13 Feb 2015

Competition leaders, AWE Huatoki travel to Inglewood for round 10 of the Soffe Cup competition.  Huatoki are fielding a less formidable side this week and it may allow Inglewood to obtain a few more victories than would have been expected. 
Dave Innes will be at No.1 for Huatoki and he will face Diego Carrasco.  On a hard court surface, Carrasco is favoured to win.  Chris Popata (Huatoki) will be too strong for Mal Masters at No.2 but Inglewood's veteran pair at No.3 and 4, Campbell Mace and Derek Spurdle, should have too much experience for Jayden Harrison and Chris Avery.  Huatoki's top lady, Ellen O'Byrne will have her hands full trying to dispatch Maria Spurdle and this should be the norm for the day where the remainder of the Huatoki line-up, Chris Wilson, Erin Annabell and Lorraine Heerdegen will have close matches against Michaela Spurdle, Shona Salisbury and Alex Spurdle.  Overall victory for either team will be by a narrow margin and clever doubles combinations may be the key to securing victory on the day.

Third-placed Farmlands Okaiawa/Manaia host second place RE/MAX Pukekura on hardcourts at Okaiawa.  Mark Laurence will play at No.1 for the combined side and even though he is unbeaten this season, will have a stern test against Shaun Alborough.  The remainder of the men's matches will make for excellent close tennis as they are also very evenly matched on paper.  Vince Baylis, who is also unbeaten will take on Pukekura's rising star, David Barnard at No.2; Josh Murdoch will play Thomson Matuku at No.3 and Rhys Butler will battle it out with Dion Lundt.  Pukekura's top pairing of Kirsten Adsam and Linda Reid should be too good for Okaiawa/Manaia's top pair of Capree Wineera and Jaimee Baylis but Okaiawa/Manaia may take two matches back in the bottom two ladies spots with Carolyn and Georgia Jackson taking on Bam Klibmanee and the unknown quantity Marcella Jones.  Whomever makes best use of doubles combinations will also come out on top in this tie.

The remaining match is a bottom of the table clash where Central Finance Rotokare are at home to Hareb Deken Oakura.  Kyle Crowley, for Rotokare, should kick off with a win over Len Adamson but Shane Devlin will likely struggle to make it two wins when he goes up against Oakura's Caleb Fleming.  Laurie Jordan and Ben Fitzgibbon will be well matched against Simon Spurdle and Chris Edler for the remaining men's matches.  The ladies matches will also be close with Rotokare's trio of Juliet Farquar, Julie Foley and Helena Goodin taking on Jackie Keenan, Chris Davies and Poppy Mitchell.