19 February 2006
Taranaki defeated
Manawatu in the Christie Cup challenge in hot conditions at the Rotokare
courts on Saturday.
It was neck and neck all
the way with Manawatu 's top two men and women winning their singles. Scott
Sutherland and Kurt McNamara both had 6-3, 6-3 wins over Zac Wills and
Jonathan Ussher but Taranaki won all the rest of the men's singles.
Michael Fleming, Chris
Popata and Cameron Koch all had easy wins while Thomas Luxton had a 6-3, 7-6
win.
In the women's singles,
Manu Durie defeated Nicole Koch 6-1, 6-0 while Jill Hall defeated Linda Reid
6-2, 6-1. Taranaki bounced back with all but No 6 Clare Fairey winning ther
matches. Leith Atkins, Nicki Martin and Alesha Ford all had two set wins.
With the scores at 7-5
going into the doubles, honours were shared with Taranaki's No 2 and 3
men's combinations , Fleming and Cameron Koch and Popata and Luxton winning
and the no 3 women's combination of Mills and Fairey tasting victory.
In the combines,
Taranaki won four out of six to retain the Cup, two of those wins were three
setters while Nicole Koch and Fleming avoided going into a third set winning
the third set 7-6, staging a comeback from being down 2-5.
The experienced gained
from the draw with Wanganui was invaluable. On that occassion Taranaki were
down 8-10 but won four out of six combines.
Captain and No 3 Michael
Fleming led by example with three wins, as did No 4 Chris Popata and No 6
Thomas Luxton.
In her senior Taranaki
debut, Alesha Ford (13) score two wins as did Nicki Martin and Clare Fairey.
Taranaki now play
Wairarapa on 4th March at Rotokare. It was thought it was going to be an
Adidas Cup match only with 8 members in the team but Wairarapa have issued
the challenge for the Christie Cup which requires 12 players.
The Taranaki B team had
a 16-0 win against Manawatu B at the Huatoki courts. With all but Donna
Thorne and Irene Cruikshank making thier debuts, none of the games were even
close. Manawatu fielded a very young team, the youngest being 11 year old
Tutere Durie who was defeated by Mark Atkins 6-0, 6-4. A Team results
| Z. Wills |
lost to |
S. Sutherland |
6-3 6-3 |
| J. Ussher |
lost to |
K. McNamara |
6-3 6-3 |
| M. Fleming |
b |
S. Howard |
6-2 6-2 |
| C. Popata |
b |
G. Toland |
6-1 6-2 |
| C. Koch |
b |
M. Pou |
6-3 6-3 |
| T. Luxton |
b |
J. Spring |
6-3 7-6 |
| N. Koch |
lost to |
M. Durie |
6-1 6-0 |
| L. Reid |
lost to |
J. Hall |
6-2 6-1 |
| L. Atkins |
b |
J. Robb |
6-1 6-3 |
| N. Martin |
b |
R. Rowe |
6-4 6-1 |
| A. Ford |
b |
J. Brooker |
6-2 6-4 |
| C. Fairey |
lost to |
A. Van Hellemond |
6-3 6-2 |
| Wills/Ussher |
lost to |
Sutherland/McNamara |
6-4 6-4 |
| Fleming/Koch |
b |
Spring/Howard |
6-2 6-1 |
| Popata/Luxton |
b |
Toland/Pou |
7-5 6-7 6-3 |
| Reid/Atkins |
lost to |
Durie/Hall |
6-1 6-1 |
| Koch/Ford |
lost to |
Rowe/Van Hellemond |
6-4 6-7 7-5 |
| Martin/Fairey |
b |
Robb/Brooker |
6-3 2-6 6-1 |
| Fleming/Koch |
b |
Sutherland/Durie |
6-2 7-6 |
| Wills/Reid |
lost to |
McNamara/Hall |
3-6 6-4 6-4 |
| Popata/Fairey |
b |
Toland/Brooker |
6-3 6-3 |
| Ussher/Atkins |
b |
Howard/Rowe |
6-1 2-6 6-2 |
| Koch/Martin |
lost to |
Pou/Robb |
6-3 7-6 |
| Luxton/Ford |
b |
Spring/Van Hellemond |
6-2 3-6 6-1 |
B Team results
| A. Powell |
b |
J. McKellar |
6-1 6-1 |
| J. Stayt |
b |
M. Durie |
6-1 6-3 |
| M. Gates |
b |
D. Reid |
6-1 6-1 |
| M. Atkins |
b |
T. Durie |
6-0 6-4 |
| D. Thorne |
b |
G. Jones |
6-2 6-0 |
| I. Cruikshank |
b |
S. Hughes |
6-2 6-0 |
| M. Powell |
b |
B. Prior |
6-1 6-1 |
| M. Zimmerman |
b |
M. Clarke |
6-1 6-1 |
| Powell/Stayt |
b |
McKellar/Durie |
6-2 6-2 |
| Gates/Atkins |
b |
Reid/Durie |
6-2 6-0 |
| Thorne/Cruikshank |
b |
Jones/Hughes |
6-2 6-3 |
| Powell/Zimmerman |
b |
Prior/Clarke |
6-0 6-2 |
| Powell/Powell |
b |
McKellar/Jones |
6-3 6-0 |
| Stayt/Thorne |
b |
Durie/Hughes |
6-2 6-0 |
| Atkins/Cruikshank |
b |
Reid/Prior |
6-2 6-1 |
| Gates/Zimmerman |
b |
Durie/Clarke |
6-1 6-1 |