20 November 2008

Soffe Cup tennis players have a last chance to impress selector Bruce Cleland tomorrow before the first representative clash of the season against Wanganui on November 30.
The feature match is between competition leaders Central Finance Rotokare and fourth placed Hooker Pacific Pukekura, at Rotokare.  Pukekura have suffered losses to Manaia and Oakura while Rotokare are unbeaten.  Pukekura will need their top two men, Michael Fleming and Dennis Reid back if they are to have a chance.  Whoever is at No 1 will play Ben Pollard while the No 2 man will face Chris Popata.
The top Rotokare woman, Catherine Stevenson will play Linda Reid while No 2, either Kelly Toa or Alison Chamberlain will play Donna Thorne.
 
Second placed Hareb Deken Motors Oakura should beat sixth placed AWE Huatoki easily unless Huatoki can improve the strength of their team which has struggled so far. The Oakura side is stacked with some of the provinces top players. In the top match Oakura's Josh Walden will play Jonno Ussher and John Hardie Boys is likely to play David Innes or Amrit Rai.
In the top women's matches, Oakura's top two will be chosen from Alesha Ford, Leah Fletcher, Sue Oldfield or Becky Bruckner. They will face Megan O'Donnell and Chris Wilson.
 
Sandfords Manaia, in third place will have another win at home to bottom of the table Okaiawa. In the top two men's matches, Manaia have the impressive line up of Cameron Koch and Jordan Feming who will play Andrew Powell and Vincent Baylis.  Manaia's top women. Nicole Koch and Irene Cruikshank play Beth Macleod and Jaimee Baylis.
 
In what could be the closest match of the round, Hawera are at home on their grass courts to McDonald Real Estate Matapu.
Hawera are in fifth place while Matapu are in seventh. Matapu were without David and Jenny White last week and if they are still unavailable, Matapu could struggle. The top matches could be Hawera's; Neil McCann against Jason Hurley and Erin Annabell against Krystal Oakes.