Burnside Park will play competition leaders Cashmere at Cashmere on Saturday, while Bishopdale will be on their home courts against Elmwood.
Bishopdale last week thumped Edgeware Waimairi, scoring maximum points by winning all matches. Their top player, Will Schneideman was impressive in his strong win over Edgeware Waimairi’s Paddy Ou, a highly ranked and rated player from Otago.
Captain Grayson Cullen, who played college tennis in the United States, says his team will go into this week’s match with their strongest lineup including fellow college graduates, Schneideman and Maddison Aubrey, club coach Gareth Robb and James Wilson.
Elmwood’s match against Cashmere last weekend was rained out after a southerly storm. Cashmere had won all three completed matches, including two long doubles clashes which featured Elmwood’s Alistair Hunt, former New Zealand Davis Cup player, whose singles against Cashmere’s James Meredith was abandoned.
Cashmere, the first-round winners, are making easy work of the competition with the team a mix of highly ranked experienced players and talented young players, Lucas Evans and Liam Barrett.
There will be some interesting match-ups against Burnside Park which includes EJ Gonzaga who won this week’s Canterbury Secondary Schools championship at Wilding Park, beating Evans in a three-set thriller.
Burnside Park only lost just the one match in its game last weekend against Te Kura Hagley, with its top player Ben Smith defeating Burnside’s Finn Emslie-Robson in three sets.
Te Kura Hagley this week plays Edgeware Waimairi which is missing its number one, Nic Jenkins due to injury.
In the women’s competition Elmwood continues its domination with its team led by Abbey Mason and Louise Oxnevad in the top singles slots being too strong for the opposition.
One of its lower order players, Holly-Jayne Feutz is also in form winning the Canterbury Secondary Schools championship for her school, Ashburton College, earlier this week.
Elmwood plays Cashmere on Saturday. Elmwood was too strong for Waimairi last week but full marks to Waimairi’s Sophie Ensor who had a straight sets win over her higher ranked Elmwood opponent.
Waimairi this week plays Shirley who defaulted last week to Bishopdale who jumped up the table by taking maximum points.
Bishopdale this week plays Te Kura Hagley whose match last week against Cashmere was abandoned due to rain when they were leading 2-1 with the teams sharing remaining points.
Points
Men: Cashmere 41, Burnside Park 35, Bishopdale 32, Elmwood 24, Edgeware Waimairi 12, Te Kura Hagley 9.
Women: Elmwood 42, Bishopdale 34, Cashmere 34, Te Kura Hagley 27, Waimairi 12, Shirley 7.
By Diane Keenan
