually close out the tiebreak 7-5.
There was only one service break in the second set but Reid held on for a 7-5 win.
Newcomer John Vogel, a Wellington student, gave McGlashan three singles wins but firstly, Eggers and Mockford beat Reid and Vogel 6-4, 6-3 in a surprisingly comfortable result, and then Faber and Henry Hailes came from a set down to beat Ellis and Kenneally in a third-set match tiebreak, meaning all Harbour players were able to contribute a point.
The Tertiary team’s top three of Aaron Hicks, Hamish Low and Chris Duncan dropped only four games in their singles against Taieri, and Taieri’s only hope came in the bottom double, where it came from a set behind to take the second 7-6, only to lose the match tiebreak 10-8.
