13 Nov 2014

Soffe Cup Round 3 Preview 15 Nov 2014

Competition co-leaders Farmlands Okaiawa/Manaia travel to third placed RE/MAX Pukekura Park. 

The No.1 men's match between Mark Laurence (O/M) and Meto Snegirev (Puke) will be a close affair with both men unbeaten this season.  Okaiawa/Manaia should pick up wins at 2 and 3 with Vince Baylis and Josh Murdoch being too good for Thomson Matuku and Dion Lundt however Pukekura should capture the No.4 match with professional coach Mat Garnham making his debut, over Rhys Butler.

Pukekura's ladies are generally far too strong for most opposition.  Expect this trend to continue with Kirsten Adam, Linda Reid and Donna Thorne out-matching Lauren Fraine, Capree Wineera and Laurel Stockman, but expect Okaiawa/Manaia to pick up the No.4 match with Georgia Jackson too good for debutante Rebecca Wormald.

Pukekura can expect to be ahead in the tie after the doubles and that will leave Okaiawa/Manaia to try to pick up as many combines victories as they can to minimize the overall damage.

The two bottom-placed teams get to square off when Thomson O'Neil Stratford gets their first home tie against Central Finance Rotokare.  Unfortunately, they will meet a much stronger Rotokare team that has had a draw and a loss so far this season.

Stratford will relish the return of Lynn Stanners at No.1 and she should be too good for Jane Symons.  Expect another win in the No.4 spot for Stratford's Kristen Lourie over Hannah Trevis but Rotokare will take the middle two singles matches with Julie Foley and Helena Goodin too experienced for Stratford's youngsters, Mylie Thwaites and Katie Stanners.

All of the men's matches are very even on paper and winning these will be paramount to taking an overall victory at the end of the day.  Stratford has the benefit of the return of Andy Roberts and he will take on Leandro Fossa and could upset.  Bruce Cleland will want to bounce back from a difficult first two competition rounds and defeat Kyle Crowley.  Expectations are that Rotokare No.3 Shane Devlin will continue his good form over Grant Kite and the No.4 match would belong to Stratford's Michael Boland over another debutante Nick Fruhstorfer, if Boland can maintain his concentration.

This tie should be very even after the singles and doubles so will be decided by whoever has the greater male strength in the combines or by the use of clever combinations.

Fourth placed AWE Huatoki will be expecting a big victory when they take on 5^th place Inglewood Club Inglewood at the Huatoki Domain.  Ajeet Rai makes his last appearance for Huatoki this year before going overseas and will be good for three victories.   Inglewood will be looking for scraps and their best hope may be in the No.3 men's match when Campbell Mace takes on Dave Innes.  Huatoki should win the other two men's singles with Alistair Nairn and Chris Avery being too strong for Luke Brown and Craig Adamson.

The Spurdle girls are out in force this week for Inglewood with Maria at 1, Michaela at 2 and Alex at 4 but they will have their work cut out to get a victory against Hikaru Han, Tracey Old and Georgia Bartosh respectively.  Chris Wilson should also be too strong for Inglewood's Shona Salisbury in the remaining singles.